At a time of unprecedented upheaval in South African rugby, the Springboks' coach Jake White has turned to a bulwark of old to provide badly needed stability at forward.

The prop Os du Randt was so disillusioned with rugby four years ago that he turned his back on his career and went back to farming, but White has coaxed him out of international retirement and the Boks go into today's Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand in Christchurch as well-backed underdogs, even though their last victory in the country came back in 1998.

"When I retired at the end of the 2000 season, I was so fed up with rugby that I switched over if a match came on television," said the 31-year old Du Randt. "It took me a year before I decided that it was not the way to go out, but even when I made a comeback for Free State, I never imagined I would pull on the green-and-gold jersey again."

Du Randt has lost more than a stone and White had no hesitation in choosing him. "Os is the greatest loose-head prop South Africa has produced and he was one of the guys who won the World Cup in 1995."

For a team expected to win at a canter after five consecutive victories while their opponents seem more concerned with political battles, the All Blacks are edgy. Their preparations were disrupted by six players suffering a stomach bug and their coach Graham Henry has turned to the sports psychologist Gilbert Enoka, who was with the All Blacks for two years at the start of the decade under Wayne Smith, now one of Henry's assistants.

"We have to ensure that our sprigs stay on the ground after last week's victory over Australia," said the forwards' coach Steve Hansen. "It is always difficult to play well seven days after a good win: Gilbert is like the backboard of a basketball hoop, someone we can bounce ideas off."

Henry is expecting his hardest match yet, and not just because freezing nights have made the ground in Christchurch very firm.

"The feeling not so long ago was that the Springboks had gone, but we are now faced with something far more menacing than the rag-tag army they had become," said the former New Zealand captain Chris Laidlaw.