Emergency meeting to discuss Bok 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 deputy MD Songezo Nay today 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.

One picture showed a Springbok jumping from a helicopter into the lake.

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.

Balfour said he had requested Nkanunu to consider extending the terms of reference of the King inquiry into alleged racism in South African rugby, to include an investigation into “Kamp Staaldraad”.

“While I accept and encourage the need for team building there is no place for militaristic and dehumanising practices in our sport,” said Balfour.

Nkanunu also called his chiefs together for a meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation and has asked for the coach to be available.

Pictures and video of the Springboks’ naked ordeal have been shown on national television, causing public anger on the issue and Nkanunu said he would never have allowed the camp to happen had he known about it.

“I find the concept of ’Kamp Staaldraad’ inhuman and reprehensible. I would have prohibited it immediately, had it been submitted to me for approval,” he told the Beeld newspaper.

The Boks failed to make the World Cup semi-finals for the first time after they were beaten 29-9 by the All Blacks.

Springbok Corne Krige revealed that the squad was pondering its legal options.

“We are getting legal advice but it doesn’t mean that we will take legal steps. We want to keep our options open,” Krige told the Afrikaans daily Beeld.