Marriage turned sour

Petros Kausiyo
Sports Editor

IT appeared to be a match made in heaven, probably just what the doctor had ordered for a sport that was in decline and desperately needing a huge lift on its image and profile.

A silver lining on the dark cloud hovering over the country’s third biggest game seemed to have shone when Peter De Villiers arrived on the domestic scene with the Zimbabwe Rugby Union unveiling him as the Sables coach at a glitzy breakfast ceremony befitting the occasion at a Harare hotel on February 7, 2018.

But just a year and two months down the road, the relationship turned sour and the marriage has now irretrievably broken down with the ZRU wielding the axe on the former Springboks coach.

De Villiers arrived in Harare on the back of a well-earned high profile having coached the Springboks between 2008 and 2011 with some of the highlights of his career being that he led South Africa to five out of 11 test victories over New Zealand’s All Blacks, a record many of the Boks coaches have failed to achieve.

He also won the Tri-Nations with the Springboks in 2009 and sealed a series win over the British and Irish Lions in the same year and when he arrived in Harare, he described his appointment as the “proudest moment of his life” with the 61-year-old mentor pledging to try and turn the Sables into a powerful force on the continent.

But instead of looking to try again in 2019 after his poor start with the Sables, De Villiers found himself being dragged before a disciplinary hearing instituted by his paymasters who had finally lost patience with him and had not been amused by his prolonged absence from work despite being granted an extended compassionate leave to attend to his sick cancer-stricken daughter.

Yet when he ended a seven-year hiatus from coaching at the highest level, De Villiers appeared to have been “the Messiah” who would lead the Sables to the Promised Land as the senior team sought to end a 28-year-wait for a place at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and triumph in the Africa Rugby Gold Cup.

But at the end of the first of his two-year-contract, the Sables were out of the World Cup contention and ended up fighting relegation, only surviving the chop on the last day of the Africa Gold Cup fixtures when they beat Uganda in Kampala.

That literally marked the beginning of the end of his flirtation with captain Denford Mutamangira and his troops during which he had also fallen out with his assistant Brendan Dawson and his role in the Sables debacle in Tunisia also brought his role into question.

Despite the ZRU leadership having stood by him even when the results were not coming, De Villiers chose to fire a salvo at the union’s executive, even claiming he was often forced to use his money to subsidise the players.

“When I went for the (disciplinary) hearing I was locked out of the flat I had in Harare because they (ZRU) hadn’t paid the rent'” De Villiers said.

“They are claiming I faked my child’s sickness’ so those are the kind of people I’m dealing with. How the hell can they say that? They are not honourable people.

“I had become a figure-head of a coach, sometimes paying players from my pocket

“The problems began when the deputy president started selecting teams'” De Villiers claimed in an interview with the South African media.

“It got to the point that I would arrive at the airport to go away for a game and the players were the ones he picked. Despite this’ I enjoyed standing up for the boys. It is bad to me because they don’t seem to value their own people. Players weren’t paid properly. I had to use money from my own pocket to keep the vibe in the team up,” De Villiers told the media in South Africa.

The ZRU have, however, chosen to keep their cards close to the chests arguing that the matter of their expensively hired coach is still subjudice following De Villiers’ decision to appeal his dismissal at the Labour Court.

But what is clear is that “close friends in February 2018 have become bitter foes in May 2019” amid indications from sources close to the saga that the union’s management have been angered by the fact that South African media “has chosen to be economic with the truth and instead decided to smear the ZRU’s image”.

“He needed to be fired. He is lying about facts. He was granted compassionate leave after exhausting his leave days. He has also decided to use emotional blackmail to seek sympathy from the world but this is purely a rugby matter based on the rugby deal that was at hand.

“After exhausting compassionate leave he just went quiet and failed to communicate. He only reacted after he was suspended without pay or benefits. In any case he had failed to meet his contractual targets: qualify for World Cup, win Gold Cup and improve ZIM world rankings…he failed on all three,” the sources said.

The sources also revealed that contrary to the sorry picture he was painting to the world, De Villiers was “living large” during his tenure with the ZRU with the Sables Trust – a marketing and fund-raising vehicle for the national team – sourcing funds and paying for his upkeep.

“He was living in a four-bedroom penthouse overlooking Harare Sports Club at Northfields with a Jacuzzi on his balcony and a pool on the roof.

He was driving a Mercedes GLE. Free phone, laptop and two salaries including a shopping and fuel allowance.

“All that was paid for by the Trust. There was also free DSTV and Wi-Fi,,” the sources said.