Is Peter de Villiers getting a raw deal from critics?

Bok coach Peter de Villiers is under the whip. We asked the former Bok coach, \"the Prince of Wings\" Carel du Plessis: Most coaches hit losing streaks sooner or later. Tough? Pretty tough. You have to be prepared for both the upside and downside if you take the job. The pressure... you have to be ready for it emotionally, technically and tactically. The higher-profile the job, the readier you have to be. Do you believe he\'s being unfairly targeted? No, not unfairly targeted. It goes with that position. If you\'re at national level you\'ll have to be ready for the questions that will be asked. There are tremendous expectations, especially with this team and the personnel he\'s working with. Should De Villiers have been appointed coach? That\'s an unfair question. He\'s done very well with the team and they\'ve established a good relationship. I think we\'ve been surprised this season by the intensity of the All Blacks\' game. And when they\'re up on the scoreboard, they\'ve got us chasing them from the outset. Should he remain coach until the World Cup? I think that if there\'s any technical or tactical assistance they need to use, then they should call upon it now. To change coaching staff at this point would be too disruptive. There\'s no doubt that captain John Smit and his lieutenants play a huge role in tactics. Is this healthy? I believe that ultimately the tactical decisions rest with the coach. But experienced players play a huge role in planning and the game plan. That\'s why you need strong leadership in the team. Are Graham Henry and Robbie Deans tactically and technically superior to the South African coaches? At this stage they\'re one step ahead of us. They\'ve obviously also had to implement a new approach, and it\'s working with their team. I don\'t think they\'ve got better players, and we have great depth in most positions. But we still need to identify players who can fill the boots of a player like Fourie du Preez. Is it fair to describe South African rugby as one-dimensional? The rugby we\'ve seen in the past few weeks could be described as that. We have to evolve tactically, display rugby intelligence to be innovative. We need to beef up our attack and ensure our play isn\'t predictable. Have the Boks survived, and won, for too long by over-focusing on robust defence and then feeding off the scraps without developing genuine attacking capabilities? One could suggest that. Your defence has to work effectively, you still have to put the opposition under pressure. But you have to move your point of attack to different parts of the field. We perhaps need to place more emphasis on individual skills - to beat the player in front of you, for example. At full-back we\'re a bit ordinary, and that\'s not good enough. The All Blacks\' backs somehow seem more skilled than ours, ghosting through gaps, beating their man more often. A season ago their pack was under pressure, but now their front row\'s a bit stronger, their lineout is better, so the platform the backs are playing from is better. They\'re always attacking the half-gaps, they do it at pace, and they\'re gaining confidence. Every time they break the defence gap, the support is there with them. In the first test we made 30-40 percent more tackles than thedid and we missed 30 percent of those tackles. The All Blacks have targeted their attacks very well and they do it with intensity and tempo. Their wings are always an attacking threat. We need to get into the same frame of mind. Do you wish you were one of our wings? Today\'s game is far quicker, although far tougher with such organised defences, but I\'d love to be out there. Can we win all three home games? I think we can. But the way New Zealand are playing, they\'ll also enjoy these fast surfaces. But we still have the firepower up front to really put pressure on them. We just need to become more of an attacking threat, with our loose forwards linking with our backs more.