Montgomery In Springbok Squad.

South African rugby boss Brian van Rooyen announced the first national squad under coach Jake White, including six black players, to play Ireland and Wales in tests next month.

“I’m very satisfied with the team that has been selected and
that they were
selected on the basis of their ability to play for the Springbok
team,” Van
Rooyen told reporters at a press conference.

“We have seen a lot of players of colour that have played
excellent rugby
this year,” Van Rooyen said, adding that the first outcome of
the selection
set in place “served the best interests of rugby in South
Africa”.

Van Rooyen announced major changes to the game – seen as a mainly
white
sport – in February, including the grooming of black coaches and
setting
targets to get more black players into the team.

“There is this notion that if a team is selected, people will
say very
quickly ‘yes we have to transform the game, but we also have to
win’,” Van
Rooyen said at the time.

White said he wanted to send a message that it was not easy to
become a
Springbok player.
“It is important that the message goes out that we don’t want
to dish out
Springbok colours. We want to make it difficult for a boy to become a
Springbok,” he said.

White took over as national coach after Rudolf Straeuli resigned
in
December, dogged by a dismal World Cup performance in Australia, a
military-style boot camp to train the Springboks before the event and
allegations of racism within the national ranks.

Straeuli came under fire for choosing only one non-white player,
winger
Ashwin Willemse, for South Africa’s World Cup quarter-final 29-9
thrashing by
New Zealand.

Apart from Willemse, the other players of colour in the team were
Eddie
Andrews, Bolla Conradie, Quinton Davids, Wayne Julies and Hanyani
Shimange.

Another surprise was the inclusion of mercurial fullback Percy
Montgomery,
who has broken his hand in a club game for Welsh outfit Newport Gwent
Dragons
on Friday night.
“He (Montgomery) has fractured a small bone in his hand —
that sort of
injury can heal within two weeks. This means that he should be
available but
we have done a contingency plan with (Stormers flyhalf) Gaffie du
Toit,” White
said.

He added that no positions have been fixed yet for the 22-member
squad to
play Ireland in Bloemfontein on June 12.

Eddie Andrews (Western Province); De Wet Barry (Western Province);
Bakkies
Botha (Blue Bulls); Schalk Burger (Western Province); Bolla Conradie
(Western
Province); Quinton Davids (Western Province); Fourie du Preez (Blue
Bulls); Os
du Randt (Free State); Jaque Fourie (Lions), Marius Joubert (Western
Province); Wayne Julies (Free State); Victor Matfield (Blue Bulls);
Percy
Montgomery (Newport); Faan Rautenbach (Lions); Brent Russel (Sharks);
Hanyani
Shimange (Free State); John Smit (Sharks); Juan Smith (Free State);
Jaco van
der Westhuizen (Leicester); Joe van Niekerk (Western Province);
Pedrie
Wannenburg (Blue Bulls); Ashwin Willemse (Lions).

AFP -2004.