Rugby: Boks steer clear of 'boring' Hamilton

The Springboks have remained in Australia to prepare for Saturday's test against the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

The Springboks have heeded the advice of former Australian rugby fullback Chris Latham by avoiding Hamilton for as long as possible - to escape boredom.

The South Africans won't fly from their Gold Coast base in Queensland until Thursday, landing 48 hours out from the Tri-Nations test against the All Blacks at Waikato Stadium.

Coach Peter de Villiers expressed concern that his players would suffer from apathy as "there is nothing in Hamilton".

"Hotel fatigue can kick in and the guys can lose interest very quickly and they might start thinking of going home already," De Villiers told reporters in Australia.

"So I decided to bring them here (Surfers Paradise) to keep them interested so that they can be fresh when we get to New Zealand on Thursday. We will only know afterwards if we did the right or wrong thing."

De Villiers may have tuned in to the three-year-old comments made by Latham after his Queensland Reds side heavily lost a Super 14 match to the Chiefs in Hamilton.

Latham said the culprit was pre-match boredom, with players having spent much of the buildup lazing in their hotel rooms, "in what would not be the world's most exciting town".

"If we were here in sunny Brisbane, there's a lot of things to do and a lot of places to go and get out and get motivated and get moving."

The All Blacks took a similar tack when preparing for their July Tri-Nations test against the Springboks in Bloemfontein - not one of South Africa's most spectacular cities. They carried out the bulk of their preparation in Centurion, near Johannesburg.

Hamilton is hosting its first Tri-Nations test and the biggest since Waikato Stadium was granted test status in 2002.

A sizeable crowd turning out to watch the All Blacks undergo a public training session yesterday.

- NZPA