YOU have to get up early to catch out Peter de Villiers, or even keep up with him.

In fact the Wallabies would do well to get to ANZ Stadium well ahead of time for Saturday’s Tri-Nations opener, or they might find the Sprinkboks are already halfway to victory before the first supporters have even passed through the turnstiles.

It seems to be de Villiers’ latest cunning plan  to sweep away any opposition by simple dint of moving the clocks forward.

Arrive at North Sydney Oval way ahead of schedule, train before the TV cameras are even out of bed, then start your press conference so early that even the ARU officials let alone a bunch of typically tardy hacks  were caught on the hop.

More cynical veteran de Villiers watchers might also detect a conspiracy at work  to prevent the fabulously yet dangerously quotable coach from landing himself in any further strife, by holding a press conference without most of the press. Even de Villiers would struggle to cause a storm in an empty room.

As it was the man himself was self-muzzled, sticking to talking fluently about rugby union of all things.

Not even the knowledge that Saturday’s opponents had just been humbled by Samoa could be turned into bluetouch paper. Instead de Villiers was almost sympathetic, which seemed even crueller.

“It’s always difficult when you come off a great Super rugby (season) like this and your team (Queensland) has won it,” de Villiers said with an avuncular concern.

“We all went through those kind of lows in our lives and it’s a learning curve for all of us. What they took from it will determine how they are going to come into this game. They won’t be undercooked against us. We know that.”

For a moment the vaudeville Villiers popped out when asked about Quade Cooper  “very unpredictable and very hard to plan against.” What are your plans against him? “It’s so hard you can’t plan,” he deadpanned.

But then it was back to the serious stuff  talk of keeping possession, nurturing the ball and playing the game as it unfolds on its merits.

And with that coach and captain were off, driving out of the stadium just moments after the press conference was due to begin.

Set your alarm, Robbie Deans. You’ve been warned.

Daily Telegraph