The racial faultlines running through South African rugby were forced open again yesterday when a black man was chosen to coach the national team for the first time.

Peter De Villiers was unexpectedly put in charge of the Springboks, the world champions, and the rugby executive responsible for the appointment admitted that the colour of his skin was a deciding factor.

The decision to appoint De Villiers in preference to the highly rated, and white, Heyneke Meyer reignited the explosive debate over the inclusion of more blacks in the country’s white-dominated national sport.

De Villiers, 50, said that he did not want people to dwell on his colour. “The fact that I am the first black coach must end now,” he said.

“Players out there must understand they will all stand an equal chance . . . If they are good enough, talented enough and work hard enough they will be part of the squad.”

His plea to fans to look beyond the colour of his skin was undermined by Oregan Hoskins, president of the South African Rugby Union (Saru), who said that race had been a determining factor.

“I want to be honest with South Africa and say that the appointment was not entirely made for rugby reasons,” Mr Hoskins said.

“We as an organisation have made the appointment and taken into account the issue of transformation very seriously when we made it.”

The appointment of De Villiers split the Saru board down the middle and was eventually endorsed by ten votes to nine. Many members supported Meyer, an Afrikaner, who last season coached the Pretoria Blue Bulls to victory in the southern hemisphere Super 14 tournament, featuring teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. De Villiers has coached South Africa’s Under-21 and Under-19 teams.

In the end the issue of transformation — bringing non-white players into a game that was restricted to whites in the apartheid era — tilted the decision in favour of De Villiers.

Saru has been under heavy pressure from the African National Congress Government over its failure to pick more players of colour. Whites accounted for 13 of the 15 players to start in October’s World Cup final against England in Paris.

The quest to give greater opportunities to black players is expected to lead to a further exodus of top white players to higher-paid professional careers in France and Britain.

Victor Matfield, man of the match when the South Africans won last year’s rugby World Cup, has already joined Toulon in France and has said that he would be prepared to continue playing for the national team only under Meyer.

De Villiers succeeds Jake White, who resigned only weeks after leading the Springboks to World Cup success after a succession of bitter arguments with Saru, principally over the inclusion of black players.

Already there is speculation that De Villiers will name Luke Watson as captain of the Springboks. Watson was at the centre of controversy last year when White was told to include the 23-year-old white player on the ground that he was an “honorary black”. Watson’s father, Dan “Cheeky” Watson, turned down the chance of a Springbok cap in the 1970s — when sport was racially segregated — to play instead for a black township team called Kwaru, outside Port Elizabeth. White insisted that Watson was not good enough for the national team but eventually agreed to select him for a friendly match against Samoa.

Last night radio stations and websites were swamped with comments about the De Villiers appointment. Among the comments were “Saru has shot rugby in the head” and “We will never be a force in world rugby again”.

De Villiers said that he was “ecstatic” with his appointment. “The word transformation is a bit of a swear word with me,” he said. “I’m more concerned about a change of attitude than a change of colour.”

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