Former Bok boss ‘Div’ lands top job with the EP Elephants

Former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has been appointed the new EP Elephants head coach, after fighting off stiff competition for the post, the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU) confirmed on Friday.

It is De Villiers’ first head coaching job in the senior provincial ranks in South Africa since being let go by SA Rugby when his four-year Bok term expired in 2011, following the Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit to the Wallabies.

Although he coached the University of Western Cape between 2013 and 2015, “Div” has found it tough getting coaching gigs domestically – sometimes accusing his former employers at Plattekloof of “blacklisting” him.

His last full-time job was as head coach of Zimbabwe’s Sables, a tenure that also ended in acrimony after the Zimbabwe Rugby Union accused him of taking unauthorised leave from work in May 2019. However, De Villiers was attending to his cancer-stricken ill daughter, Odille Monk, who succumbed to the disease at the age of 28 late last year.

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De Villiers sounded appreciative of the opportunity to get the Eastern Cape, especially the Port Elizabeth, region to unite behind the EP Kings.

“Being the coach of EP poses the opportunity for us to actually unite a divided community into one support group that is behind the team that is supposed to be one of the best in the country,” said De Villiers in an EPRU statement.

“It is going to be a challenge but with the input of all stakeholders, we will be able to reach our goal.

“My plan for the union is that I need a lot of support from all the stakeholders to build bridges and to get the right personnel together and make sure that everybody understands what the collective goal is. I will work hard to make sure we achieve our goals.”

The 63-year-old had one of the best records against the All Blacks of any Bok coach in history, winning five of six meetings in his time. He famously led the Boks to their first win in Dunedin (Carisbrook, 2008) in a century and also added a famous win in Hamilton in 2009.

Undoubtedly, his biggest career achievement to date came when his Springboks defeated the British and Irish Lions 2-1 in 2009 – something the Boks hadn’t achieved since 1980. That same year, the Boks won the Tri-Nations for the third time in their history, securing a rare run of three straight wins over the All Blacks in one calendar year.

He also engineered South Africa’s largest victory over England at Twickenham (42-6 in 2008) and the highest margin victory over the Wallabies anywhere, 53-8 at Ellis Park in 2008.

De Villiers’ Bok tenure was also riddled in controversy, starting from the first whistle when former SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins said at his announcement as the first black head coach that “affirmative action” played a part in the appointment. A cloud that he was a “political appointment” hung over him through the four years in charge.

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