Smith injury forces late Boks change

Just hours after he announced one change to the Springboks, coach Jake White was forced to make another when loose forward Juan Smith failed a fitness test.

It was a blow to the Boks who felt their injury woes had finally stalled after they had lost regular forwards Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger and Guthro Steenkaamp for the Tri-Nations series.

"He has been one of the stars of the season. In the Super 14 at the beginning of the year he was one of the form players." said White.

"If you look now all of a sudden he is creeping up to 30 test caps. As a youngster he played under-21 rugby three years ago and he is definitely one of the players who is well needed in our team."

White tried to then suggest it was looking like a B forward pack for the Boks, a tongue in cheek snipe at a local newspaper which headlined a story about the Boks playing New Zealand B this weekend.

Smith tweaked his right hamstring early in the week and then damaged his left thigh muscle several days later with the medics eventually ruling him out of Sunday's test against the All Blacks.

His exit left White with choices about the final balance of his loose trio, options he wanted time to dwell on as he weighed up the merits of Joe van Niekerk, A.J. Venter, Pierre Spies and Pedrie Wannenburg.

White was not surprised at the 11 changes in the All Blacks. They had kept the spine of the side with Daniel Carter and Richie McCaw but added fresh players from their large, versatile squad.

He was jealous of the player riches available to Graham Henry when he could name alternate players like Reuben Thorne and Anton Oliver who were former All Black captains.

The Springbok coach was not so gracious though when questioned about Henry's complaint that his side had been disadvantaged by the Tri-Nations itinerary.

Nor was he buying into Henry's beef that referee Alan Lewis needed to be extra-vigilant that the Springboks did not feign injuries to slow down games.

"Considering he is playing at altitude, I'm sure he would like to play as slowly as he can and that just might shoot him in the foot you know," added White.

The rough deal about the schedule also took a hit.

"It was very rough. They played in Auckland and then they could get straight to Sydney because the game was not in Dunedin.

"If he thinks that's rough he should spend five weeks away on tour with the players and you have weekends off in another country and all that sort of thing," White said.

The All Blacks would be fatigued after the lengthy trip from New Zealand but they had won the competition and could blood the next batch of players who came early and had not played for a while.

McCaw's repeat selection showed how critical his leadership and play was for the All Blacks.