Peter de Villiers bade farewell to Springbok rugby on Tuesday with “no regrets” about his four-year tenure as head coach.
January 31, was De Villiers’s last official day as Springbok coach. His successor Heyneke Meyer, who was appointed last Friday, officially starts his four-year term as Bok coach on Wednesday.
The 54-year-old De Villiers will be remembered as much for his outspoken comments off the field as for his work on it, and he told the Cape Times on Tuesday that he had fond memories of his time in charge of the Bok side.
“I’m alright, I feel totally alright. Learnt a lot. Very good times, very, very good times. Unbelievably good! There are no regrets,” De Villiers said.
“Everything I did, I thought long and hard about. I didn’t do anything impulsively. I approached the whole thing in a calculated manner. I maybe didn’t do what the people wanted me to do, but I did what was necessary to make my job successful.
“I think we achieved many more successes than people out there can see. The first thing is that, if you walk through the country and listen to how the whole country calls you ‘Coach’, then it shows you that you were not just the Springboks’ coach, but the country’s coach. If you look at how many people wear the rugby jersey when they didn’t before, then you can also measure success in that.”
De Villiers said that while he didn’t know Meyer, he would fully support the new Bok boss. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to comment on someone I don’t know. But what I can say is that it is a very difficult job that he finds himself in – extremely, extremely difficult,” he said. “And I wish him all the best, as he will need it!”
Asked how he would like Springbok supporters to remember him, De Villiers said: “I definitely think that I did make a good contribution. Not just to rugby, but to sport in our country. And that, for me, is already a blessing.
“It wasn’t without controversy, but what was important is that the controversy didn’t keep me back.”
Asked for a farewell message to the nation, De Villiers said: “We must fight for our country, we must fight for our rights. I don’t behave like a coloured; I don’t think like a coloured; I also don’t want other people to think that they are superior and think that we think of ourselves as superior; and if we can get that right, then we have gotten a lot right.”
He said his book would be released in June. “You will have to see what type of book it is – maybe it’s a romance novel!” - Cape Times