Just For Larfs - Puppet talks about Life, The Universe, and being the Boss.

[Blue]

I struggle to find expletives to describe my reaction to this interview posted at keo.co.za. Petulant? Childish? Insecure? Unprofessional? Undermining? Arrogant? Sadly, they all apply.

I had to read it three times to make sure it's not a joke. The man is out of his tree and he doesn't even know it.

PdV: ‘I am the boss’

SA Rugby magazine’s hard-hitting interview with the Springbok coach.

Your critics say that your technical knowledge of the game is poor, and that all the technical stuff surrounding the Boks’ game plan comes from your assistant coaches and the senior players. What’s your response to that?
I went to Wales to do my level-two coaching course, and paid my own way. The way it works is that you do the course and then go coach for another two years before you return to do the level-three course. I had just come back to South Africa when the Welsh Rugby Union called me and said they were so impressed by my technical knowledge of the game that they wanted me to do the next course straight away. I chose to do those courses in Wales, because I’ve always admired the great players they had in the ’70s, like Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams. I knew I would be working with equally talented players back in South Africa.

So you do make technical contributions in the Bok set-up?
Of course. When I said the All Blacks were scrumming illegally in last year’s Tri-Nations, I had video footage to back it up. No one else in the Bok squad had spotted it. The same thing happened when I questioned the Wallabies’ scrumming methods this year. I was the only person who saw what they were doing. I also make technical observations about other areas of the game, like lineouts and attack.

Do the senior Boks run the show as some have suggested?
Let me make one thing clear – I am the boss, I am the CEO of South African rugby.

In John Smit’s autobiography he explains how the coaches and the senior players meet the day after a Test to plot the way forward for the week ahead. Why did you decide to have such a democratic process?
A good CEO doesn’t make every decision on his own, he consults with other senior people in the company and gets their input. Why would I not want to listen to my assistant coaches and senior players like John and Victor [Matfield]? They all have something to offer. But the final decision on how we play rests with me.

There’s a rumour going around that Dick Muir made those controversial substitutions against the Lions in the first Test in Durban. True or false?
Let me explain. My voice isn’t suited to the radio we use [to communicate with the staff on the sideline] as I talk too quickly and my voice goes high and then low. Why would I want to talk when I can make use of Dick’s strong voice?

But does the message to make the substitutions come from you?
Yes.

So why did you make all those changes when the Boks were 19 points ahead and in complete control?
You know, if I could have done it over again, I would have made them earlier, because I could see the guys were getting tired and went into a defensive mode. By the time I brought the fresh legs on we couldn’t get out of that defensive mode.

Smit believes the Boks would have won by 25 points if those changes had not been made.
No, I don’t agree with him.

Do you regret the way you handled the Schalk Burger ‘eye-gouging’ episode after the second Lions Test in Pretoria?
No, I don’t.

Why didn’t you just tell the British and Irish journalists at the post-match press conference that you couldn’t comment until you had watched the video? In the end, Smit had to step in and say that.
Why should I have had to do that? The South African journalists in the room should have asked me what it was like to have beaten the Lions in a series. But you sat back and let them ask me those questions [about Burger]. You wanted to see me fail.

But you could have stopped their line of questioning yourself. Why rely on the local media?
No, you should have stopped them. You were all intimidated by them. I saw the look in your faces.

So you have no regrets at all about that press conference and the following one on the Monday?
I regret confusing the words ‘condone’ and ‘condemn’. If I had spoken to [the foreign media] in Afrikaans, I would have won that battle easily.

Then why didn’t you?
No, why man? I just got one word wrong.

Were you given a dressing down at that meeting with SA Rugby after the Lions series?
No, it was just a meeting to discuss the progress of the team. We had a similar meeting at the end of last year.

But you seemed to choose your words far more carefully at press conferences after that meeting. You were a changed man during the Tri-Nations.
I didn’t change. You [the media] changed because we were winning. I will never change. That’s why I say ‘I am who I am and I don’t give a damn’.

Why do you think the South African rugby media want you to fail?
Because your man didn’t get the job.

