Woodward backs side to rise to challenge

CLIVE WOODWARD yesterday admitted England are under enormous pressure to perform at the World Cup but insisted his team would rise to the challenge.

In terms of talent and preparation, the 2003 tournament in Australiarepresents England's best opportunity to lift the Webb Ellis trophy since thecompetition's inception in 1987. The current Six Nations champions have recorded victories over all their main rivals in the past year and travel Down Under at the summit of the Zurich World and International Rugby Board Rankings, although the bookies make New Zealand slight favourites.

"The pressure that is put on England by the media and the public is nothing compared to the pressure the team puts on itself everyone is very focused and no-one wants to let the others down," Woodward said.

"We can cope with the outside pressure. The players have played some massive games over the last year and they've dealt with that very well.

"We're very proud that we're going into the World Cup top of the IRB and Zurich World rankings and one of the tournament favourites. But those elements come from outside the team. We can't control them.

"We're going to Australia to enjoy it we won't hide. It's going to take a good team to beat us if we play as well as we possibly can. We've just got to do ourselves justice on the big stage.

"The recent weather has been fantastic for training, ideal for the World Cup. The biggest thing about playing in those temperatures is the physicalfitness of the players and we've been working hard on that," Woodward added.

Meanwhile, the preparations of Ireland's group rivals Namibia have been described as "chaotic" by their coach, New Zealand-born Dave Waterston.

A member of the Springboks' technical coaching staff when they won the 1995 World Cup, Waterston said: "Our preparation is chaotic, to be blunt. We've got problems. We haven't got money, we had to cancel our original training camp which was going to be in South Africa for six weeks. We have cancelled two training games and in between we have had our problems with our assistant coach who I fired because I questioned his loyalty.

"We have guys injured because they played in their club championships last weekend even though I asked the chief executive that they don't play. My spare fly-half (Morne Schreuder) might be out of the World Cup. These are problems you don't need.

"Their employers won't give the players time off work. We have shocking preparation, on top of it there is no money and on top of that the International Rugby Board (IRB) regards us as a developed nation so they throw money at Zimbabwe and Tunisia but not at us."

Deeper issues lurk, however, with several players believed to be trying to withdraw from the squad to continue earning their living at provincial teams in neighbouring South Africa. Hugo Horn, Johannes Theron and Jane du Toit, who represent Griquas in the Currie Cup, are allegedly on the brink of withdrawing from the World Cup, which starts on October 10.

Waterston is adamant the players will play for their country and said: "We regard Hugo Horn, Johannes Theron and Jane du Toit as Namibian players and if selected for Griquas we will call to have the team's point's deducted from their standings. As far as I'm concerned Horn and Theron are cast in stone and if they play on Saturday I want the points deducted."

Full-back Lean Van Dyk was selected for Western Province for this Saturday's game against the Lions but could be in breach of the regulations.

"The fact that these players have played for Namibia it means that the country has first call on them," South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) rules and regulations manager Christo Ferreira claimed. "If the player refuses to represent Namibia then he cannot play for his province for the period they requested him plus an additional 10 days."

The NRU has also requested that the government step in to pay players' allowances and other expenses after a potential sponsorship deal flopped.

Chairman Dirk Conradie said the Union needs around €150,000 to cover allowances, medical and insurance fees for the team representing the southern African country in the tournament for just the second time.

"We appealed for sponsorship from private companies but with little success. The government is the only hope we have at the moment," Conradie said. Namibia face defending champions and hosts Australia in Pool A along with Argentina, Ireland and Romania.

lGloucester's new signing Duncan McRae signed off his Australian career on a sour note this week.

The NSW Waratahs fly-half was red-carded and banned for a month for reportedly calling a touch judge a "f****ng cheat".

The 28-year-old McRae who infamously punched Ronan O'Gara on the Lions tour two years ago was playing for the Sydney-based Randwick club.

He delivered the outburst to touch judge George Ayoub after a sin-binning for a professional foul, with referee Stuart Dickinson then dishing out a red card to the former Saracens player.