Johannesburg â€" If Springbok coach Peter de Villiers had hoped Monday’s press conference at Montecasino here would steer a wide course from the Schalk Burger citing issue in the second Test against the British and Irish Lions, he was quickly thwarted.
Indeed, in another vintage display of maverick “Div-speakâ€, the national team’s senior mastermind was quickly holding court fierily on the issue -- despite prior notice to the well-attended briefing from SA Rugby officials that they had not yet had fullest opportunities to study the findings of the judicial officer in the procedures which saw bans of eight weeks and two weeks respectively against Burger and team-mate Bakkies Botha, and would comment more fully later.
But the travelling UK press corps were hardly going to let the matter rest, and quickly found willing bites to their bait from a belligerent De Villiers, remarkably still sticking to his view that Burger hadn’t even deserved a yellow card at Loftus.
First he was asked whether he would be prepared to categorically denounce dirty play in rugby, whether it were spear-tackling, biting, eye-gouging or other forms of skulduggery, as there appeared to have been a resurgence of such incidents worldwide in recent months.
“I’m against anything that’s against the spirit of the game,†he said. “We won’t go to the lows of being negative in a positive game.
We’ve got brilliant players in this country … they are world-class, most of them, and to try to even prepare them to do small things that belong outside in the bushveld … if we want to eye-gouge any lion we can go down to the bushveld as we normally do and eye-gouge them and see if they can out-run us and haul us in.
“But we will never, never encourage anybody to bring the game into disrepute. Schalk’s nature and character, if you know the man … he’s more physical than any player in the world but to go to that measures (sic) … he’ll never ever do it and I don’t think he did. But as mentioned we won’t discuss it here.â€
Yet De Villiers was really only warming to his soapbox. Had he not seen the television footage?
“I’m telling you, I’ve seen the footage, I’m not saying anything, then I go against what we decided (at this stage). I am still convinced there is nothing he (did) on purpose.
“For he himself, when he saw the footage … it was ‘yoh!’. But he never meant to go to anybody’s eye. We will wait for the report and then we can make a great (statement) to you guys.â€
Was he ducking the issue?
“I’m not. We’re working in a system. You (journalists) have no systems, you can work wherever you want to work. We will react when the report has been tabled.â€
De Villiers was asked whether he regretted, in hindsight, saying he didn’t believe the gouging incident was even worth a yellow card.
“You look at the footage properly and you know the man you’re working with, then you can see why I said it.â€
Had he spoken to Burger about the incident?
“We sat down at breakfast, we sat down last night until quarter past 12 waiting for what happened inside. He’s an honourable man.
When you take him away from rugby, he’s the best person to have around you.
“Rugby is a contact sport. So guys who can’t take it, make your decision. Why don’t we go to nearest ballet shop, get some nice tutus, get a great dancing show going, no eye-gouging, no tackling … and all enjoy it. But this game is about collisions. And the guy who wins that collision the hardest is the guy who I always will select.
“I would love the Lions supporters to honour our win. It was the best and hardest series I’ve seen in a while. This is a brilliant Lions team here. Stand up and take it on the chin and say ‘well done South Africa’ â€" like we did in 1997.â€
De Villiers was then asked by a visiting journalist what he thought about the fact that even the domestic media were branding him “the weakest link†in the series triumph.
“Everybody in life has an opinion. If I am the weakest link, then we are bloody strong!â€
Why did the perception appear to exist, though?
“I didn’t know about it and don’t have time to think about it. I know in myself I am a God-given talent … I know what I am, I don’t care a damn.â€[/b]
