Tendai Mtawarira has opened a can of worms with the release of his autobiography Beast.
With a pre-launch being given to writers and journalists, the Beast has been quoted slamming ex-Boks coach, Peter de Villiers.
In the book he wrote: “He [De Villiers] was a fantastic coach of the Junior Springboks, but I think at the high level, he was probably lucky that a very good group of players was handed over to him.
“His methods and approach didn’t really work with the Springboks, and as players, we had to be careful what we said to the media.
“What you said would get back to Peter and affect your place in the team. The media did not like Peter and thought he was a bit of a clown.
“There’s no doubt that he was happy to be at the forefront of a team that could operate on its own steam. Most of the work was done by the players, with Dick [Muir] and [Gary] Gold very influential.”
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A post shared by Beast(@tendaimtawarira) on May 19, 2019 at 7:23am PDT
After the sh*t hit the fan, Mtawarira and his publishers said: “It is disappointing that commentators have failed to look comprehensively at the full story, which details the support De Villiers has given to Mtawarira over the years, and the respect Mtawarira has for the man who helped him on his Springbok journey.
Hey guys a lot has been said/insinuated the last few days regarding my soon to be released book.
Here’s a joint statement from myself and my publisher @PanMacmillanSA. Have a good evening pic.twitter.com/iTaHsKbZBD
— Tendai Mtawarira (@Beast_TM) June 18, 2019
“'Peter was the coach who first picked me for the Springboks, and he stood by me through all the trouble with the Minister of Sport, so I’m really grateful to him,’ says Mtawarira in ‘Beast’.”
The damage was already done, though, and De Villiers hit back, saying: “If you look at how I fought to actually get him citizenship in South Africa and how I fought to get him to be selected for this team, and how I fought for his teammates to accept him for who he was it’s sad to listen and see this kind of stuff.
“But then again, I understand it. I do understand that we allow ourselves to be controlled by either outside forces, or money, or power and all those kinds of things.
“He was a number eight, he had some ball-sense. Very quiet - you couldn’t use him as part of your senior group because he had that mentality of ‘submissiveness’, if you can call it that, coming from Zimbabwe. They always. . . everybody else is better than them.
“Some players weren’t actually happy that he was there, but I could see something in him.
DISRESPECTED: Ex-Springbok mentor Peter de Villiers. Photo: Reuters.
“I could see that there’s a lot of potential that we have to fulfill. It took hard work and belief to get him there.”
He adds: “I don’t want to say anything about what’s in the papers on this, because I’m quite tired of black-on-black violence by now.
“We’ve all been used by some sinister force out there to divide us, so that we actually think that we owe them everything for our existence.
“And I’m not implying that this is the same thing. But it’s sad that you won’t hear the same stuff from Victor [Matfield] or John [Smit] about me. All those guys, Bryan Habana - you won’t hear the same stuff about me. It is sad that he [Mtawarira] will say that.”