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Bok coach hits back at media

Gavin Rich - SuperSport

Port Elizabeth - Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has hinted that he is unhappy with the way the South African media have treated the news that the All Blacks have sent an under-strength team to the country for Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash in Port Elizabeth.

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The All Blacks have left eight or nine of the players challenging for places in the first-choice team behind in New Zealand to prepare for the final Tri-Nations match against Australia in Brisbane on Saturday week.

The announcement, made some time ago, was not met with the howls of protest that the Bok decision to rule out 21 top players from the away leg of the Tri-Nations attracted.

Judging from what he said at a press conference in Port Elizabeth on Monday, De Villiers, who was greeted on his arrival in New Zealand last month with a series of difficult questions about the camp that the top players were attending in Rustenburg at the time, is clearly put out by the apparent double standards.

“Well our South African media seem to be happy with the All Blacks sending out a so-called B team, to them it is no big thing,” said De Villiers.

“But when we went over there it was big news, it was as if people wanted to kill us. It was reiterated how stupid we are as a coaching staff, but now New Zealand do the same and it is fine.

"People back here don’t seem concerned about that, and that is more worrying to me than the side the All Blacks have brought to South Africa.”

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