Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen will miss six months of rugby after injuring his right knee again in the team's World Cup semi-final defeat against Australia. The mercurial scrum-half, who underwent surgery yesterday says he played "a game and half" with a torn knee tendon after injuring himself midway through the clash with the Wallabies. "After the Australia game, I was in pain. After New Zealand (the third place play-off), I couldn't walk," a limping Van der Westhuizen said. Van der Westhuizen, South Africa's highest try scorer with 29 Test tries, took over the Springbok captaincy shortly before the World Cup.

He called yesterday for the rules around the controversial tackle ball to be changed, saying it was impractical.

"They must do something around the tackle ball. The tackled player has a second to let go while the tackler has to roll away."

Van der Westhuizen, who only returned to playing rugby in June, said he sympathised with Bobby Skinstad, the talented loose forward who replaced axed skipper Gary Teichmann at number eight and is also nursing a knee injury.

Skinstad was way off the dynamic game-breaker form he showed in last year's Tri-Nations victories, and many thought his inclusion at Teichmann's expense soured the Springboks's chances of retaining the William Webb Ellis trophy.

"He had a serious knee injury. Bobby had to overcome his injury. He might have got back too soon to provincial rugby. It took me four or five months to get back.

"He did what was expected of him. He served me well, he passed well. But just because he didn't play his own game, he wasn't a disappointment," said Van der Westhuizen.

All the world champion Wallabies are contracted and safe from foreign predators and rugby league clubs, Australian Rugby Union (ARU) general manager John O'Neill said yesterday.

O'Neill said the ARU would retain all of their World Cup squad members, with the only exceptions being retiring front rowers Andrew Blades and Phil Kearns.

Another prop, Dan Crowley, is intending to quit international rugby and concentrate on the Super 12 provincial tournament.

Flanker David Wilson said he was looking to play one more season of Test rugby while others, including captain and second rower John Eales and centre Tim Horan, have suggested they may not be around for the Australia's 2003 World Cup defence.

Other veteran members of the squad whose long-term intentions are unclear include prop Richard Harry, hooker Michael Foley and three-quarter Jason Little.

"I think everyone is going to wait to see how they feel after next year," O'Neill said. "Every player is secured at least for one year and mostly for two or three years."

He discarded the threat of cashed-up English clubs raiding the Australian playing ranks. "After the joys of this victory I'm confident we won't be losing anyone."

O'Neill added that national coach Rod Macqueen had already extended his contract to stay in charge of the Wallabies.