Robert Kitson talks to coach Jake White who says he has no time for the hard but unfair tactics of previous South Africa incarnations
To see a confident Springbok squad arrive here yesterday was to wonder if the past two years had been some kind of sick joke.
Even by the standards of the controversial American TV show Extreme Makeover - which transforms people so completely that even their families fail to recognise them - South African rugby has undergone a comprehensive revamp and their impressive new coach Jake White is briskly engineering a truly remarkable sporting fairy tale.
That, at least, will be the triumphant cry back home if White's new-model Springbok army become the first touring side since the famous 1984 Wallabies to achieve a grand slam on the once-mandatory trek around Britain and Ireland.
No South African team have managed the feat since Avril Malan's side in 1960-61 yet, in the black-suited White, they seem to have uncovered an alchemist with the sure touch of a latter-day Midas.
This time last year, lest we forget, the rugby world was still reeling from revelations about the Springboks' infamous pre-World Cup stay at Kamp Staaldraad - Camp Barbed Wire - where, among other humiliations, players were forced naked into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls underwater in the name of team-building.
The previous autumn saw the shameful physical excesses of Twickenham when South Africa were walloped 53-3 by England. Since the 40-year-old White took over from Rudi Straeuli in February, however, it is as if Springbok rugby has re-emerged from the dark ages. Already the Tri-Nations title is tucked away and the juiciest European scalps are suddenly on the menu.
In many ways, the spur was that notorious Twickenham encounter, when Jannes Labuschagne was sent off and Corne Krige ran amok. Back in South Africa, watching on TV with the national junior side, was a horrified White, a former schoolteacher from Johannesburg who had guided South Africa to the Under-21 World Cup title earlier in 2002.
"I've got to say it wasn't something you want young players to aspire to," he conceded yesterday, still wincing at the memory. "I can give you my word it will never happen again. Teams that I coach understand there is a huge amount of history and tradition that goes with representing South Africa. The type of rugby I want us to play also means we haven't got time for any off-the-ball stuff."
He also recognised that the Springboks simply required more thoughtful direction. Pausing only to install John Smit as captain and hand-pick a group of players he knew well from junior days - Straeuli chose 70 players in 18 months - he set out to provide structure and order.
"We were under the illusion that crying tears before the national anthem gave us the right to win Test matches. Every nation plays with passion and after 20 minutes there has to be something else.
"That's why, as a team, we looked so frustrated, because we weren't sure what the next step was."
For the ninth Springbok coach in 12 years, however, some things never change. Predictably there was an outcry in some quarters when White named 11 black players in his 33-man squad for this tour, the highest ever ratio. He still cannot understand why.
"I just can't believe people see the negatives. If you look at all the sides I've selected from junior teams upwards, I've no problem about including players of colour."
His entire squad, in short, are in this together, from veteran prop Os du Randt to wing Jonghikaya Nokwe, who is on his first trip outside South Africa. "You don't necessarily have to agree with everything the guy does next to you, but you have to respect the fact he has his beliefs as well. You're talking about a hugely diverse group. If you don't have mutual respect you're not going to go anywhere.
"When I got the job everyone in rugby knew Springbok rugby was at an all-time low. Maybe that's why the players have worked so hard and become such a great team, because they've realised they don't want to go down that road again."
His captain Smit speaks of "mutual trust" and of White, a former hooker who never played representative rugby, giving his players "a voice of their own" and "the tools to be able to fight a war".
The coach himself is even more bullish. "If South Africa were to win the World Cup in 2007 and again in 2011 it wouldn't be a blip. It's not like we're a small minnow country . . . there's no reason we can't become the strongest nation in world rugby." Victory over Wales on Saturday would be a start.
