Bok coach boohoo

Somebody give him a hanky. Buddy, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. The man is in for a payout of R5 million if he leaves. He is taking a lot of flak for the rubbish performance of the Boks and rightly so. They have performed pathetically under his watch.

Now he fabricates a story in which he is so 'irate' at the bullshit sex tape story citing that as the reason for his wanting to leave the job, "Not my fault if everybody is conspiring against me".

And what about the racist statement "giving (the job) back to whites". I thought he was the best man for the job after Jake White, that race was not a factor in picking him as coach? Oh I see, foolish me, he was the best black man for the job, not the best man for the job. What right have we fans to complain about political meddling in our beloved game?

Hey Pete, piss off and take your shit with you. You are not a coach's arsehole. If you need an excuse to leave without your tail between your legs, trust me, we, the fans, want you gone and R5 mil sounds worth it to be rid of you. Bring back Jake White or Eddie Jones!

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Rugby plunges into turmoil over mystery blackmail attempt

De Villiers claims smear to oust first black coach South Africa’s first black Springbok coach has threatened to “give (the job) back to the whites” amid allegations that he had been videotaped engaging in a sex act in public.

“I knew there were still people who do not want a black coach; I just never knew the extent people would go to discredit me,” an enraged Peter de Villiers said yesterday as he categorically denied any sexual impropriety.

De Villiers spoke to the Sunday Times exclusively after rumours that he had been captured on CCTV footage in a car with an unknown woman in a parking lot in the Eastern Cape in April this year.

Chris Hewitt, the Springbok’s media officer, is facing disciplinary proceedings over the sex tape claims. Yesterday De Villiers confirmed that Hewitt had alleged on August 15 “before the New Zealand test” in Cape Town that a potentially compromising tape existed.

De Villiers said the “nonsense” allegation had since grown into a “smear” and that the tape was being used to blackmail him into including a certain player.

But he rubbished the blackmail conspiracy, claiming that unnamed people opposed to transformation were behind the slurs, and that the storm had made him seriously consider resigning.

“My biggest problem is I’ve now got to sit down (with my family) — I’ve got my big daughter and one in matric at the moment, and people will stop them and ask them, and that’s why I think I should walk away from this job and give it back to the whites,” he said.

“I’m not being nasty when I say that, but that’s how I feel.” De Villiers said the allegations related to a two-day visit to King William’s Town in April, when he stayed at a guesthouse belonging to the brother of a former rugby colleague.

On the second night, De Villiers said, “We stayed at this guesthouse; we sat and had a braai with (the owner) and his wife, late at night; and after that we all went to bed.”

In the extraordinary interview, he set out the reasons for why he could not have had a sexual liaison. De Villiers said he:

# Would have had no time to engage in any illicit behaviour. “Ask (people with me) if there was any time to go even to the church on that trip — there wasn’t even time for that, much less this nonsense.”;

# Worked too hard to have the energy for it. “I work so hard that when night falls I just fall on my bed and zzz”; and

# Did not even watch pornography in foreign hotels: “If you go through my hotel accounts overseas, where you know they have channels where you can look at that (pornographic) stuff, hey — you can see I never ever entered one of those movies: I don’t even bother to do it in my room, so why would I go out looking for that kind of stuff ... and risk my family?”

De Villiers, who is married and has two daughters, said he understood the slur to be part of a broader political campaign in rugby.

“They want to get to someone else, but they don’t care if they hurt me in the process. “This job isn’t as big as being a great father — for me to walk away from this job won’t be a big thing, you know.

That’s exactly what’s going through my mind at the moment: for how long can I tolerate this kind of stuff? “If this is the way people discredit you, why should you even play for your country? Now I understand why people leave this country and never want to come back again, you know, jus.”

De Villiers said he had been told that ANC MP Cedric Frolick — a member of the portfolio committee on sport, who has been critical of his progress with race transformation — had a copy of the alleged tape.

However, Frolick denied any knowledge of a tape: “This is all absolute nonsense. But there is a thick air of conspiracy in South African rugby right now. I know Peter well and have a lot of respect for the man. We will provide all the support he needs to get through this.”

SA Rugby Union (Saru) president Oregan Hoskins confirmed he had been “told there may be a tape”, but refused to disclose the source of the allegation. He added that he could not discuss it for legal reasons, in view of the coming disciplinary hearing against Hewitt.

A Saru statement yesterday said that: “Saru can confirm that a company employee did approach Mr De Villiers on August 15 in Cape Town. The employee made certain extraordinary claims which Saru has since looked into but has been unable to find any basis to support in fact.”

But Hewitt said yesterday: “I have consistently denied any allegations of misconduct against me and have asked that due process be followed.” Rian Oberholzer, De Villiers’s manager, was also unequivocal.

“(The alleged sexual act) did not happen,” he said, “and whoever made these allegations must prove it now, or apologise”.

“These are very serious allegations ... and there is definitely an agenda to get Peter removed as coach. So the obvious question is, who are the people that want him out? They are probably the people behind this rumour.”