Tri-nations opening match:Springboks coach Jake White has raised the stakes for today's Tri-Nations opening tie with Australia, claiming the winners of the tournament will be entitled to World Cup favouritism.
Thumbing his nose at the All Blacks' all-conquering efforts of the past two seasons, White declared the Tri-Nations a tougher competition to win than the World Cup and said the 2007 victors would arrive in France in September as the team to beat for the William Webb Ellis Trophy.
White did concede that Tri-Nations success didn't guarantee World Cup glory, but left no-one in doubt about the importance he put on Southern Hemisphere supremacy - starting with today's Test in Cape Town.
"I suppose if we win it (the Tri-Nations), I suppose we would be the favourites to win (the World Cup)," White said after naming his best available team to face the Wallabies.
"(But) let's be fair, I think it's much more difficult to win a Tri-Nations tournament. I mean, in a World Cup, just by the nature of the competition, you get a couple of lower tier teams to play against and you can try certain things.
"Whereas in the Tri-Nations, everyone will admit that if you get it wrong against Australia or New Zealand - or conversely those other countries (get it wrong) against South Africa - you could lose.
"So it is a tough competition and we've been lucky enough to win it in 2004. We've got a core group of those players back again this year, so hopefully we can build on that momentum going into a World Cup."
The embattled coach had to deal with allegations of verbally assaulting a journalist at a Johannesburg pub before being ordered by the South African Rugby Union to can planned crisis talks yesterday with the country's president Thabo Mbeki.
But after being cleared of any wrongdoing in Jo'Burg, White declared it business as usual and said plotting the Wallabies' downfall was now his immediate focus.
Wingers JP Pietersen and Ashwin Willemse, hooker and captain John Smit and prop BJ Botha are the only players to retain their places from the side that started in the 35-9 defeat of Samoa last Saturday at Ellis Park.
South Africa v Australia at Newlands, 2.00 ON TV: Sky Sports 3
SOUTH AFRICA:Montgomery; Willemse, Fourie, De Villiers, Pietersen; James, Pienaar; Steenkamp, Smit (capt), BJ Botha, Bakkies Botha, Matfield, Burger, Smith, Spies. Replacements: G Botha, Van der Linde, Muller, Rossouw, Claassens, Olivier, Steyn.
AUSTRALIA:Huxley; Mitchell, Mortlock (capt), Giteau, Tuqiri; Larkham, Gregan; Dunning, Moore, Shepherdson, Sharpe, Vickerman, Elsom, Smith, Palu. Replacements: Freier, Baxter, Chisholm, Hoiles, Waugh, Ashley-Cooper, Gerrard.
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