Humble pie for press

DURBAN - The Springboks have gone from rugby zeros to heroes in the space of 80 minutes, according to the South African sporting press.

The Sunday newspapers here put down the poison pens of criticism and praised the massive improvement from their team in downing Australia 26-22 at Cape Town in the Tri-Nations opener yesterday.

"That's more like it" and "Springbok pride shining again" were among the headlines of English-speaking papers while some of the Afrikaner reports appeared even more sensational.

"Testosterone beat tactics," the Sunday Times national newspaper said of the side's performance.

"The performance will have done much to restore faith in the team but little to discard the Boks' reputation as the schizophrenics of world rugby.

"Yesterday's indomitable performance wasn't even on the radar screen.

"It defied logic and common sense. But boy was it good!"

The Sunday Tribune was grateful the Springboks showed more than the one-dimensional play that had marred their narrow wins over Scotland and Argentina.

"They didn't owe everything to the metronome boot of first five-eighth Louis Koen, combining expansive running with down and dirty work."

- NZPA