The Times Editorial: Peter de Villiers is obviously not familiar with legal processes. If he were, he would not have ventured to comment as unwisely as he did this week on the Bees Roux affair, which is in the early stages of its progress through the courts.

That is the most generous spin we can put on yet another blunder by the Bok coach. The man who once defended eye-gouging on the rugby field, blamed referees for his team's defeats and uttered other similar sillinesses might now have gone too far: expressing support, on behalf of the Springbok team, for a man facing murder charges.

Our rugby players, famous for standing up to the most fearsome of opponents, might wince at this one. We wonder how far the coach went in canvassing opinion among his players before making his remarks.

Even more worrying for the sport, however, is the pusillanimous silence that has emerged from those who should be giving leadership to these "100% supporting" Springbok players.

Oregan Hoskins, true to the form of sports administrators caught in a difficult situation, "preferred not to comment".

The president of the SA Rugby Union really needs to do better than this. So does the president of the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, for that matter.

The game of rugby, always considered the last holdout of apartheid South Africa, has made huge progress of late. The Bulls took the game to Soweto and won admiration countrywide. They were eagerly welcomed in the township.

The Roux affair threatens to undo all that progress if it is not properly handled. We urge South Africa's rugby mandarins not to allow statements like that of De Villiers to go unchallenged.

The coach has done the damage, now Hoskins & Co must undo it. Silence on their part is not how to go about it.