Rugby: De Villiers adds more to quotes file

Peter de Villiers and Victor Matfield agree that dwelling on the past is not for the Springboks. Photo / Natalie Slade

Opinion is divided on whether the public utterances of Springboks coach Peter de Villiers are those of a madcap genius, or just madcap.

Whatever side of the fence you stand on, you can't fault him for entertainment value.

There was more for the quotes file yesterday when a jovial de Villiers declared his undying respect for his opposite number while admitting to a spot of narcissism.

"They've got a brilliant coach in Graham Henry," said de Villiers.

Yet he was singing in a different key when addressing an audience in South Africa on his departure for the Tri-Nations, saying Henry had a "big mouth" for implying the Springboks played less rugby than the other Tri-Nations combatants.

Not so, said de Villiers yesterday, it was just a message that got a little lost in translation - or transit, perhaps.

"I said that, like me, he's got a big mouth and what I meant by that is that he's a very honest guy. People respect him all around the world for his honesty. He's a student of the game, he knows the game and his players respect him a lot."

When it was suggested de Villiers took great delight in winding up his opponents, the 53-year-old opted for a bit of introspection.

"Ninety-five per cent of people all around the world are conventional people, they go with the crowd. They only do what other people do. They can't be their own person," he said.

"I've got a job to do. I think I'm a strong individual, a strong character. I don't care what people think about me, I don't care what people say about me. It's what I think about me and myself - and I love myself a lot.

"It's about me and my team and my country. If I'm respected in my team, I don't care about what other people think."

You can only wonder what the man sitting next to him, Victor Matfield, made of all that.

He's chiselled from a different rock and deflected a question about whether the All Blacks had lost their aura after the Boks took them down 3-0 last year.

The 95-test veteran said the New Zealanders were still the hardest, "most physical" opponents South Africa faced. Besides, his team preferred to focus on their own game.

"We've got a lot of belief in ourselves and what we're doing. We know we've got the players to trust each other," he said.

Matfield said it was pointless looking at last year to get a gauge on what was going to happen at Eden Park tomorrow.

"We don't like to look at the past," he said. In that, de Villiers was in complete agreement, if slightly more lyrical.

"If you live in the past, you don't have any hope for the future."