Bok bosses dismiss 'rift' claims
Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:42
Dick Muir, Gary Gold & Peter de Villiers: United or devided? (c)Gallo
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers will appear before a review committee in the next week or two, but there is no rift in the camp or amongst the coaching staff.
The South African Rugby Union's senior management presented a united front on Monday, as they backed the under-fire Bok coach, his staff and players.
Various reports on Monday suggested a major split has opened up in the Springbok management team and that De Villiers was to be grilled by SARU's review panel - after South Africa's three humiliating defeats against New Zealand (twice) and Australia.
However, both SARU President Oregan Hoskins and Andy Marinos, SARU's Manager of National teams, dismissed the reports as "speculation".
Hoskins confirmed that De Villiers would indeed appear before a review panel - in the next week or so - but the SARU boss stressed that there was nothing untoward over this "review".
"There is a review that gets done regularly, and that has to be done," Hoskins told rugby365.com, when asked about reports that De Villiers would be "grilled" by SARU over the team's poor results in the Tri-Nations thus far.
The SARU boss said when and where the review would take place still has to be determined, but admitted it would happen before the start of South Africa's home leg of the Tri-Nations - which gets underway when they play the All Blacks in Soweto on August 21.
Hoskins admitted that he was concerned about the Boks' dramatic decline in standards in the last nine months - in particular the last three weeks, after they swept all before them for most of last year.
"Like all South Africans, yes, we are most concerned about it [the run of defeats] and obviously there's a lot of work to be done before the next game starts," Hoskins said.
He added that they were not planning any meetings beyond the "normal" review and would leave it "up to the coaching staff" to determine the way forward.
Marinos was also adamant that there was no truth in the reports that a "significant differences" existed between the coaching style espoused by assistant coaches Dick Muir and Gary Gold.
According to the reports the head coach, De Villiers, was undecided about what approach to take.
The suggestion is that Muir wants to play a complete attacking game - a ball-in-hand approach, much like the New Zealanders and Australians. And according to the reports, Gold wants to play a structured game, based much more on traditional Springbok forward values.
De Villiers, it is said, is stuck in the middle.
The reports go on to claim that senior players like John Smit and Victor Matfield were running the team.
Marinos, speaking to rugby365.com, said nothing could be further from the truth.
"I've been with the Springboks for almost three weeks now and can categorically state there is no rift in the management team," said Marinos - which he later reiterated in a media release sent out by SARU.
"This matter [of a split in the camp and the senior players running the show] has cropped up three times in Peter de Villiers's tenure [which started in January 2008]," Marinos told rugby365.com.
"In my various discussions with [the Bok coach] Peter de Villiers, his assistant coaches Dick Muir and Gary Gold, as well as senior team members John [Smit] and Victor [Matfield] - it's never once come up that there are problems in the camp."
Marinos felt that any issues about the team's lack of form would be addressed in a "review" with the senior players.
"For three weeks in a row we have not played well and made it harder for ourselves by playing with only 14 players on the field at crucial time during the games, away from home," he added.
By Jan de Koning
Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Advertising
