By PATRICK GOWER
After a battle of attrition on the field, a war of words between the All Blacks and Springboks has begun with Springbok halfback Werner Swanepoel accusing All Black No 8 Ron Cribb of biting.
The Springboks yesterday called for the New Zealand Rugby Union to launch an internal inquiry into the incident.
Coach Nick Mallett spoke to his All Black counterpart Wayne Smith about the incident late last night after Swanepoel alleged that Cribb tried to bite his fingers in the dying stages of the Ellis Park test which the Springboks won 46-40.
"I've discussed the situation with Wayne Smith and from here on in it is an internal matter for New Zealand rugby to deal with," he told the Herald.
Two-try hero Swanepoel needed treatment for the injury after the match and the finger is now bandaged.
Video footage shows Cribb struggling with a Springbok player on the ground, when Swanepoel's hand connects with his mouth. It is difficult to tell whether Cribb bites Swanepoel, or is receiving a "facial" from the Springbok halfback.
Cribb denied the allegation, saying he had been punched in the mouth by Swanepoel, who then turned to the referee and said "ref, he bit me."
Cribb has cuts and bruising to both his upper and lower lips.
"I don't believe it. These guys were doing all sorts of things off the ball. He swung a punch," he said.
"I was getting treated well away from the ball by medical staff and this guy just came from the back and punched me on the back and carried on. I had my bloody hair pulled too."
After the final whistle Cribb, who had been involved in a number of incidents during the match, appeared to snatch his hand away from Springbok second five eighths Robbie Fleck who was offering to shake.
The All Black camp initially denied all knowledge of the biting allegation but later hit back at the Springbok allegations.
Manager Andrew Martin said Mallett's comments were "spurious."
"There will be no inquiry because as far as we are concerned there is no incident to investigate. We have had no approach from the match citing officials."
He would be taking no action until he had seen the video footage.
There has been no action from the South African independent citing commissioner, who could not be contacted last night.
"It would be interesting to work out how Werner Swanepoel's hand ended up on Ron Cribb's mouth," Martin said. "If I was compelled to look at the video that's what I would be looking for."
The biting allegations cast a pall over a match which had the South African press in raptures.
Writing in the Cape Argus, Gavin Rich, said it was even better than the first Bledisloe Cup test this year which had been hailed as the greatest rugby test of all time.
"Australia may be world champions but the one thing that South Africans can claim back from them today is participation in the greatest game ever."
However, South African fans had so little faith in their own team that they stayed away in droves. Normally tickets to an All Black test at Ellis Park are all but impossible to find, but there were 5000 empty seats in the 62,000 seat stadium for the Springboks' finest hour.
Despite the Springbok heroics, the All Blacks can still retain the Tri-Nations title if the Wallabies stumble badly this weekend.
The Wallabies can take the crown for the first time if they beat the Boks in Durban and could still claim the title ahead of the All Blacks if they scored just two bonus points and maintained a better points differential.
But if the Wallabies lose in a low scoring game the Tri-Nations title will stay in New Zealand.
The Springboks cannot win the series but they gained the respect of their fans again yesterday when they outlasted the All Blacks.
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