Who? Heyneke Meyer?
You said it, not me.

Do you think some of the media are racist?
You said it, not me.

Do they irritate you during press conferences?
I know that most of them have played rugby before, but I can tell by their questions that they haven’t played at a very high level. If it hadn’t been for apartheid, I would have played for the Boks.

Let’s go back to the beginning of your stint as Bok coach on the day you got the job. How did you feel when [Saru president] Regan Hoskins said your appointment was ‘not for purely rugby reasons’?
I don’t let the bad things in life affect me.

But how did you feel when you heard those words?
I felt nothing. Regan is entitled to his opinion and it didn’t bother me at all. I know I’m a good coach and that I deserve to be where I am today.

The Boks finished last in the 2008 Tri-Nations after starting the tournament as favourites. Why did you choose to abandon a structured approach for a more expansive one?
What laws were we playing under? We had to adapt our game because of the ELVs. I never said that I didn’t like structure, I said we would play total rugby. When I got the job as coach I said I wanted to take the Boks to the next level.

So you don’t regret adopting the game plan used last year?
No.

Then why the return to a more structured game plan in this year’s Tri-Nations if total rugby was the way to go?
The message came from me that we should kick more this year. Then because we had kicked so much [in the three home Tri-Nations Tests], we were able to surprise the Wallabies in Perth with a running game that resulted in four tries.

What was your lowest point of that somewhat difficult 2008 season?
The sex-tape story, which wasn’t true. I had to watch my 82-year-old mother cry.

Before you were appointed as Bok coach, there was talk that you’d pick 10 black players in the starting line-up if you got the job, yet you finished the Tri-Nations with only two black wings and a black Zimbabwean prop who wasn’t eligible when Jake White was coach. Have you failed in terms of transformation?
If a racist white guy voted for the National Party, but then changed his views after 1994, that is transformation. The Springbok team has been transformed because the colour of a player’s skin doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not going to pick black players to make up the numbers, because I will do them more harm than good.

But there were still only three players in the Bok starting XV. Isn’t that a concern?
Look, I think Adi Jacobs is the No 1 centre in the country, but he got injured and by the time he was fit Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie were doing well together so I couldn’t drop either of them. Ricky Januarie is an excellent scrumhalf, but I can’t drop Fourie du Preez. And Conrad Jantjes broke his leg earlier this season. We could have had six players of colour in the starting XV in different circumstances.

But you only had three which is why you were slammed by that transformation committee.
What have they done for the good of this country? What contribution have they made?

You’ve said that the Super 14 coaches are to blame for the lack of black players coming through. Do you stand by that?
Yes, they don’t think black players can make it at that level.

Would the situation be different if three of our five Super 14 coaches were black?
You said it, not me.

Do black players and coaches have to work twice as hard to get the same recognition and plaudits as their white counterparts?
Of course! I’ve had to work 10 times harder than any other white coach to get to where I am today. Why wasn’t I ever offered a coaching job at Super Rugby level?

Is there something wrong with the system when someone like Frans Ludeke, who failed dismally with the Cats/Lions, gets the Bulls job?
You said it, not me.

You have a high profile as Bok coach and earn a big salary. Has that changed you as a person?
I haven’t changed. I still live in the same house in the same area [in Paarl]. It will be hard for me to leave because I want the people in my area to be proud of the fact that they are living near the Bok coach. I still drive the same car that I had before I got the Bok job. It just needs to get me from A to B.

SAR coverDo people you know expect more from you? Do they ever come and ask you for money to help them buy a car or pay off a loan?
No, do I look like a charity?

 

[PaarlBok]

I struggle to find expletives to describe my reaction to this interview posted at keo.co.za. Petulant? Childish? Insecure? Unprofessional? Undermining? Arrogant? Sadly, they all apply.

I had to read it three times to make sure it's not a joke. The man is out of his tree and he doesn't even know it.

