SOUTH AFRICA

Strauss finds himself temporarily grounded

Tuesday 15th July 2008

Adriaan Strauss: Grounded, human

It's no coincidence that his name means ostrich in some languages, for Adriaan Strauss struggled considerably to take off for Perth.

The Springboks' replacement hooker was excited anough about his call-up to the Bok squad for their third Tri-Nations match against Australia on Saturday that he flew up from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg without his passport.

The documents were flown up to him in Johannesburg, whereupon he made a long roundabout journey to Australia's west coast via the far east.

He arrived in Perth late on Wednesday, and will now have only two training sessions in which to familiarise himself with the Bok line-out calls before the match on Saturday.

"As long as he's here on Saturday, I'm happy," said coach Peter de Villiers.

"At least he's shown he is human. He probably couldn't contain his excitement and that is a good thing. We don't want to create machines in this Bok team.

"We'll be fine, even if he does get here a little later than expected."