Despite meetings this weekend requesting him to stay on, Andre Markgraaff confirmed on Monday that his tempestuous relationship with South African rugby is finally over.
”My phone has been ringing non-stop, even all of this [Monday] morning, trying to get me to change my mind, but my mind is made up,” Markgraaff said.
”In fact, I am busy at this very moment typing up my resignation letter,” he added.
After a weekend of speculation about his future and a two-week-long public spat with Springbok coach Jake White, Markgraaff said that despite dramatic final-minute meetings he will quit rugby on all levels.
Media reports over the weekend all but confirmed Markgraaff’s tenuous relationship with Springbok coach Jake White and the South African Rugby Union hierarchy, following what the former Bok coach calls ”a vicious campaign to rid him from SA rugby”.
Markgraaff said that despite playing a role in helping South African rugby to almost unprecedented heights, he was informed that he ”no longer had a role to play in South African rugby,” and ”that Brian van Rooyen was completely in charge”.
The Boks have beaten Australia twice and the All Blacks over the past few weeks while South Africa won both the Under-19 and Under-21 world championships, of which Markgraaff was a selector to the senior and Under-21 sides.
”I wanted to leave at the end of the year anyway but I have to quit now, I’m fed up.
”I have lost a lot of my passion, but will always remain a proud Springbok supporter,” he added.
The burly former Bok coach said there is a cabal trying to force him out of rugby by planting insidious rumours with White, but he does not want to indulge in further mudslinging and would rather leave with his head held high.
Markgraaff has had a fluctuating relationship in South African rugby over the past decade and has survived the shaming racist remarks caught on tape in the late Nineties when he had to quit his post as Bok coach.
He then had a successful stint at Griquas in the Currie Cup before working his way stoically back into the upper echelons of rugby power.
”It’s sad, but it’s over,” said Markgraaff. — Sapa