After a long wait, Peter de Villiers was appointed the new coach for the Springboks yesterday. After Jake White quite after leading South Africa to the world title last year, everyone was waiting to see who would fill the boots of one of the toughest jobs in South Africa if not one of the toughest in the world.

After much deliberation,  SARU decided to go with de Villiers who also becomes the first person of colour to be the head coach of South Africa’s national rugby team. The questions are already starting to fly around with many asking whether this was the right appointment based on the best person for the job or is this purely a political move, to have a person of colour coaching the countries most successful sport? Former Blue Bulls coach, Heyneke Meyer seemed to be the favourite for the job based on his previous track record of being a highly successful coach. I must say I was shocked yesterday when they made the announcement as I had thought Meyer would get the job.

For me, I think that SARU may have based their final decision to appoint de Villers on two things: Firstly, de Villers comes in with a similar CV to that of Jake White’s when Jake took over the Springbok head coaching position. They were both relatively unknown before they became Springbok coaches and they had both successfully lead the South Africa Under 21 team to World Cup success. So SARU maybe hoping that de Villiers can repeat what Jake White did.

Secondly, I think one of the most used words in South Africa rugby today is ‘transformation’. In SARU appointing a coach of colour they would have succeeded in their mission of transforming South Africa rugby so that more players of colour represent the Springboks.

We can only wait and see how de Villiers is going to fair in his new position. Many are upset that he has been appointed but to those of you who are upset I have to say that, what is done is done and you just have to accept it, de Villiers is the new coach and is very likely to be the coach for the next couple of years. South Africa just has to be behind the coach and the team and make sure that the success of last years World Cup is not thrown away over issues of who the new coach is.