minutes which was met by stern midfield defence by the English. A powerful scrum aided England in securing a measure of dominance. Fresh from the break however South Africa stepped up and rampantly tore into their guests. This culminated in two 50 pointers in as many weeks. The fans suddenly began to believe in their side again. Then came more political meddlings to sour the mood. Oregan Hoskins – President of SARU – proceeded to override Jake White in the selection of Luke Watson as an addition to the 45-man squad submitted by Jake to the South African Rugby Union. Luke Watson went on to represent South Africa in ten tests, his first and solitary test of this particular year being in the following Samoan test at Ellis Park. In a game that was well suited to the fetcher Watson did very little to justify his position in the team. His performance was disjointed and substandard. This prompted Jake to reject him authoritatively – something Jake's successor, Peter de Villiers would do the following year after similarly poor performances. The Springboks won this test convincingly on the scoreboard but Samoa were not to be beaten without a fight in a typical arm-wrestle of a test. With the Spring Tour successfully negotiated the Boks embarked on their Tri-Nations opener. They began their campaign at home against Australia in a powerful display. They attacked the fringes with strong carries by their big ball carriers and tied up the Australians before attacking wide. Guilty of missing several opportunities they did however leave victory late as the audacious François Steyn blasted over two monstrous drop-goals to seal the result. This set up a tense encounter with arch-rivals New Zealand. The Boks were on course to seal the result before Graham Henry unloaded his bench. His fresh reserves gave New Zealand a much stronger finish which resulted in a match winning try by New Zealand flyer Joe Rokocoko. Following this test Jake announced that he would be resting his key players for the remainder of the competition. This was met with staunch criticism from their SANZAR partners which went so far as John O'Neill – Head of the Australian Rugby Union – castigated South Africa for not fielding full strength sides on their away leg. O'Neill also said the Springboks had cost Australian Rugby at least 10,000 paying customers at the test in Sydney because