Rugby Boot Camp

The Mail and Guardian reports on an urgent meeting involving top national rugby bosses and Minister of Sport and Recreation in South Africa Ngconde Balfour will most likely take place on Wednesday, the sports ministry said on Monday. Balfour called for an urgent meeting with the rugby bosses on Sunday after extraordinary details of a training camp the Springboks had been subjected to before the World Cup became public. Newspapers have been reporting since last week that the players attended a training camp where they were stripped naked and deprived of sleep and food. The team was further ordered into a lake to pump up rugby balls underwater while guns were pointed at them. The ignominy was compounded on Monday with newspapers running a picture of the Boks, with exposed backsides, crawling through the veld. The camp took place as part of the preparations of the Springboks for the tournament, which they crashed out of in Australia.