The choice of Peter De Villiers as the man to take over the coaching of the South African rugby team from the hugely successful Jake White is a surprising one, probably even for the man himself. The reason - it came just 24 hours after the players' union threw their weight overwhelmingly behind former Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer.

Now I am not about to haggle over whether De Villiers is the right choice or not from a technical perspective but if I was him, I am not sure about how good I would be feeling right now.

The choice itself and the reasons given for it by SARU president Oregan Hoskins hardly represented a ringing endorsement. In effect this quote was nothing short of a kick in the teeth:

'What the SARA president actually said in diplomatic terms was: "Peter, you are not the best for the job. You just have the right skin colour"'


''I want to be honest with South Africa and say the appointment did not take into account only rugby reasons. We took into account the issue of transformation in rugby very, very seriously when we made the appointment.''

What that actually said in diplomatic terms was: "Peter, you are not the best for the job. You just have the right skin colour."

Was it necessary? Did  Hoskins have to tell the public the reason behind the appointment of a national coach? Did he have to say that the nation was getting a political compromise rather than the best of the best?

What effect will such a statement have on the players? Will they believe that they are chosen on merit and not on the basis of some decision that was beyond them? And as for the players of colour, will they be allowed to make their mistakes as they cut their teeth in the game or will every performance be scrutinised on the basis of bestowed privilege courtesy of government policy?

Or was Mr Hoskins merely acting out of emotion because he finally had to bow to pressure for the Union to show that they were serious transformation?

That said, the question becomes: What pact with the 'devil' did the incumbent have to make? Will he really be able to choose the team or will those decisions be made above him?  Will he really be the coach of the Boks? It would be easy to say that 'We appointed a black coach and he is the one who chooses the white players', wouldn't it?

Beyond that, I watched the news ticker on South African TV this morning and the reaction of the fans was astounding. A lot of the rhetoric was nothing short of a division of supporters on racial lines. One that stood out was that blacks were jealous of whites and the passion that was missing in the football team which is why they felt the need to take over the rugby team. Others threatened to stop coming to matches and even said that sponsorship was sure to drop because of the whole situation.

To be honest, after the way Hoskins and his lot handled this, one shouldn't really be surprised. At this rate, if the hard-liners have their way, maybe South Africa will be sending  a full Springboks side to the  Africa Cup and hoping to register a win in the first round against the resurgent Sables.