Blacklisted.

Former Springboks coach Peter de Villiers has launched a scathing attack on South African rugby, claiming the union have blacklisted him, and offered Zimbabwe R2 million to not appoint him as their new head coach.

He says the first thing he will do when he gets to Zimbabwe is sing their national anthem. De Villiers claims he is “not welcome” in South Africa.

“I am so glad to be the new Zimbabwe coach, it gave me comfort because I am not welcome in my own country, so I am leaving,” De Villiers told the Citizen.

“The first thing I will do when I get to Zimbabwe is sing the national anthem, because they want me there. The Springboks don’t want me.

“I got a call from the Zimbabwe Rugby Union to say there is a problem, SA Rugby say I am blacklisted and they cannot appoint me.

“When Boland wanted to make me coach, someone from SA Rugby offered them R2 million (US$170321.48) not to appoint me, and a union like that cannot afford to say no to that sort of money.”

“SA Rugby does not want to hear from me, they will say I am bitter, but they are deluding themselves. If you say to someone ‘What do you know?’, then you don’t want to learn from anyone else. As Springbok coach, I knew what I had and how to utilise the players.

“My biggest disappointment was that Allister Coetzee and Heyneke Meyer never made the time to talk to me so I could share my experiences of how badly I was treated with them. Rassie Erasmus came to the World Cup for four weeks in 2011 and Heyneke chose to speak to him about the four years I was in charge.”

De Villiers had a 62 percent winning record as Springbok coach and guided them to the 2009 Tri Nations title as well as a series win over the British and Irish Lions the same year.

He was also in charge of the Boks in five victories against the All Blacks. His main goal now is help Zimbabwe qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1991.