Racism in South Africa: Black winger Chester Williams, whose exploits in South Africa's 1995 rugby World Cup triumph became the symbol of what was meant to be the new face of the country, revealed yesterday it was all a lie.

Williams, who coached the South African sevens team at July's Commonwealth Games, said in the Sunday Times that the so-called unity lasted no more than a week after they had surprisingly beaten New Zealand in the final.

"The one-nation factor lasted about a week after the final before South Africa, its society and its rugby lapsed back into racism," he said.

Williams, whose image was used heavily to promote the tournament as an indication that the white-dominated sport was changing its ways, also claims that the worst abuse he ever received came from his excitable wing colleague James Small.

"Small called me a f****** kaffir and shouted 'Why do you want to play our game? You know you can't play it."

Williams, though, said that sort of abuse from Small didn't deter him from carrying on. "I had been called the k-word many times in my rugby life.

"If I was going to let racial abuse get to me, then I was never going to succeed as a black rugby player in South Africa.

"If anything upset me then it was the ignorant and arrogant belief that the game belonged to whites and that the black community had no right to show an interest in the game let alone play it."

The 1995 captain Francois Pienaar also gets short shrift. "He (Pienaar) was not the best flanker in the country and he was not the kind of captain I took to. I had always thought he was too much flash and too little substance," added Williams.

YOUTH INTERPROVINCIAL: Ulster had their second successive win of this season's Youth Interprovincial campaign when they overcame Connacht 18-15 at Heffernan Park, Ballina on Saturday.

The victors were 7-5 ahead at the interval after a try by Dale Black which was converted by Mark Bamford. Connacht had a try through Richard Lally. Ulster added 11 points after the interval from a Stephen Ferris try and two penalties from replacement Neville Farr, Connacht had a try from replacement Barry Lee and a penalty and conversion by Barry O'Sullivan.

Munster took the honours in the other game at Musgrave Park, beating Leinster 15-10.

LEICESTER: Leicester director of rugby Dean Richards insists his players will not be resting on their laurels following their 63-0 European Cup demolition of Calvisano on Saturday. Leicester crossed for 10 tries, six of them coming in the second half, as they ruthlessly put the hapless Italians to the sword to clinch their first victory of the new cup campaign.

"Even though we played reasonably well in patches, the players will look at their performances very critically - that's the way they are," he said.

"They realise there's still a lot of work to be done - there won't be any rest. They'll look at the negatives and address them.

"But we won comfortably, and although we weren't always on top there were some outstanding tries out there."