Jake White on this week’s Bok training

“I must say it’s been a very special week – I almost get the feeling the players were also waiting with baited breath to see if they’d made it or not,” said a relaxed Jake White on Wednesday.

“When Balie Swart started with us he told me what would happen when the final 30 guys were chosen. He experienced it with Kitch Christie in 1995; I remember him saying just how the levels of intensity would change and I must say I can’t believe how the guys have put themselves about this week.

“Bakkies Botha has been running in front at training, Os has lost five kilograms already – that’s just mentioning two guys, but the rest of them, physically, they’re in better shape than when I started with these players in 2004.

“There’s been plenty of scientific planning with team doctor Yusuf Hassan, Professor Tim Noakes and conditioning coach Derrick Coetzee – this is the hardest part of what the players are going to experience ahead of the World Cup.

“It’s intense because we don’t have to worry about fixtures at the weekend. All the hard yards we have to put in are going to be put in now. When the World Cup starts you’ve got seven weeks of rugby – you can’t be doing fitness in the middle of the World Cup.

“The one thing nice about it is that it (the weather) can’t possibly get any worse for training. If you train well in the wet you’ll be more accurate when it’s dry. It’s not ideal, it’s not nice standing in the rain all the time, but, you know, it’s all part of the preparations.

“We’re going to go to Durban for another two weeks, there we’ll get the hot weather and humidity and then we come back to Cape Town again.

“This is all part of our preparation; I was speaking to our medical staff the other day, apparently training at colder temperatures enhances performances. I think we’ve got the balance right – we’ve got Cape Town, which is a bit colder and wetter, then we go to Durban for a while, then back to Cape Town, before heading off to Ireland and Scotland,” concluded White.