Use same ball in tri-series, says Bok

By WYNNE GRAY

Springbok kicker Braam van Straaten has, at last, a plausible explanation for some of the erratic rugby ball behaviour in the Tri-Nations series.

But he cannot say why the best competition in the world did not use the best available equipment.

Van Straaten says the Gilbert ball in South Africa is far superior to the Summit used in Australia and the adidas in New Zealand.

The adidas ball, which began its rocky journey here last season before being turned in for further testing, is unbalanced and has a poor flight pattern, he says.

The problem with both the adidas and Summit balls is that the valve is placed in one of the panels rather than down the seam as in the patented Gilbert style, a move which changes the balance of the ball.

Van Straaten says that to try to counter that, the adidas manufacturers added a rubber weight on the opposite panel but that didn't work. He had to dispense with his preferred torpedo kick and use the drop punt instead to make sure of his accuracy.

In Perth in the weekend draw against the Wallabies, he was stunned to see one conversion attempt with the Summit fall short and another penalty swing well wide of the goalposts.

"We put in hard hours practising, but then we play with a different ball each week, which makes it very tough," says van Straaten.

He wants Sanzar administrators meeting in Auckland this week to ensure that a uniform ball is used for competition from next season.

He says Andrew Mehrtens told him the adidas ball was the worst he had kicked and fellow All Black Tony Brown said that kicking it was like "kicking a lemon".