The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE national fifteens rugby coach, Peter de Villiers has been granted compassionate leave by his employers, the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) so that he can spend more time with his daughter who is not feeling well.
Aaron Jani, the ZRU president said De Villiers was meant to have returned to Zimbabwe from South Africa last Sunday but was given a further 12 days and will resume off-season training with the Sables once he returns.
“We gave him compassionate leave so that he can be with his daughter who is not feeling well, we are expecting him back after the 12 days from 4 November. As soon as he lands we expect him to start the off-season programme. We are having a meeting with him when he arrives to map the way forward,’’ Jani said.
In a recent interview in his home town of Paarl, De Villiers indicated that he wanted to iron out issues with the ZRU presidium because of what he felt was wrong information being fed to the rest of the ZRU board.
Despite De Villiers dismally failing to take Zimbabwe to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the ZRU board met in September and decided to let the former Springboks coach finish off his two-year contract. The feeling was that maybe the goal of qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan was too much to ask for from De Villiers with no proper structures in place.
Zimbabwe survived relegation from the Gold Cup with a 38-18 victory over Uganda in Kampala, having drawn 23-23 with Morocco at home, lost to Kenya, Tunisia and Namibia. The decision to allow De Villiers to continue as coach should now allow the South African to start planning for next year.
— @Mdawini_29
