White turns over possession

As the final remains of the snow that fell on Johannesburg thawed away yesterday afternoon, Jake White turned up the heat on the Australians, claiming the fuss they had made over so-called B Bok team had only put more pressure on the Wallabies and was nothing short of hypocritical.

White believed that the squad he had assembled for the away leg of the Vodacom Tri-Nations had had their hunger sharpened by being all but written off by the Australian Rugby Union and media. An Australian newspaper report quoted a former Wallaby as saying the Springboks were "cream puffs" for resting players as it was a "cowardly" option.

"I have no doubt that the pressure is now all on Australia," said White shortly before the Springboks flew off to Sydney last night. "They are saying that they are going to run all over us, well, good luck to them. We're going to give as good as we get. It seems as though the most important person for the Wallabies is the bus driver who will take them to the stadium. All they have to do, it seems, is turn up."

White said he was only doing the same as the Wallabies and the All Blacks in resting important players ahead of the World Cup. Graham Henry withdrew 22 All Blacks from the Vodacom Super 14 in spite of threats of action by a television station this year and last year was candid in admitting that he was playing a B team against the Springboks when they played in their final matches of the Tri-Nations in South Africa.

"I find it odd that people say we can't take a certain team," said White. "The best players in the 1999 World Cup were John Eales and Tim Horan, and they never played any Super 12 rugby that year. Australia realised that they were very important to them in that tournament and looked after them.

"We only have three new players in the team for this tour. People who are now making out that we have a young, inexperienced squad never said anything four years ago when I picked a young, inexperienced squad against Ireland, a squad that only had 175 caps. I think it's exciting. There are 10 places left in the World Cup squad and there is a huge opportunity for those players to get on the plane to France."

Did White think there was space for both the Tri-Nations and the World Cup in one year.

"This time last week I would have said yes," joked White, "but when you lose your home game it doesn't bode well (for the rest of the tournament). I didn't change the team on Saturday evening. That was done on Wednesday. If we had won the game in Durban it wouldn't have made a difference. We have a leading sports scientist in Prof Tim Noakes, and one has to value what he has to offer.

"He has told us that if we keep playing players non-stop then you risk them getting injured. John (Smit) is injured, Gurthro (Steenkamp) is injured, Juan (Smith), Pierre (Spies), Fourie (du Preez), Butch (James), Ricky (Januarie), Bryan (Habana) are all injured. We aren't resting everyone. We need to make some big calls. Victor (Matfield) played every game for the Bulls, as did Danie (Rossouw), while BJ (Botha) played every game for the Sharks. They need the time off ahead of the World Cup."

Smit's decision to leave South Africa to play in France for Cleremont-Ferrand for the next two seasons was a loss to South African rugby. White said that he felt South African rugby could not afford to lose players of the quality and experience of Smit and Matfield with a British Lions tour just two years away and a new group of youngsters coming through. Smit said on Thursday that he had not retired from international rugby and would be available if called up.

Springbok team (probable): 15-Bevin Fortuin (1 Test cap) 14-Breyton Paulse (62) 13-Waylon Murray (1)-12 Wynand Olivier (15) 11-JP Pietersen (4) 10-Derick Hougaard (6) 9-Ruan Pienaar (10) 8-Bob Skinstad (captain, 37) 7-Pedrie Wannenburg (18) 6-Wikus van Heerden (5) 5-Johann Muller (14) 4-Johan Ackermann (12) 3-Cobus Visagie (29) 2-Gary Botha (7) 1-Deon Carstens (7) Replacements: Bismarck du Plessis (0), Jannie du Plessis (0), Albert van den Berg (44), Jacques Cronje (29), Bolla Conradie (15), Peter Grant (3), Jaco Pretorius (1)