Springbok captain John Smit said on Friday that the Boks were "angry" and feared for the nature of rugby union after the banning of Bakkies Botha for two weeks after the lock was cited and found guilty of charging into a ruck and injuring Adam Jones.
Speaking a day before the third and final Test against the British and Irish Lions at Ellis Park, Smit said Botha had received backing from the Lions camp, as well as players from around the country.
He has also received some indirect support from the International Rugby Board's Paddy O'Brien, who told the Guardian newspaper that the law of which Botha was found guilty, not being bound to a player while entering a ruck, was still on the books "although everybody has been ignoring it for five years".
When asked about the Botha clean-out of Adam Jones, O'Brien admitted: "Um, we're going to have to revisit this one."
Smit said he hoped the ban Botha received and which was upheld on appeal by the Springboks, was because the commissioner was acting on Botha's reputation as a hard man rather than any sort of official directive to stop the cleaning out of rucks.
"We are deeply saddened and angry with what happened to Bakkies," said Smit.
"We have to pray and hope that it was victimisation of Bakkies and not a sign of the way things are going. If it is going to be ruled like that always during matches, it will mean the game is being ruined.
"I have to believe he is being victimised, because we can take 20 or 3O clips out of every game and ban every one who cleans out a ruck or tackle ball.
"Hopefully it's not because Bakkies is too strong for this game. I sincerely hope not. The great thing about rugby union is that you get to run into each other at a million miles an hour, tackle each other a million miles an hour, stitch yourself up and have a beer afterwards.
"We've had support from the Lions management who believe that it wasn't a citing, also from players from around South Africa. A ruling like that on Bakkies who came from behind the gate, with arms bound, and made a tackle, was not right.
"It was unfortunate that Jones was injured and that may be why he was banned rather than the actual tackle. (Lions hooker) Matthew Rees did the same thing to Bakkies straight afterwards. Bakkies cleaned Jones and Rees cleaned Bakkies. We had no problem with that. It's part of the game."
Smit admitted that the physicality and intensity of the two Tests against the Lions had meant that winning the series was that bit more special.
The match at Loftus Versfeld last Saturday, won by a final minute penalty taken by Morne Steyn, was an epic game, overshadowed only by the controversy over the Schalk Burger incident, where he was yellow carded and then banned for making contact with the "eye area" of Luke Fitzgerald. Much has been made of "handshake-gate" and Peter de Villiers's claim that Lions coach Ian McGeechan did not shake his hand and congratulate him on the win. The Lions have claimed differently, but Smit said he hoped it would all be put behind them at the post-match function scheduled for after the game.
"We don't care about handshakes. I don't think you need credit from other sides, but I think we'll have a beer and things will sort themselves out," said Smit.
"It was always going to be so that emotions would run high. It's been a phenomenal series, with two great matches. We had what we thought was an unassailable lead in the first Test, and the Lions came back. We came back in the second Test and won with a last-minute kick. Paul (O'Connell, the Lions captain) can sit here and feel aggrieved that it hasn't gone his way because it could have. They had an opportunity to win both tests, and I think that's why the emotions are running high."
Should the Boks win and complete a 3-0 whitewash, then it will be the first time a South African team has managed that feat over a Lions squad. That is as much motivation as any.