South Africa start World Cup campaign

South Africa began their World Cup campaign against Uruguay at Subiaco Oval today without controversial skipper Corne Krige.

Krige, who earlier this week described England’s Martin Johnson as the dirtiest captain in international rugby, sat out the Pool C opener against Uruguay because of hamstring cramps.

Scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen, playing in his 86th Test, took over leadership duties, while the Springboks fielded two debutants – centre Jaque Fourie and flanker Danie Rossouw.

South Africa beat Uruguay 39-3 in the 1999 World Cup, and were confidently expected to better that scoreline this time around as they prepared for next Saturday’s pivotal group game against England.

Uruguay included several survivors from that game four years ago, including the entire front-row of Rodrigo Sanchez, Diego Lamelas and Pablo Lemoine.

They were captained by centre Diego Aguirre, while his younger brother Sebastian wore the number 10 jersey.

’Los Teros’ went into the game, realistically facing a damage limitation exercise, yet neutral support was on their side among a sparsely-populated stadium some 30 minutes before kick-off.