Richard Loe: Golden rule ignored until Botha incident

You'd have to hope the referees do not remember the Bakkies Botha incident when the All Blacks play Australia and then two test matches in South Africa which will be the key fixtures in this year's Tri Nations.

That's because I am firmly of the opinion Botha did nothing wrong in cleaning out Lions prop Adam Jones, earning a two-week suspension.

Botha did exactly what I congratulated Brad Thorn for doing in the second test win over France and, to a lesser extent, against Italy. Thorn put himself about, cleaning out players at the breakdown. He was hard but fair and bullocked players out of the way.

Botha did the same thing. Jones was lard-arsing around on the side of the ruck, doing nothing and Botha lined him up and drilled him. It was hard but fair.

It was unlucky Jones was injured and is now out of rugby for six months but there was clearly no malice in Botha's actions - he wasn't trying deliberately to injure Jones.

You can see the same kind of manoeuvre in any rugby game up and down the country and you can understand the frustration in the Springbok camp at Botha being suspended for two weeks. One thing is for certain, if Thorn is sent off or suspended for doing the same thing, we will all holler 'foul' here in New Zealand.

You can also see how sick rugby is that there is a law that a player entering a ruck must do so bound to another player - a rule ignored for the past five years. Rugby has gone against its own golden rule that a player without the ball cannot be taken out of play. The rule was only enforced this time ... well, I don't even understand why. Probably because Jones was injured.

But, in the midst of all this, I wonder if the Botha incident doesn't signal a possible weakness - it's the only one I can find - in the Boks side: the coach, Peter de Villiers.

The players wore armbands in support of Botha, which landed them in hot water with the IRB. It was a strange thing to do and I can't see how it could have happened without the approval of the coach.

The only way it could have happened otherwise was if he'd lost control of the players and there are some strong characters there. However, I know Dick Muir, the assistant coach, pretty well and he's no mug. I think someone planted a seed in de Villiers' lid and he thought it was a good idea.

He's been an oddball from the beginning and that could possibly undermine the Boks - particularly if he selects and substitutes as weirdly as he did in the series against the Lions.

We all saw him come within an inch of losing the first test because of the crackpot substitutions he made and then he made eight changes - two of them forced - for the third test against the Lions, which they convincingly lost. I've said this about the All Blacks and it's just as true for the Boks: you play your best team in a test match, every time.

If you asked the Boks what they would have preferred - being rotated or spelled for the Tri Nations or being part of a team that won all three tests against the Lions - they would have been unanimous ... and I don't mean for rotation. All de Villiers did was make it a 'nothing' test match which they promptly lost. It was foolish. If it was to spell players, it just underlines once again that there are too many test matches.

Other than that, though, I have to say I can see no weaknesses in the Boks. Their front row of Beast Mtawirara, Bismarck du Plessis and John Smit is a fine one. Botha will be back against the All Blacks as will Victor Matfield and that is a terrific front five; best in the world.

In the loose, it doesn't even matter that Burger is out because they have that little fetcher Heinrich Brussow and he is doing some great work filching ball at the breakdown - and they have four or five other loosies who are big, fast, polished athletes.

Behind the scrum, they have great punters of the ball in Morne Steyn and Francois Steyn and I think the All Blacks will have it all to do in those two test matches.

First up, though, are the Australians and I must say I liked it that Sitiveni Sivivatu went out of his way to play club rugby the other day. He proved he was ready for a shot at test rugby again. But Rodney So'oialo sounded uncertain about whether he would play club rugby - why ever not?

Maybe he was still feeling the effects of the neck injury and maybe they don't want to risk him but we need him and Richie McCaw back in the loose.

McCaw has proven time and again that he can come back after a long absence and play like he hasn't been away at all. But we will have two of our main strike force back after a long spell and they will be up against George Smith, who is fizzing under Robbie Deans.

Again, it doesn't look good. But, as we all know, the All Blacks can always turn things around.