Springboks: No racism here

Lawrence Sephaka, the first black African player to turn out in a Test match for the Springboks, today insisted racism had not split the team apart ahead of their World Cup opener against Uruguay in Perth on Saturday.

Sephaka, who has won 13 caps at loose head prop, will be one of the key forwards for South Africa when they face England on 18 October in the match that will decide the winners of the pool.

Though members of the country's coloured community have featured before - such as Chester Williams, a star of the 1995 World Cup-winning side - Sephaka is the first man from the black majority to play for South Africa.

An official inquiry is being held into allegations of racism concerning Geo Cronje, who failed to make the World Cup squad but was at the centre of claims that he refused to share a room with a coloured team-mate.

Sephaka, talking at the team's Freemantle Hotel, is the first black player to address the recent racism row and he said today: "I wasn't affected by what happened and the controversy that followed. Some of it was just hype and, to be honest, I have never been affected in any way by racism.

"In the past guys used to want to share with others from the same province when they came to join up with the Springboks but that doesn't exist any more.

"We have turned up as underdogs but we are going to make our country proud of us. We've put in a lot of hard work and everything is very positive. We have become a real family as a squad."

Sephaka, who was born in Johannesburg, had only been playing rugby for a year when his country won the 1995 tournament.