SA president demands probe into boot camp

SOUTH AFRICA Rugby president Silas Nkanunu has ordered an urgent meeting of the board of directors, at which Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli’s future will come under renewed scrutiny.

On a day when the national sports minister Ngconde Balfour likened the Boks’ pre-World Cup training boot camp to an “apartheid camp”, Nkanunu convened a board meeting amid the public outrage that has followed TV broadcasts of what went on at the Springboks’ pre-World Cup “Kamp Staaldraad” (Camp Steelwire).

Balfour met with Nkanunu and SA Rugby (SARFU) deputy MD Songezo Nay yesterday for four hours and demanded an inquiry into the situation.

“This was apartheid-style military training and was dehumanising for the players,” Balfour told reporters after the meeting.

“In my discussions with the SARFU president, I expressed my total condemnation and disgust at elements of the camp,” he said.

At the three-day “boot-camp” ahead of the Rugby World Cup in Australia, players were forced naked into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls.

The players had the additional embarrassment of being filmed naked by the crew covering the camp.

There were also pictures of a naked Springbok side sitting cowering in a pit, and it was revealed they were doused with cold water and forced to sit and listen to the New Zealand haka and British national anthem during their ordeal. Players were forced at gunpoint back into the water if they tried to get out.

The Boks were also left overnight with a match, a chicken and an egg in the bush.

They had to cook the egg and chicken, but not eat them, and instructors broke the eggs on their head to see if they were cooked.

The pay channel MNet broadcast footage of the camp on Sunday, infuriating rugby administrators and fans alike, while players have already taken legal advice over the matter.