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Cape Town - Jean de Villiers, the first-choice Springbok captain whenever fit throughout the Heyneke Meyer coaching tenure, makes his match-day debut as a television pundit in SuperSport’s coverage of the first Test against Ireland at Newlands here on Saturday.
The now-retired De Villiers has been listed as a “sideline commentator” alongside Owen Nkumane at the ground, for so long his home venue during a lengthy career with the Stormers/WP and a Test career spanning some 14 years and 109 caps.
SuperSport’s communications chief Clinton van der Berg confirmed the 35-year-old’s capture: “He has indeed joined SuperSport and will work as an in-studio analyst and mix it up with outside broadcasts.
“He starts this weekend and needless to say, we are thrilled.”
De Villiers will still have strong knowledge of affairs in the Bok camp, considering that he remained skipper at RWC 2015 towards the end of last year, until his injury hoodoo struck again in the pool match against Samoa at Birmingham, signalling the end of his Test career.
He has an easy-going personality that should make him well suited to television work, whilst his comfortable bilingual ability should come in handy as well.
Another attribute is his awareness of what makes new national coach Allister Coetzee tick – they had long senior-leadership associations in Super Rugby with the Stormers.
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