Ken Borland

Australia utility back Adam Ashley-Cooper said on Monday that injured flyhalf Quade Cooper’s comments on the squad, in which he roasted the camp for having a “toxic environment”, would not be a distraction as the Wallabies prepare for their Rugby Championship Test against South Africa in Pretoria on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of people who are afraid to say what they feel so they just go along with it and nothing is going to change,” Cooper told Australian Associated Press at the weekend. “That’s why I feel so strongly as a player. I don’t want to be involved in the toxic environment, and that’s how it is at the moment.”

Cooper has also tweeted his displeasure at Wallabies coach Robbie Deans’ game plan, saying he was only allowed to play the attacking brand of rugby he favours from “February to May” at the Queensland Reds in SuperRugby.

But Ashley-Cooper said there was a very convivial mood in the Wallabies camp.

“I’m not aware of what the tweets are saying, but you can’t ignore social media, it’s a big part of the game. But it won’t be a distraction for us.

“There’s a great buzz in the squad and we’re excited to be here. We’ve had two good wins and we feel that we’re building as a group,” Ashley-Cooper told a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday.

While Australia have come from behind to win their last two Tests, against South Africa and Argentina, Deans is still under enormous pressure at home, mainly due to his record of just two wins in his last 16 matches against the All Blacks for the Bledisloe Cup.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is also feeling the heat with his team managing just a win and a draw against Argentina thus far in the Rugby Championship.

“I think the Springboks are facing similar challenges to us with a lot of injuries and having to give opportunities to younger blokes. But those youngsters bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy which the older guys can feed off.

“The Springboks are coming off two disappointing losses so they’ll be pretty motivated and we expect it to be really tough to win in Pretoria.

“The challenge is greater for us away from home, we have two really tough games on a pretty tough trip and with the travel conditions added in, so there’s no room for complacency,” Ashley-Cooper said.

The 28-year-old veteran of 71Tests and numerous SuperRugby games against the Pretoria-based Bulls said Loftus Versfeld would not be a place for the faint-hearted on Saturday.

“Playing at Loftus is always pretty tough, you’re usually up against quality opposition there and a hostile crowd that they feed off. Plus the altitude and the pace of the game there means it’s always a challenge. A win is something we’ve never achieved before in Pretoria, we came close in 2010 [31-44], so there’s a lot of motivation for us,” Ashley-Cooper said.

Australia’s coaching co-ordinator, Tony McGahan, said despite criticism that the Springboks’ game plan was dull and conservative in comparison to the Wallabies’, every top international team employed similar tactics.

“Generally, most sides have the same principles with just small variations from week-to-week depending on the opposition and the conditions. But the core values are set in stone.

“You need a bit of both possession and territory. You use possession to gain territory and that’s how you control the scoreboard, converting field position into points. It will continue to be that way in test rugby.

“There will be more cause to have a penalty against you when you’re running the ball out of your own half, but you tend to get more favour from possession on attack. It also depends on the quality of your possession,” McGahan said.

Australia will name their team for Saturday’s Test on Thursday, while South Africa’s squad will be announced on Wednesday.

New South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer named nine uncapped players and eight members of the 2007 World Cup-winning side, but failed to install a captain when he named his 32-man Springbok squad in Pretoria on Saturday for the three-Test series against England.

This follows the surprise omission of veteran scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, who had been widely tipped to captain the side.

“I have a lot of respect for Fourie, but he knows my motto is team first and I had a few meetings with him and he said he wasn’t 100% sure he’s at his best, having not played for two-and-a-half months. It was a hard decision to leave him out, but it shows the character of the man that he told me to go with the youngsters if I felt he was a 50/50 selection,” Meyer told a news conference.

“So I will chat to the senior players before naming my captain, probably at the team announcement on Wednesday, but maybe before.”

The nine uncapped players are loose forwards Marcell Coetzee and Jacques Potgieter, utility back JJ Engelbrecht, locks Eben Etzebeth, Juandre Kruger and Franco van der Merwe, flyhalf Elton Jantjies, prop Coenie Oosthuizen and scrumhalf Jano Vermaak.

Wings Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen, centres Jean de Villiers, Frans Steyn and Wynand Olivier, scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, prop Jannie du Plessis and hooker Bismarck du Plessis are the returning members of the Springboks’ 2007 World Cup-winning squad, while 15 members of the squad also played in last year’s World Cup.

