Boks dismayed by Burger verdict

Springboks coach Jake White believes his squad can put the Schalk Burger saga to one side and maintain their concentration for Friday night’s crucial clash against England.

The Springboks are set to appeal flanker Burger’s four-match ban tomorrow morning.

He was suspended after being cited for a dangerous tackle on Samoa scrum-half Junior Polu during last Sunday’s Pool A encounter in Paris.

As things stand, Burger will miss remaining pool appointments with England, Tonga and the United States, plus a potential quarter-final against Wales or Australia in Marseille.

White said: “We are not happy about the decision, we will appeal it.

“Of course I was shocked. You lose a player like Schalk Burger, you get told at one o’clock in the morning after the hearing, and it is not something that you take without being shocked about it.”

Regarding the appeal, White added: “We will concentrate on the rugby aspects, and the legal team will concentrate on the legal aspects.

“Hopefully, we can get some more clarity before the kick-off on Friday.

“To be fair, I don’t think they can (get an appeal result) before Friday. That would be a real blessing, but it is in their hands.

“Schalk is not happy, I mean the guy is still relatively young, and he wants to play as much as he can.

“I want to make it quite clear though, that we are a squad of 30 players.

“The one thing I am totally confident of is that this group of players have been through enough adversity within the last four years to be able to rise to another challenge.”

South Africa have also lost centre Jean de Villiers from their plans after he suffered a tournament-ending bicep injury during the Samoa encounter.

But England are in even more disarray, with captain Phil Vickery banned, while both goalkicking fly-halves Olly Barkley and Jonny Wilkinson are sidelined through injury.

Springboks prop Os du Randt said: “We have always said this is the one game that we need to win to put us on the right track.

“It is a very important match, so we just have to go out there and play the best we can.

“It is always bad to lose Schalk, but we played without him last year. We have a guy like Wickus (van Heerden) coming into his place that will do really well.

“I don’t think you will ever substitute Schalk, but we will just have to cope with that and do the best we can.”

Centre Wynand Olivier added: “Obviously it was a big shock for us. We didn’t think Schalk was going to get four weeks, especially after Jean de Villiers got injured as well, so it was a big blow.

“We are a good squad of 30 guys, and we have been training together for the last two or three years, and I think someone can slot in Schalk’s place and maybe do the same job.

“But we are definitely going to miss Schalk because he is a world-class player.”