The door is open for everyone: De Villiers

Peter de Villiers

The 60-year-old former Springboks coach, who was officially unveiled as the Sables coach on February 7, described the appointment as the “greatest day of his life”  — because the people of Zimbabwe believed in him.
One hundred days on, deflation, lack of corporate sponsorship, poor preparations and lack of supporters attention when it matters most in the past seems to be fading.
The Sables are slowly finding a way to use setbacks as a springboard to recovery, and ultimately, they have managed to shift the momentum of the game, preparations, moral in the camp, level of competition, revive supporters interest, team selection and the corporate world has come in to ensure that the road to Japan is smooth.
This week, de Villiers said the door was open for every rugby player who felt he had what it takes to earn the Sables a ticket to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
He has been accessing different players as he continues his quest to break the country’s 27- year wait to rub shoulders with the world’s best next year.
In a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, deVilliers said: “This is a quick thank you note to both teams who played on Saturday, it was a good contest and shows the potential and depth of our rugby. I would further like to continue to extend an opportunity to any player who believes that they have what it takes for the national side to attend training this week from Monday to Friday at Prince Edward School in Harare. It is up to you as a committed player to make the effort, the door is never closed you need to knock and open it.”
As much as de Villiers knows that talent wins games, he is more concerned with team players as he believes teamwork, the right combination and intelligence, win championships.
For him when a players scores a try, he does not do it for himself, but for the team because the name in front of the shirt is more important than the one on the back.
The Sables will open their bid for a place at next year’s World Cup with a home clash against Morocco which has been slated for Harare Sports Club on June 16. The next match is scheduled on June 30 in Nairobi, Kenya, before travelling to Tunisia on July 7. The Sables victory in these three games could just be the start of a special era. An era reminiscent of the first time Zimbabwe qualified for the first Rugby World Cup which was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia in 1987, or the send-off at the airport the country received when they qualified for the second in 1991 in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland).
The last two qualifiers are at home against Namibia on August 4, and away in Kampala, Uganda, on 18th of the same month.
Commenting on players in camp, he said: “I am happy about the work we have done, am happy about the intensity of the work they have done, what has satisfied me more is the character of the boys; the way they did it, they are hungry to learn. They want to be the best in what they are doing and it makes it easy for us, although it was tough, they took it on the chin, and we just cannot underestimate what will come out of them.”
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union has launched an ambitious bid to lure players based outside Zimbabwe whom they think can add depth to the current crop of players in camp. This includes former Australia youth international Ian Prior. Prior, who is currently captain of the former Australian Super Rugby franchise Western Force, is one of the players ZRU appears to have convinced to retrace his Zimbabwean roots after including him in the 40-man provisional squad for the upcoming qualifiers.
“Individually, they always knew that they could always do what they are doing now, but as a team, they are doing it so much quicker.  The time spent between what they are doing and how they react to each other makes me very excited to be with them. If we can get to 80 percent of their abilities they will be unstoppable. At this moment, they are not far off, but they are a few adjustments on how to get there,” said de Villiers on the players in camp.