Naas Botha pays tribute to late Bok and coach John Williams

John Williams, the Springboks’ first post-isolation coach, has died. 

Williams died of leukaemia on Thursday aged 78. Earlier this week his captain in the corresponding Tests in which he presided, Naas Botha, paid him a visit.

“I went to see him in hospital and I’m glad I went,” Botha said. “You could see he was sick but he was in such good spirits. It was so nice to see him.”

Williams and Botha forged a particularly fruitful coach-captain partnership.

“We worked together at Tukkies, the Bulls and then the Boks. We had a typical coach-captain relationship. Together we took some tough decisions,” said Botha.

In his playing days Williams, a strapping 2m lock, earned the moniker “Jolly Jumper” for his line-out prowess. He played in 13 Tests between 1971 and 1976 and won the Currie Cup three times as a player with the erstwhile Northern Transvaal in 1973, 1974 and 1975.

It was as a coach, however, that his influence was more keenly felt in SA rugby.

Williams coached Northern Transvaal to Currie Cup titles in 1987, 1988 and 1989 (when they shared the trophy with Western Province). Those titles helped earn him the job as national coach when the Springboks returned from isolation in 1992.

His tenure was short and tumultuous, and by the end of that year his stint was over.

He held the job in five Tests, with the Springboks’ sole win against France in Lyon. The defeats suffered against New Zealand, Australia, France (in the second Test in Paris) and England left him on shaky ground by the time the team returned from their end-of-year tour.

“It was chaos on that tour,” Botha recalled. “Very few people gave us a chance on that tour. The unknown proved the biggest challenge.

“We came out of a system that was exclusively fed by the Currie Cup. We had little to no international experience.”

The next year Williams was replaced by Ian McIntosh.

“John Williams was one of only six people who played for SA, and then also coached the Boks after unity in 1992, along with Carel du Plessis, Nick Mallett, Rudolf Straeuli, Allister Coetzee and Rassie Erasmus,” said SA Rugby president Mark Alexander in a statement.

Botha said Williams had a keen eye for finding talented players and was perhaps ahead of his time in the way he applied psychology.

“I remember him arriving at practice on a Monday and he would read a letter sent to him in full. In the letter the writer would express his displeasure with a player and how that kind of performance was just not good enough.

“John would use that technique but we often wondered whether he didn’t write the letter himself.”

Alexander described Williams as a tough-as-nails lock and a great line-out jumper.

“As a true rugby man who was more of a gentle giant in essence, John ploughed back into the game after he had hung up his boots and he remained a loyal supporter of the Bulls and the Springboks,” he said.

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to his wife Mariana, his children Elmien, Lianie and Boeta from his marriage with Martie, who had also passed away, as well as other family members, friends and loved ones in this very sad time of bereavement.”

After his Bok coaching stint Williams returned to provincial coaching and a career at the North-West University, where he was dean of students. In 1999 he moved to the family farm in Limpopo, where he farmed livestock and game.

Williams was also a former chair of Agri Limpopo and won the province’s Farmer of the Year award.

In his tribute to Williams, Alexander recognised he had operated in a difficult period. Botha concurred: “I think John acquitted himself fantastically well. That first year was very challenging. He had the guts to take on the job. Somebody had to break the ice.”