Seriously, When Will SA Rugby Ever Grow Up?

For anyone who has read Jake White's autobiography you will understand the pressure and frustration that the oke went through on the road to success in 2007 when he coached the Boks to victory at the Rugby World Cup in France. He goes into detail about all the hurdles, all the red tape, and the justification he had to continually regurgitate while trying his utmost to do his job properly and ethically.

Jake's era is over now and Peter de Villiers is the new Bok Coach...or is he? Turns out his contract hasn't actually been signed yet and can you guess what the hold up is...yup you're right...SARU don't want to give the head coach the final say on team selections. Why oh why do we have to go through this all over again? Honestly why would you want to coach a team and have a vision of seeing where you want it to go and then be told that...

"Sorry Pete, but we would prefer it if you chose this team....oh ja, and you have to make sure that they win hey, otherwise we can't pay you your incentives because you haven't hit your KPI's"

Jeez I know I wouldn't want to work in an environment like that.....read this and feel the pressure rising....

RUGBY Contract row 'suspicious'

Wed, 12 Mar 2008

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers' agent, Rian Oberholzer, is very "suspicious" about the real motives behind the ongoing contractual dispute and resistance from South African Rugby Union (Saru) and SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd board members.

De Villiers, who was 'appointed' as Bok coach with great fanfare in January, has been at odds with Saru and SA Rugby (the commercial arm of Saru) over his contract for the past two months.

At the heart of the dispute — according to Oberholzer, himself a former Saru CEO — is the resistance from SA Rugby/Saru to allow De Villiers to have the final say on Springbok team selections.

After initially agreeing to allow De Villiers to have the final say, the board of SA Rugby decided at a meeting on Monday that granting De Villiers the last word on selection was "unconstitutional".

"This is a big problem," Oberholzer told this website, asking why there is this sudden change of heart.

He pointed out that the "constitutional issue" was not raised in January when they first started negotiations and wants to know why it only surfaced now two months later.

"We view this with the utmost suspicion. This clause (that the selectors and De Villiers must select the side) was not enforced with any of his (De Villiers's) predecessors — Jake White, Rudolf Straeuli, Harry Viljoen, Nick Mallett or André Markgraaff.

"Is this because he is a black coach? Don't they trust him?," Oberholzer asked.

"We all know that Peter (de Villiers) was not the first choice (for Bok coach) of (Saru President) Oregan Hoskins and (SA Rugby MD) Jonathan Stones.

"Are they deliberately trying to make it so unpleasant that he walks out?" the former Saru CEO continued.

He said De Villiers would certainly not accept a contract in which he does not have the final say on team selections.

"How can you expect him to coach a team he did not select," Oberholzer asked.

"I have never encountered such unprofessional behaviour," he said, adding that the role of Saru Vice-President Koos Basson in the whole saga must be questioned.

"I want to ask the Saru President's Council and these board members: 'What happens at their provinces? Why is it in order to give their provincial coaches the final word on selections, but not the Bok coach?'

"What makes it even worse is that nobody now wants to speak to us (De Villiers' agents). You can't speak to Jonathan Stones and Andy Marinos (General Manager national teams at Saru and the designated person to talk with De Villiers' agents) is now too scared to say anything."

De Villiers, was ready to sign the contract on Monday, but then his agents received an email from Marinos which said that while the board had initially agreed to all the terms of the contract, they have now said that the request from De Villiers to have the final say on selection is unconstitutional.

De Villiers has also been offered R200 000 a year less than his predecessor, World Cup-winning coach Jake White. The new coach has also rejected that offer.