You surely understand that Keo and Snor do not get together. All was fine (Keo even sponsorred Snors Paarl club at a time) , then he appointed Keos muppet Hewitt as PR Officer , who did not pich up for his first media appointed, got fired and end up in suicide. Thats when the fun started. You never can expect a positive report from Keo on Snor, maybe a bit truth in it but not 100% the truth with a I am the bos type of heading slipping in here or there. :nta:

 

[Blue]

I struggle to find expletives to describe my reaction to this interview posted at keo.co.za. Petulant? Childish? Insecure? Unprofessional? Undermining? Arrogant? Sadly, they all apply.

I had to read it three times to make sure it's not a joke. The man is out of his tree and he doesn't even know it.

You surely understand that Keo and Snor do not get together. All was fine (Keo even sponsorred Snors Paarl club at a time) , then he appointed Keos muppet Hewitt as PR Officer , who did not pich up for his first media appointed, got fired and end up in suicide. Thats when the fun started. You never can expect a positive report from Keo on Snor, maybe a bit truth in it but not 100% the truth with a I am the bos type of heading slipping in here or there. :nta:

Don't care if he likes the media or not. Part of a coaches job is to deal with difficult media. And do it with grace, respect, and restraint.

And a little bit of class will help a lot.

He is a fucking raving lunatic like I have only seen in movies. Bad, low budget ones.

But it's a lot of fun at the same time. :lmao:

 

[PaarlBok]

Ja , he dunno any other way, shoot from the hip. Told me himself he hate the media.

 

[cyclopath]

Made my night, Blue.
I love how his voice is not suited to radio.
I would hazard a guess that neither is his brain, or at least his frontal lobe.

 

[Blue]

Ja , he dunno any other way, shoot from the hip. Told me himself he hate the media.

That's my point Paarl. He is paid a lot of money and part of his job is to deal with the media. He can't go around telling the media and members of the public that he hates them, and act the way he does in press conferences.

Imagine the coach of any other country acting like that? They would be fired in a wink.

 

[PaarlBok]

All depend Blue, myself like this part

You have a high profile as Bok coach and earn a big salary. Has that changed you as a person?
I haven’t changed. I still live in the same house in the same area [in Paarl]. It will be hard for me to leave because I want the people in my area to be proud of the fact that they are living near the Bok coach. I still drive the same car that I had before I got the Bok job. It just needs to get me from A to B.

Straight and narrow, myself can vouch that being a Paarliet myself , others may look at it negatively. He sure havent changed one bit, still the same Pietertjie like he was before, never high and mighty always have time for the locals, be it in the Mall or on the side of the sportfield and making time to chat and motivate the kiddies and posing for a requested phototjie or giving signatures. He dish out a Saru card, looking the same as the CC players collection cards, writing a personal message and a pretty sweet motivational sport message on it. My kid has complete his CC collection (75 players) and put up Pietertjies card on the front page.

 

[Hugonaut]

Is the interviewer Mark Keohane?

I think he does a good job, asks de Villiers some difficult questions and sticks with a line of questioning until he gets an answer. It's funny, because de Viliers obviously sees the questions as hostile, but when considered in relative isolation, all they are is good, honest questions that any fan of South African rugby would want to know the answer to. It's a good job, because even if the interviewer is a strong personality [as Keohane seems to be from his website editorials], sometimes you can be intimidated by the prospect of the interviewee losing his temper or ending the interview before you get what you have come for.

On the other hand, I don't think that de Villiers has much to gain from doing an interview like this – Keohane chooses all the questions, and almost all of them are designed to put Snor on the spot; there are no easy pitches to allow him to get across his point of view. Sometimes as a coach [or in business, or politics] it's not in your best interest [or your team/company/party] to give an interviewer every little bit of information that he wants to know, just because he wants to know it.

With that said, he seems to have made a lot of erratic decisions over the last year, and from outside South Africa, a lot of the tactical ones seem difficult to understand. I also don't know how realistic his portrayal of SA rugby administration is, and frankly I think that it'd be stupid of me to have an opinion of 'positive discrimination' when I don't know the first thing about the situation on the ground.

Thanks for posting the interview Blue, found it very interesting.

 

[Boomy]

Don't care if he likes the media or not. Part of a coaches job is to deal with difficult media. And do it with grace, respect, and restraint.

