De Villiers hits out at media negativity
As de Villiers prepares for the third Test at Ellis Park tomorrow, he steadfastly refused to countenance a change of style to his management despite stumbling repeatedly into controversy over the last few weeks.
He insisted: “If I do that I change Peter de Villiers, and I would have to go back to God and tell him he made a bad job (of me) and I can’t do that. I will be the best person that I can be. I allowed some of the negative media from Britain (to happen); they did it in 1974, they did it in 1980 and I allowed it again in 2009. What a stupid bugger I am. I learned that if they can’t beat you anywhere else they will still try to show their superiority any way they can to make them feel good. It’s a thing from years back, so I won’t change myself; what I want to do is just keep my feet on the ground, be humble and be a good servant of this game.”
De Villiers risked further adverse reaction yesterday when he said the reason he had made 10 changes for the Ellis Park encounter was “because we have so much respect for the Lions.”
“We believe the guys we have selected are as good as the other guys we have left out to go do a job for us,” he said, a view looked upon as flawed by even de Villiers closest supporters.
He admitted to having had a couple of sleepless nights in relation to this particular team selection, saying: “I changed my mind four or five times this week on different positions and as to what I should do, but I did want to give the rest of the squad an opportunity to play against the Lions; they only get an opportunity once every 12 years and most of our players will only (ever) get one opportunity at it.”
With the Springboks having already taken an unassailable 2-0 series lead, de Villiers retained only five players, the captain John Smit, vice-captain Victor Matfield, Fourie du Preez, Tendai Mtawarira and Juan Smith.
Zane Kirchner will make his debut at full back, while Odwa Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier, Jongi Nokwe and Morne Steyn all come in to a backline that includes just one player – scrum-half Du Preez – that started in the second Test.
There are four changes in the pack, with Chiliboy Ralepelle, Johann Muller, Heinrich Brussow and Ryan Kankowski all brought in.
On the bench, uncapped Sharks lock Steven Sykes has been named following the unsuccessful appeal earlier yesterday by Bakkies Botha over a two-week suspension for dangerous charging. De Villiers said he had included Sykes to give him an option of “beefing up the pack” if required during the game.
Sharks captain Johann Muller has been included in the starting team in Botha’s place, while Bismarck du Plessis, Pierre Spies, Ruan Pienaar and Frans Steyn all drop down to the replacements, leaving the Lions to face a number of unknowns.
But de Villiers drew attention in particular to winger Jongi Nokwe, who will be directly marking Shane Williams tomorrow. De Villiers recalled the huge impact Nokwe made when he scored four tries in a Test last year against Australia, a game the Springboks won by 53 points to eight.
“I expect the Lions to be surprised by his pace, for sure; I get goose bumps thinking about that guy – they’re going to have their hands full, really.”
And he is not in the slightest bit perturbed that there are many South African rugby observers waiting to pounce if anything goes wrong. “If my selection works, that will be great, if it doesn’t then they will say I’m a bad coach; but if these people take a good look at these players one by one and validly point out that we weakened the side then I will listen, but I don’t think people can say that.
“We do want to go forward; we won’t change the game plan a lot, we will try to use the players we have to fit in with what we have been trying to do.”
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