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Family first for Boks

Thursday 31st July 2008

Set aside: Jaque Fourie and Brain Habana warm up at Springbok training in Pretoria

While star wing Bryan Habana and recalled centre Jaque Fourie followed individual programmes and Schalk Burger looked on from the sidelines at the Springboks' training session in Pretoria on Wednesday, prop Brian Mujati was in Cape Town attending to his sick daughter.

The world champions have assembled in the South African capital ahead of next week's one-off Test in Johannesburg against World Cup bronze medalists Argentina but Springbok coach Peter De Villiers pointed out that family emergencies came ahead of any training session.

"Brian's daughter is in hospital and that is why he is not here," De Villiers told the press after the Boks' first training session at the LC de Villiers Stadium, the University of Pretoria's sports grounds and home to the South African Olympic Committee's High Performance Centre.

"Family is very important to my players and he is joining the team tonight. There is no compromise for such things as sickness and death. We are human beings and people at the end of the day," explained De Villiers.

Fourie, who's recall while not yet fully recovered from injury has raised many an eyebrow, will again train his own on Thursday.

"I don't want to push Jaque to run too hard as this is only his first training session with us after a long injury. We must bring him on in the right manner," De Villiers said.

Burger, however, is expected to join the rest of his team-mates, including returning scrum-half Fourie du Preez, on Thursday.

"Schalk had some intensive treatment and is a bit stiff, so he is sitting out as a precaution. Jaque and Fourie (du Preez) are looking very good and one can see that they are professional players," said the coach.

Despite training on his own on Wednesday, Habana has recovered from his shoulder injury and De Villiers said that he was happy his star winger would be fit to take on the Pumas on August 9 at Coca-Cola Stadium (formerly Ellis Park).