1 July 2009
Johannesburg — Saru said last Saturday that Hoskins had been mandated to meet the coach this week following a general consensus by Saru's management committee that racial connotations in the coach's statement were a concern.
However, it was revealed yesterday that the meeting secretly went ahead after the team's nail-biting 28- 25 victory against the British and Irish Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Reacting to concerns about Januarie's substandard form and his failure to make an effect off the bench in the first Lions Test in Durban, De Villiers said: "I'm not concerned about his form. He may have made a blunder but so did a few other players. What I learned in SA is if you take your car to a garage and the owner is black and they mess it up, you never go back to that garage. If the owner is white, you say they made a mistake and you go back again. This is how some people live their lives."
This remark was greeted with shock by the media, with the black media, in particular, hitting out at De Villiers and accusing him of playing the race card.
Hoskins was positive yesterday about his discussions with the coach and said: "What was said was extremely well accepted by Peter and it was a positive meeting. I'm not going to go into detail about what was said. But we had a good discussion about the matter and it augurs well for South African rugby.
"We shared our views about the incident and Peter explained the context it was said in. And I think it's good that we can discuss such matters in a mature manner rather than airing our dirty linen in public."
While there are no guarantees that De Villiers would not make such remarks again, especially given his unpredictable nature, Hoskins believed the coach was aware of their seriousness.
"He understands that as an organisation we don't stand for racism and we would like this view to be central in the ethos of the game."
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