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JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's World Cup winning hero Percy Montgomery said that his future hinged on whether rugby bosses manage to keep hold of unsettled Springbok coach Jake White.
The blonde fullback, who kicked 12 of the points in South Africa's 15-6 victory over England in the cup final on Sunday, said White was the key to the success in France and he must not slip through the Springboks' hands.
"Give it a week and we will maybe start to assess the future. It depends what Jake decides to do - he is the main reason why we won the World Cup," Montgomery said after arriving back in South Africa.
"You can't just throw someone away like that," he added.
The 33-year-old Montgomery, who is South Africa's most-capped player and their record points scorer, enjoyed an outstanding tournament in the autumn of a career that was dramatically revived when he was recalled by White from the relative obscurity of south Wales where he was playing for the Newport Dragons.
But, given his age, he is one of a number of players who are considering the opportunity of bowing out at the top at a time when political pressure for more black players to be selected is growing.
White has said the prospect of the break-up of the team was one of the prime motivating factors in their progress in the tournament and expects the political pressure for racial transformation to increase after the tournament.
At a press conference on Tuesday, White said he would only make a decision on his future after taking time to talk to players and his employers.
The coach has also previously said any decision on whether to stay after his contract expires in December will partly depend on whether he can pick overseas players such as captain John Smit who is to join the French club Clermont.
Smit said there was "very little we can do about decisions taken outside of rugby" when asked about the political debate about the racial mix of the team which featured only two coloured players on Sunday.
"It would be a happy day when questions like this didn't have to be asked regarding politics, when we could celebrate anything just as South Africans," he said.
"I am South African, my wife is South African, my daughter is South African - it has nothing to do with colour and race, but morals ... it's how South Africans should hold themselves up."
Smit said South Africa had good ambassadors on the rugby field, and it should not matter whether they are coloured or white.
He hopes that going forward "we can celebrate things in the future by just saying we are South African."
Winger Bryan Habana, the tournament's top try scorer who is one of the Boks' only two coloured players, said he and the squad and its back-up team "just want to represent the nation."
"We as a team are 47 proud South Africans that came home today," he said, adding that the World Cup win had "made it all worthwhile. Sport is the one equaliser we all have," he said.
- AFP
