Div does another about turn, and embarrasses his boss; Lance and Alberto are getting tense with one another at Le Tour and Warnie blames Mitch's mom — all this and more in our sports quotes of the week!

SARU MUZZLE DIV… BUT NOT FOR LONG

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is not afraid of a controversial statement or two — he proved as much during the British and Irish Lions series — but after one embarrassing quote too many, his bosses as Saru decided to put a media muzzle on their front-man. A muzzle which lasted all of one day…

"The assessment committee advised Peter to refrain from statements involving the Bible and to generally be more careful about what he says."

"We explained where he could have used a different approach. One example was the statement about the mechanic when he tried to defend Ricky Januarie's selection.

"We made it clear the media wasn't there to fight with him and that they just report what they see and hear. We spent almost a day with Peter and had quite a productive meeting. I think he can put the exercise to good use." – Saru President Oregan Hoskins reveals the end-result of De Villiers' performance review.

It all seemed too good to be true, and it was, because despite Saru's best efforts to rein in the verbose Bok coach, this is what he had to offer the very next day…

"Nobody told me what I may do and what I may not do."

"It doesn't matter how good or bad I am," he said.

"If I can do the job to the best of my ability that's all that matters to me."

So, by that account it looks as if we in the media can look forward to more 'colourful' statements from Div. Not that we're complaining mind you.

TEAM DYNAMICS ON LE TOUR

An interesting sidebar on the Tour de France this year has been the relationship between Astana team-mates Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. Well, maybe lack of a relationship would be a better way to describe it. Both riders stressed there were no problems, but let's be honest, two great riders with ample egos thrown into the same team? You're asking for trouble.

"The harmony is back in the team, at least it was, we will see how everyone feels about what happened on the Colombiere," Astana manager Johan Bruyneel reacts after Contador ditched Armstrong during the final stage in the Alps.

"The attack from Contador three kilometres from the top was against my advice," added the Belgian.

"I told him not to go, he didn't need to attack, because the two Schlecks would go full gas to the finish.

"I said to him: 'You don't have to attack to win the Tour de France today'."

Clearly then, all is not well in the Astana team. Armstrong has admitted that he had to "bite his tongue" on the issue, while Contador has repeatedly thrown down the gauntlet during the race. The Spaniard has a point to prove, but who can blame him? He was brought in to lead the team long before Armstrong decided to come out of retirement.

NOW IT'S MITCH'S MOM'S FAULT

Few will ever forget Shane Warne's excuse for using diuretics during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, but for those of you who have, Warnie blamed his mom's diet pills for the positive test. So I had to laugh when former Aussie Test player Kim Hughes – backed by Warne - pointed the finger at another mother this week — this time it's out-of-form Aussie bowler, Mitchell Johnson's, mom who is shouldering the blame for her son.

"I found it incredibly surprising that his mum said what she did — Mitchell Johnson is a pretty sensitive young man and now it looks like he is totally devoid of self-confidence."

"That really added some extra pressure and he is a young man who has got other things on his mind. When you lose confidence in yourself, all of a sudden there are technical things that you lose as well.

"This has all come on top of the existing pressure of Johnson having to be the strike bowler who was expected to lead the attack in England." - Kim Hughes wades in.

"He's had some pretty big distractions and I'm sure it's affected him a fair bit, but you have to deal with it before a Test match and you simply cannot be consumed by it during a Test." - Warne adds his view…

Warne definitely managed to perform despite all the scandals that followed him, so I can't fault him really, but Hughes is a bit off the mark. If Johnson can handle the sledging in cricket I think he is able to put a family argument on the back-burners…


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