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19/10/2007 23:15
Johannesburg - The Springboks have a secret weapon to use against England.
Several of South Africa's victorious 1995 Rugby World Cup champions, as well as their team manager, Morne du Plessis, have arrived in Paris to share their winning recipe with the current Boks.
The 1995 Bok captain, Francois Pienaar and his teammates Joel Stransky, Balie Swart, Kobus Wiese and Chris Rossouw will all be in the Stade de France to support the Boks.
Pienaar said: "I've thrown my speech to the Boks in the bin three times. I don't know what to say to them.
"England have nothing to lose. No-one thought that they would get this far. I'm very nervous, but I hope the Boks are also nervous. You need that before such a big match."
Pienaar says he thinks the Boks can win, but sounded a warning: "I'm concerned about our scrums, because England scrum well. Luckily we have Percy (Montgomery) and our front row players are excellent."
Referring to prop Os du Randt, also one of his 1995 teammates, Pienaar said: "I was very proud of his performance against the Pumas last week. He is still a fantastic player."
Impossible to compare his team to the 1995 side
A Reuters report from Paris quotes Bok captain John Smit
described the handing over of the team's jerseys by 1995 captain Francois Pienaar as "a pretty special event".
Smit said: "This was a little more special than others and pretty personal so it's probably not for me to talk about here, but yeah, it was pretty good."
Smit said it was impossible to compare his team to the 1995
side because of their unique achievement, but hoped his squad
would write their own piece of history.
"There's a whole bunch of cliches that I could throw out, such as 'there's no such thing as best' and all that nonsense, but the fact of the matter is that the 1995 paved the way.
"There'll always be the first chapter of World Cup rugby in South Africa, which will be 1995, and tomorrow (Saturday) night will be a chance for us to try and create chapter two."
Buyers started bidding immediately
Meanwhile Alet van Zyl reports from Johannesburg that with tickets for the RWC final as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth, available tickets are being sold at almost ridiculous prices on the internet.
A South African living in London, Llewelynn Greeff, advertised two tickets on Facebook at about R14 000 each.
He said potential buyers started bidding virtually immediately and a few hours later he had been offered even more than that.
Greeff's tickets originally cost about R5 000 and were bought at the start of the RWC.
Tickets on eBay and Bid or Buy varied from R5 000 to R21 000.
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