The man who gave the Boks hell...
A former police taskforce commander, known as "007" to the players, has emerged as the man who put the Boks through hell before the World Cup at Kamp Staaldraad (Camp Steel Wire).
This was the name given to the team's controversial Bushveld endurance camp.
Adriaan Heijns, a former second-in-command of the police taskforce, ran the gruelling camp in a remote area of Thabazimbi in Limpopo Province.
He accompanied the team to the World Cup as "assistant logistics manager".
At Kamp Staaldraad, the players were subjected to SAS-type training, consisting of sleep deprivation and survival methods aimed at honing mental toughness.
The camp cost R200 000, according to a source at South Africa Rugby. This was on top of the usual retainer paid to Heijns's company.
According to reports about the camp, the players were ordered to crawl across the veld at night, made to swim naked in icy water and paired off for boxing matches.
Each was dropped off alone in the veld, given a chicken, an egg and a match, and told to fend for themselves.
The players were allowed little sleep or food in three days. The chicken and egg were not for eating, although they had to cook both.
"The payment certainly wasn't for the catering," said an South Africa Rugby source.
Springbok captain Corné Krige said the camp had brought the team together. Returning from the World Cup this week, he said: "It was like the army. You don't necessarily like it, but realise afterwards that it was good for you."
Asked about the training methods at the camp, Heijns said he was not prepared to discuss them. He referred inquiries to the Springbok management.
The team manager - Gideon Sam - said it was a management's prerogative to prepare its players in any way it saw fit.
"It was not a soft exercise. It was very tough," said Sam. "In the absence of army discipline, this helped build character."
He denied claims that players had been forced at gunpoint to stick to some of the exercises.
Sam said he, coach Rudolf Straeuli and team doctor Uli Schmidt had overseen the exercises and "had even joined in the swim".
The swimming exercises took place in a dam at the camp.
Sam said the camp had helped the team pull together and the management wanted to recommend it to provincial rugby teams - and even to school sides.
"I would have had no hesitation in taking my first team there if I had still been a headmaster," said Sam.
Heijns confirmed his role as taskmaster of the camp.
He is the director of a company, Pro-Tect International, which specialises in security for VIPs.
The company was hired in 2002 as a security consultant by South Africa Rugby after an incident in a nightclub involving former Bok captain Bobby Skinstad.
His company was also consulted on the question of stadium security after fan Piet van Zyl's pitch invasion to attack referee Dave McHugh during the Test match against the All Blacks in 2002 in Durban.
The deputy managing director of South Africa Rugby - Songezo Nayo - said Heijns and two other men had been assigned to protect the Boks after the Skinstad incident.
The three men had accompanied the Springboks to the World Cup this year and Heijns had travelled as "deputy logistics manager".
Nayo said this had not been as a cover for Heijns, but to enable the top bodyguard to get official accreditation to the World Cup.
Heijns wore official team kit at the tournament.
Heijns was a career police officer before resigning to form his own company.
He was considered one of the leading officers of the taskforce, which was the South African police equivalent of the legendary Swat teams of American police services.
He has developed a close friendship with Straeuli and is believed to have become the Springbok coach's confidante and personal minder.
Heijns is also a boxing instructor and often helped out in Springbok gym sessions.
The Bushveld camp was not part of the Springboks' training schedules which were set up by the Sports Science Institute at Newlands.
According to the manager of the institute's high-performance centre, Justin Durandt, the contract with the Springbok team was completed in July.
The centre also managed the rehabilitation of 15 injured players.
"We were not with the Springboks on the last phase of the World Cup preparations," said Durandt this week.