Bok to the future

Twenty-four months ago South Africa were the laughing stock of world rugby. Now, they are among the most feared sides on the planet. Andy Colquhoun in Cape Town explains their amazing rebirth.

TWO years ago the Springboks were running around bare-arsed in the African bush pumping up tyres underwater and standing to attention while gun-toting, crazed SAS instructors cracked eggs on their foreheads.

Kamp Staaldraad (Camp Steel Wire) was meant to be a springboard to a successful attack on the 2003 Rugby World Cup but, instead, they got those same arses, now mercifully be-shorted, well and truly kicked by England, and then the All Blacks to be sent back to the laager licking their wounds.