“This is a team that can play winning test rugby – brutal defence, big forwards running at each other, tactical kicking and direct rugby. This team can play to our typical South African strengths and the side that plays best to their pattern is normally the one that wins.

“I wanted to start the season with an experienced squad to face England, who are a good, tough side, but injuries have made this difficult,” Meyer said.

Loose forwards Schalk Burger, Duane Vermeulen and Juan Smith, and lock Andries Bekker were ruled out due to injury.

The coach said the surprise omission of flank Heinrich Brussow, one of the foremost ball-chasers in the game, follows the new law interpretations that have caused fetchers to concede more penalties.

“That was a tough call because Heinrich is still up with the best opensides in the game, but the game has changed. They’re being penalised more and hookers are stealing more ball now. If the laws change, which they will, then he’ll definitely be in the mix. But at the moment it’s up to him to adapt to the laws,” Meyer said.

Bulls centre JJ Engelbrecht, who is playing his first full season of SuperRugby, is an unexpected inclusion ahead of exciting Stormers backs Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh, who were both members of the Springboks’ 2011 World Cup squad.

“Obviously I can’t please everybody, but JJ is an exciting guy for the future and I want time to work with him. He’s already an awesome winger and I believe he can develop into a world-class number 13,” Meyer said.

Meyer’s selection of just three players from the Stormers – who are top of the South African SuperRugby conference – has caused displeasure in Cape Town, with the former Bulls coach naming 13 Bulls and 10 Sharks players in his squad.

There are also two overseas-based players in the squad – Pienaar of Ulster and Frans Steyn, who has just signed with the Sharks (but has yet to play a game for them) after a three-year stint in France with Racing Metro.

South Africa play England in the first test in Durban next Saturday, followed by matches in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

Squad – Zane Kirchner (Bulls), Pat Lambie (Sharks), Bjorn Basson (Bulls), Bryan Habana (Stormers), Lwazi Mvovo (Sharks), JP Pietersen (Sharks), Jean de Villiers (Stormers), JJ Engelbrecht (Bulls), Frans Steyn (Racing Metro), Wynand Olivier (Bulls), Morne Steyn (Bulls), Elton Jantjies (Lions), Francois Hougaard (Bulls), Ruan Pienaar (Ulster), Jano Vermaak (Bulls), Pierre Spies (Bulls), Ryan Kankowski (Sharks), Willem Alberts (Sharks), Jacques Potgieter (Bulls), Marcell Coetzee (Sharks), Keegan Daniel (Sharks), Juandre Kruger (Bulls), Franco van der Merwe (Lions), Flip van der Merwe (Bulls), Eben Etzebeth (Stormers), Jannie du Plessis (Sharks), Werner Kruger (Bulls), Bismarck du Plessis (Sharks), Adriaan Strauss (Cheetahs), Chiliboy Ralepelle (Bulls), Tendai Mtawarira (Sharks), Coenie Oosthuizen (Cheetahs).

Former 800m world champion Caster Semenya said a weight had been lifted from her shoulders after she qualified for the Olympic Games in a Yellow Pages Series meet at the Tukkies University Stadium in Pretoria on Friday.

Semenya eased to victory in the women’s 800m in a time of one minute, 59.58 seconds, well inside the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:59.90.

South African Olympic organisers require athletes to meet the qualifying standard twice, once in a local meet and the other internationally, and the 21-year-old Semenya gained her first qualifying time from her second-placed finish in last year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

“It’s a weight off my shoulders and I’m very happy with my time,” Semenya told reporters after the race. “I just ran my own race and it went okay, it’s best that way and I enjoyed it, that’s why I qualified.”

Semenya failed to reach the qualifying standard in last weekend’s national championships in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, clocking 2:02.68 in windy conditions, but she became the first woman to run under two minutes on South African soil in 21 years on Friday, after running the first 400 metres in 57 seconds.

“The start was good and we had trained hard and planned to qualify in South Africa. There’s now no need for me to go to the African Championships and I know my plans for the European season, I must just be patient,” Semenya said.

The 2009 world champion, who had to undergo controversial gender tests until July 2010, seemed to make the qualifying time with ease on Friday and she said she hoped to run even faster in Europe.

“I possibly can go quicker, tonight was just my third race of the season, and I hope to go below 1:57 in Europe, but it depends on my training, which needs to strengthen me up for the Olympics. I need to last and one race does not mean anything,” Semenya said.

