Peter de Villiers

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For the South Africa-born French rugby player, see Pieter de Villiers (rugby player). For the South African hurdler, see Pieter de Villiers (hurdler).

Peter de Villiers (born 3 June 1957) is a South African rugby union coach. He was named as the coach of South Africa's national team, the Springboks in January 2008, the first-ever black coach of the team.^[1]

De Villiers played scrum-half during the apartheid era, when the Springboks faced widespread international boycotts as the face of the white minority government, including exclusion from in the first two Rugby World Cup tournaments in 1987 and 1991.

He coached amateur club Tygerberg in 1996 and 1997. He coached the Western Province Disas in 1997, but it was in 1998 when he had his first major appointments as assistant coach for Western Province in the Currie Cup and also the South Africa national under-19 rugby union team. He took the South Africa Under 19 team to third in the 1999 Under 19 Rugby World Championship. He coached the Falcons in the 2002 and 2003 Currie Cup campaigns before going on to coach the South Africa national under-21 rugby union team between 2004 and 2006. In the 2004 Under 21 Rugby World Championship South Africa finished third, but won it in 2005, and came second in 2006. In 2007 he was appointed coach of the Emerging Springboks and coached them to the title of the 2007 Nations Cup. In January 2008 de Villiers was appointed as the first ever black coach of the Springboks—taking over from Jake White. After announcing de Villiers appointment, South African Rugby Union (SARU) President Oregan Hoskins said: "We have made the appointment and taken into account the issue of transformation when we made it. I don’t think that tarnishes Peter — I’m just being honest with our country."^[2]^[3]

Concern has been raised that this appointment heralds the start of institutionalized discrimination against white players in South African rugby. However Coach De Villiers has denied this rumour. He has stated that World Cup captain John Smit would continue as Springbok captain through to the Lions series in 2009, provided he avoided injury and maintained top form. In various interviews and conferences De Villiers has also stated:

that race is irrelevant to him, and that players of all colours would be judged on form alone and not race.
that all players stand an equal chance, and that if they are good enough, talented enough and work hard enough they will be part of the squad.
that he would follow the obvious plan of relying primarily on the bulk of the World Cup winning squad to sustain momentum.
that the players have the Super 14 in which to prove themselves, and that selection decisions will be made only after the Super 14.

De Villiers won many supporters over with the statement: “I have no favourites. If they want to represent my country they have to be the best. I take a really detached view because that's me. I worked hard to be the best, others must do likewise. Because the ultimate point is, I want our country to be the best." ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7]