South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has been given a vote of confidence after his side’s disastrous start to the Tri Nations campaign.
It is three defeats out of three for the world champions, who have gone down twice to New Zealand and once in Australia, meaning they are yet to register a point in the competition ahead of their home runs of games.
De Villiers has also been in the public eye for criticising referees during the injury-ridden early games and had to issue a statement to clarify comments that had appeared to suggest that officials were favouring the All Blacks when his side took them on.
However, the coach’s employers at the South African Rugby Union (SARU) have moved to assure him that, while improvements are desired, his job is safe and also denied claims of a rift within the management set-up.
"There is a lot of wrong that needs to be made right after the bad start to the Tri-Nations," SARU president Oregan Hoskins was quoted as saying by Business Day.
"But that doesn't mean that we don't support the coach. We are meeting the coach (in the next few days) to hear what went wrong and what needs to be done going forward.
“But again, he has our full backing."