MIKE GREENAWAY pieces together what went down when four South African legends bade farewell to the Sprinbok captain with an all-nighter in a hotel room.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall in Jean De Villiers’ hotel room in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The assembled company emptying the mini bar was Ernie Els, Schalk Burger, Danie Gerber and, of course, De Villiers.
The Bok captain’s international career had been ended some hours before when an X-Ray at Birmingham Infirmary had confirmed a jaw fracture. That Sunday night, the squad journeyed by train up to Newcastle and De Villiers held his final press conference in a Springbok tracksuit.
There were no tears, just the odd sad smile, but for the most part De Villiers was calm and collected and managed a guffaw or two when he mentioned how, at 4am, Burger had been “‘philosophising’ about life, fate and destiny.”
“It was rubbish, but it made sense at that time of the morning,” De Villiers laughed.
But what a gathering! Burger is an all-time Springbok great himself, and De Villiers is right up there after 109 caps for his country. Gerber was in England to be inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame – one of the greatest centres South Africa has ever produced, and De Villiers’ childhood hero. There was the Big Easy, a passionate Springbok fan who is often spotted at Bok hotels when they are in the UK (he has a home in England and a plane at his instant disposal).
Ernie is not shy of a tipple himself when the occasion warrants it and De Villiers said it served Ernie right that he was being kept up all night because De Villiers (and Burger) are avid golfers and had spent many a late Sunday night in front of their TVs following Ernie when he has been in contention for a championship.
For De Villiers and the Boks it had been a bittersweet tournament. The fall-out from the loss to Japan had been nuclear in its toxicity. It emerged that there had been a seismic fall-out between coach Heyneke Meyer and De Villiers and vice-captain Victor Matfield. Meyer was furious that “we played Japanese rugby against Japan”. Matfield later revealed that it was like being in the headmaster’s office after having been caught smoking behind the bicycle shed. The irony was huge. For so long Meyer had copped flak for picking the senior citizens and they then rewarded him by doing their own thing.
With a wry smile Matfield said: “Heyneke very carefully explained exactly what he wanted done against Samoa. He left no stone unturned. There could be no confusion about precisely how he wanted the team to play …”
De Villiers said on the eve of the game that he had been surprised when he was included in the team. He was convinced he was going to be dropped not only because of his disobedience but because he has been hopelessly out of form while rival centre Damian de Allende has been playing out of his skin.
Well, fate has a way of working these things out. Meyer’s problem of what to do about his out-of-form captain was solved by a Samoan shoulder connecting with the jaw of the jinxed De Villiers.
In 2007 a Samoan tackle tore his bicep at the World Cup in Paris, ending his participation while in 2003, in a warm-up match against the Falcons (of all teams) in Brakpan, before the World Cup in Australia, De Villiers suffered a calamitous shoulder injury.
Burger, expounding on this at 4am that Sunday morning, told De Villiers: “Buddy, you don’t belong at World Cups but you are a certainty in the Springbok Hall of fame.”
And that makes perfect sense to me.
Jean, the epitome of a great guy, leader and incredible player game breaker, defense general, the whole package, so sad and unfair his exit, but who knows he’s , good people like Morne Dup always float to the top!