Writing for the Independent Online, Kevin McCallum reports from the Sprginboks' official send off ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
"So,the secret is out. The man around whom the Springbok defensive line will revolve is apparently, if allegedly, a blood relation of the coach. At least that’s what Jean de Villiers told the leader of South Africa when they met at the Presidential Guest House yesterday.
"Asked by President Jacob Zuma at a farewell function if he was family of Dawie de Villiers – the former Springbok and National Party MP – South Africa’s inside centre pointed at his coach, Peter de Villiers, and said: “No, I’m related to him.” Zuma has probably not giggled so much since that little meeting in Polokwane a few years ago.
"It was a quintessential South African moment. The tall, blond, white guy from Paarl and the short, coloured man from Paarl, related via a sport and a jersey that was once the symbol of all that was white and wrong about South Africa. Four years ago Thabo Mbeki sent the Boks on their way to France and told them to let him take care of any political nonsense from back home. Yesterday afternoon Peter, he of the broader and colour-bar crossing De Villiers clan, said, with a small smile, that the president had told him the country was behind him, and if that wasn’t fact then the leader of the nation wasn’t speaking the truth.
"The truth is that the Springboks will leave for Wellington on Thursday with the hopes of 50-million South Africans and the history of 1995 and 2007 on their shoulders. The importance and the significance of rugby to South Africa, its power to divide and unite, cannot be underestimated. The pressure of leading the team that has that power is intense."
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