Springboks camp: Naked players put under pressure

Never mind practising lineouts and scrums - this is how to toughen a rugby team. SCOTT MacLEOD looks at the Springboks' secret camp.

The rugby world has been stunned by a set of pictures of the Springboks taken at a World Cup training camp in September.

Six days after revelations of SAS-style punishment inflicted on the Boks at Kamp Staaldraad (Camp Steelwire), the pictures show exhausted and humiliated players huddled together naked in a pit.

Rumours about the camp, situated about two hours from Pretoria, were confirmed this week when the Cape Argus newspaper obtained photographs.

The camp trainers, led by former police taskforce commander Adriaan Heijns, seemed to have an obsession with nakedness.

But the Boks did not mind. "Yes, we were all naked, but so what?" one unnamed player told the Argus. "The only chaps who were shy were those with small willies."

Bok wing Ashwin Willemse told SA Sports Illustrated that the camp bonded the team and made the players accept one another as human beings - regardless of race.

The idea was apparently to build team unity and toughen some of the weaker players. One said team managers also wanted to see who would crack under pressure.

The punishment included the players being forced to sit in a pit as a stream of icy water splashed over their naked bodies.

For five hours, a loudspeaker blared out the All Black haka and the English national anthem as the players squatted in darkness.

The tarpaulin roof was peeled back only when it was time for another dousing.

Some who tried to flee were reportedly herded back at gunpoint. This has, however, been denied by coach Rudolf Straeuli.

The Johannesburg Sunday Times said the players started day one by crawling naked across gravel.

They spent the next seven hours in the bush, lifting tyres, poles and bags bearing the England and New Zealand flags.

In the evening, they stood naked in a near-freezing lake, pumping up rugby balls underwater.

For day two, the players were each given a chicken, an egg and a match, dropped individually in the bush, and told they were spending the night there.

They were allowed to cook, but not to eat.

On the rare occasions the players were allowed to sleep, they were woken by gunfire every 15 minutes, the Sunday Times said.

Most of the players thought the camp was beneficial, but skipper Corne Krige said there were some aspects he would not like to see repeated.

It certainly didn't achieve its aim of snaring the World Cup - the Boks were crushed by the All Blacks 29-9 in the quarterfinals.

In the above photo, from left (back) Hendro Scholtz, Lawrence Sephaka, Danie Rossouw, Ricardo Loubscher, Breyton Paulse and Jaque Fourie; front left, Dale Santon; front right, Bakkies Botha.

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