“In 2009 I was a little kid, I now have more experience, plus I now have Maria Mutola as my coach, who has even more experience having run for more than 10 years in Europe. We have a good relationship, we’re like best friends.

“But I’m still young and fresh, I have no pressure on me and I have to take advantage of that,” Semenya said.

The Tukkies University student said she will compete at the World Challenge in Ostrava on May 25 and in Rome on June 1, before temporarily switching to 400-metre races to work on her speed.

The evening meet brought just one more Olympic qualifying performance, with Khotso Mokoena leaping 8.29 metres to win the long jump.

The 2008 Olympic silver medallist – South Africa’s only medallist at the Beijing Games – still needs to reach the qualifying standard in an international event in order to qualify for the Olympics.

Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, the 2009 men’s 800 metres world champion, continued a winning comeback to the track after an achilles injury kept him out of action for most of the previous year, by winning Friday night’s 800 metres in a time of 1:46.12, outside the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:45.60.

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer said in Pretoria on Thursday that he understood star centre Jaque Fourie’s reasons for making himself unavailable for the Springboks this year.

The 29-year-old Fourie, who has been capped 69 times for South Africa since 2003, announced on Wednesday that he was unavailable for the Springboks while he completes the second year of his contract with Japanese club Kobelco Steelers.

“I respect Jaque’s thoughts in not making himself available but it’s a pity because he’s close to being the best outside centre in the world and he was definitely an integral part of my plans. But it’s very important that the players I choose are focused on the South African cause and want to play for the Springboks. If there’s pressure from their overseas clubs, then I understand,” Meyer told reporters in Pretoria on Thursday.

The new Springbok coach added, however, that the door was not closed to Fourie to make a return to the Springboks ahead of the 2015 World Cup.

“I’d like to speak again with Jaque in two years time, because we’ll be going into our World Cup plans and I hope he can still be there then.”

Meyer, who had just completed the first of three planning camps with potential Springbok players, drawn from the Cheetahs and the Lions, said however that there was plenty of talent at his disposal to replace senior players who were not available this year.

“The absence of players like Jaque is great for the youngsters and even the more experienced guys – I’ve told the players that even if they’re 29 and haven’t yet played for the Springboks, that they still have a chance of being chosen. There were one or two players at this camp that I haven’t worked with before and I can see that they are great players. There’s enough depth in South African rugby,” Meyer said.

“I’ve had one-on-ones with every player and they know where they stand and I now understand their roles in their franchises and why they do certain things. I have much more insight into them, which is great, and they know exactly what I want.”

Former Blue Bulls and Leicester coach Meyer said he had concerns over the number of injuries to experienced Springboks who were potential successors to the retired John Smit as captain.

“There’ve been a lot of injuries – guys like Schalk Burger, Juan Smith and Jean de Villiers are all out of action – while there’s been speculation about Victor Matfield playing again and Fourie du Preez isn’t back yet from Japan. I want to give every player the same opportunity to captain South Africa and I’m not going to rush and make a wrong decision. So I’ll announce the captain the week before the first England test and he’ll be captain only for those three tests,” Meyer said.

Senior Springboks like scrumhalf Du Preez, lock Bakkies Botha and utility forward Danie Rossouw have all signed with overseas clubs and Meyer said he was in negotiations with them, their clubs and agents about their availability.

Meyer on Thursday announced a list of 45 players from the Bulls and Sharks, who both have SuperRugby byes next week, to attend the second planning camp, in Pretoria from Sunday to next Thursday.

Planning camp squad – Forwards: Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Craig Burden, Jannie du Plessis, Dale Chadwick, Steven Sykes, Jan-André Marais, Marcell Coetzee, Keegan Daniel, Jean Deysel, Willem Alberts, Ryan Kankowski, Lubabalo Mtembu (all Sharks), Dean Greyling, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Werner Kruger, Frik Kirsten, Flip van der Merwe, Juandre Kruger, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Deon Stegmann, CJ Stander, Jacques Potgieter, Dewald Potgieter, Pierre Spies, Arno Botha (all Bulls). Backs: Charl McLeod, Pat Lambie, Odwa Ndungane, Sibusiso Sithole, Tim Whitehead, JP Pietersen, Lwazi Mvovo, Louis Ludik, Riaan Viljoen (all Sharks), Francois Hougaard, Jano Vermaak, Morné Steyn, Bjorn Basson, Wynand Olivier, Francois Venter, Johann Sadie, JJ Engelbrecht, Akona Ndungane, Zane Kirchner (all Bulls).