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Smit defends De Villiers

Wellington – Springbok captain John Smit has expressed his frustration at the amount of pressure heaped on coach Peter de Villiers.

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De Villiers took over as coach of the Springboks from Jake White - who lead the team to a World Cup victory in 2007 - and has been subject to intense criticism for most of his tenure.

According to the Sky News website, Smit believes that De Villiers has been maligned because he is so “different” to previous Springbok coaches.

"We're in our fourth year with Peter. We haven't seen too many players running away just yet but the stories continue," said Smit.

"I think the perception is because he is different to what we had before. We needed a different coach to what we had before. To be honest coaches in South Africa are always going to be under pressure, it's probably the one job I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.”

"It's frustrating for us as players to keep seeing Peter under pressure. He's very good to us and whenever we've needed something he's provided that and for me in the time we have had with him he has been the guy who has been able to coach us in the appropriate manner."

The pressure on de Villiers increased recently after the Springbok management team declared 21 first-choice Springboks injured, selected an under-strength team for the away leg of the Tri-Nations and subsequently lost the opening game to the Wallabies.

The coach has also had to fight off allegations that the “injured” first-choice players are at a secret training camp with newly appointed technical adviser Rassie Erasmus, director of rugby at the Stormers.
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