And a little bit of class will help a lot.

He is a fucking raving lunatic like I have only seen in movies. Bad, low budget ones.

But it's a lot of fun at the same time. :lmao:

You said it, not me.

 

[Scotty]

I find it absolutely astounding that SA rugby could have such a person in charge of their national team. He is Eddie Jones times by 100 when it comes to stupid comments and distrust of the media.

Fucking hell he even wants the media to do his job for him and stop the international media from asking him hard questions. Give me a break princess.

 

[PaarlBok]

I find it absolutely astounding that SA rugby could have such a person in charge of their national team. He is Eddie Jones times by 100 when it comes to stupid comments and distrust of the media.

Fucking hell he even wants the media to do his job for him and stop the international media from asking him hard questions. Give me a break princess.

Dont help much you have Deans and the results aint even comparable. I'd take Snor anyday with his PR short comings and achievements he had since he took the job. Maybe in Australia you are PR driven, here its result driven and he have a contract, driven by results. If the team fails he is gone.

It could have been much worse, like Keo Muppet question about the black Bok team (interesting if you follow Keo articles , most of them is asking the very same thing), thats what I thought at first would happen.

Hugenoot: Simon is the Muppet that replaced Hewitt at Keo. Keo is the real mountain goat like Blue calls us. The Soutie that live under Table Mountains shadow , the one that love Kamp Staaldraad. : That lot bitch so much , they bitch about themself without even noticing it. Luckily the Cape is Dutch again, so they'll tear the next year into Coetzee and Rassie.

 

[Scarfman]

PB - it is very difficult to judge how good a coach is, except by their public comments, and their selections / strategies.

(1) His public comments make him sound like a lunatic.
(2/3) Maybe it's Muir and the players who are winning the games.

 

[Scotty]

Dont help much you have Deans and the results aint even comparable. I'd take Snor anyday with his PR short comings and achievements he had since he took the job. Maybe in Australia you are PR driven, here its result driven and he have a contract, driven by results. If the team fails he is gone

The fact that you aren't concerned about some of the rubbish he sprouts, which is sometimes ultimately damaging for the game and SA rugby says a lot about you, and your bias.

 

[Blue]

Wacky as it is, it makes better reading than Rupert Guinness's chat (1 and 2) with Chris Hickey.

Hickey is the kind of guy who feels it's a weakness to ever acknowledge doubt, or to even admit he's reviewed one of his own decisions. Example: Guinness asks "Have you made any changes to how you will play next season?" and Hickey responds "You make changes all the time because you are always looking to fine-tune things." Every question is padded away... "The reality is you don't have hindsight. ...there are no regrets. I never thought of it until you mentioned it. You can't anticipate it. I don't regret having discussed it. It is a reality. I wouldn't say I felt nervous. I don't see it as a major distraction."

Those interviews are a masterclass in conjecture, covering your arse and being as uncharismatic and uninspiring as you can possibly be.

He must be the most boring coach around at the moment. Can the Tahs play exciting rugby under him? Hope so but can't see it.

 

[PaarlBok]

Dont help much you have Deans and the results aint even comparable. I'd take Snor anyday with his PR short comings and achievements he had since he took the job. Maybe in Australia you are PR driven, here its result driven and he have a contract, driven by results. If the team fails he is gone

The fact that you aren't concerned about some of the rubbish he sprouts, which is sometimes ultimately damaging for the game and SA rugby says a lot about you, and your bias.

Try to get personal here or whatta?

Myself is the first one to agree that he aint a PR likeable coach. IF you played rugby (and I am a bit disappointed in Blue) you'd know the MEDIA part of coaching have absoluut VOKKOL part of being a successfull coach. I have seen many critics here about Deans , why? The Wallabies has been piss poor all year. Is it that part that hurt you lot because thats the part that counts.

Do you want me to spell the Bokke successe out for you this year? Thats what make a TEAM and a COACH successfull, no vokken matter in which way he do it.

Hope that clearify it for you princess!

