Former Springbok Coach Peter de Villiers. Source: Gallo Images
It is perhaps not surprising that South African rugby included the highest number of black Springboks in match rosters during former coach Peter de Villiers’ tenure. The recently released de Villiers was, after all, the first non-white Springbok coach (and yes, I hate defining him against what he was not, but that’s the history of Springbok rugby –and for that matter South Africa –for you). And so it should come as no surprise that he also oversaw the tenure with the greatest diversity in the national rugby team’s history. But beyond that, since 1994 and especially since about 2000, diversifying sport has been a central theme in the Rainbow Nation.
This is a trend that any rugby fan has to hope continues. While this may not be especially welcome news in some of the more cloistered corners of Afrikanerdom, the future of South African rugby is in the black community. This reality is not a function of affirmative action or of politics but rather of demographics and athletic truths. As great as Springbok rugby has been in the past, the greatest Springbok teams are in the future when the national side will have at its disposal the greatest athletes drawn from 100% of the population and not from less than 15% of it.
Peter de Villiers was not the greatest coach the national side has seen. Nor was he the worst (far from it). But some of the trends that accelerated under his watch may make him among the most important coaches of a side that will for the foreseeable future be one of the dominant forces in the world of rugby.
