Wednesday, 6th June 2007 at 8:01 pm

Boks get ready for Europe

Grim Welsh weather has swept through South Africa this week, as this snap of Wednesday training illustrates quite clearly, a rain-sodden trio taking a breather in the warm-up to Saturday’s game with Samoa. It won’t have been the most welcome change of climate, but Samoa will enjoy a wet and muddy Ellis Park even less than South Africa, who will have the added bonus of a run in conditions that may well appear in France later this year.

Granted, it’s decidedly not Jake White’s first choice XV, and the team for Ellis Park will be playing for a place in the World Cup squad, rather than starting team. Persistent rain might not provide Waylon Murray or JP Pietersen with quite the platform they’d hope for, but Luke Watson and Bob Skinstad are amongst a pack of forwards who’ll be keen to illustrate a flair for the type of conditions Europe frequently turns up.