Some of the supporters act like the vokken ANC, no matter if the team is at the bottom as long as there are 10 blacks in the team, thats the one that counts.

 

[cyclopath]

Dont help much you have Deans and the results aint even comparable. I'd take Snor anyday with his PR short comings and achievements he had since he took the job. Maybe in Australia you are PR driven, here its result driven and he have a contract, driven by results. If the team fails he is gone

The fact that you aren't concerned about some of the rubbish he sprouts, which is sometimes ultimately damaging for the game and SA rugby says a lot about you, and your bias.

Try to get personal here or whatta?

Myself is the first one to agree that he aint a PR likeable coach. IF you played rugby (and I am a bit disappointed in Blue) you'd know the MEDIA part of coaching have absoluut VOKKOL part of being a successfull coach. I have seen many critics here about Deans , why? The Wallabies has been piss poor all year. Is it that part that hurt you lot because thats the part that counts.

Do you want me to spell the Bokke successe out for you this year? Thats what make a TEAM and a COACH successfull, no vokken matter in which way he do it.

Hope that clearify it for you princess!

Some of the supporters act like the vokken ANC, no matter if the team is at the bottom as long as there are 10 blacks in the team, thats the one that counts.

Actually being accessible and media-friendly IS a major part of being a successful coach - not at your local club, but internationally without doubt.
Take, for example, John Mitchell. Can't argue with his results as AB coach - really the only game of major significance he lost was the RWC semi in 2003 (albeit a biggie). Would most AB supporters, or indeed others label him successful? He got sacked, FFS!!! His ability to communicate with players, media etc... was poor.
If Snor coached anywhere else, and carried on as he does, his win/loss ratio would mean bugger all, he'd be out on his arse.
It is hard to reconcile the Bokke success with the way Snor talks; most of us struggle to see how he could possibly be the major factor when you listen to his bizarre rantings. Whatever his real role, after he is gone I am afraid his tenure will always have an asterisk against it that maybe the results were more down to others. And maybe that's unfair on him.
And it's not personal, PB.

 

[PaarlBok]

You know there is a lot to coaching, just for the record , you mention Mitchell media AND player management. Now thats the differense between the two coaches, Snor player management is top class comparing not to Mitchell alone but to any of SA pre Snor coaches. I havent read or hear any player playing for him complaining about his coaching abilities and this include both Muir and Gold his co coaches, only credit from them. To be honest thats his biggest asset. Keep the ball rolling on the important ones, I'll keep up with his record.

 

[cyclopath]

Mitchell was sacked ( i.e was not ultimately successful) not only due to player management issues, the media problems also had a part.
You think Snor's player management is exemplary? Januarie picked when WAY out of form? Smit continually picked at THP when floundering? Chilliboy picked on the bench and never actually getting off it? Jacobs? Pienaar at 10?
Face it Paarl, most coaches have their favourites they pick regardless of current form, and none are perfect. All make mistakes with player management and selections.
Before you have a go at Deans, that includes him, but this thread is about Snor.
Would you really expect Muir or Gold to bag him in the media? That means little.
Did Smit not comment that they would have won by a handy margin had he not made the changes he made against the Lions in the test they lost? There's a player disagreeing, the captain no less.
But your unflagging support is admirable.

 

[PaarlBok]

Sure any coach make selection mistakes but you lost the basic requirement. He work for a boss and have a contract like me and you. If you and your team performs, your safe, if they dont your gorne, simple as that.

Why do you guys always keep on having a go at me when this Snor one comes up? FFS the Bokke just had one of their best years in history and obvious the coach have everything to do with it, is that so difficult to understand?

The day when the Bokke dont perform I'd be the first one to critizise, 2009 , nio ways.

 

[cyclopath]

PB, don't take it so personally. I'm not "having a go" at you. I disagree with some of what you say about him, and your premise that the coaching contract is as simple as results, and nothing else (and I've tried to explain my opinion). I didn't miss the basic requirement, and I will happily admit the Bokke results are impressive.
It's a debate, like so many on any forum. Opposing viewpoints. I did commend your support of Snor - good on you, I mean it.
Lighten up, boet!