South Africa coach Peter de Villiers today backed down from his claim that Irish referees Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland had favoured the All Blacks in the opening two matches of the Tri Nations.
The Springboks lost both games against the World Cup hosts with De Villiers suggesting New Zealand were helped to victory by the officials in a bid to boost interest in next year's tournament.
In a South Africa Rugby statement today he said: 'While I have also expressed unhappiness over some refereeing issues, this is a separate matter altogether and has no bearing on what I said.
'My comment during...the interview was based on the general view that part of the success of any World Cup event rests on the fact that the host nation has a winning team.
'Nevertheless, I regret that this may have created the wrong impression.'
The row had threatened to overshadow the Springboks' build-up to tomorrow's meeting with Australia in Brisbane but captain John Smit insists the players remain fully focused on registering their first win of the tournament.
'I think it's probably helpful that we don't have too much time to get involved in the papers and websites when we're losing," he said.
'I'm not too sure what's going on and the only task we can really give ourselves is fixing what goes on the field. As players there's always going to be side-shows, but our job is pretty simple to get it right on the field.'
Adding to the scrutiny on the underperforming Springboks has been the significant media focus on their aggressive gameplan.
But despite the visitors missing two of their first-choice players to suspension, Smit says labelling his side as dirty is unfair and does no justice to their world-class calibre.
'I think if bashing was the only strength we had we wouldn't have achieved all the things we have over the last three or four years,' he said.
'Sometimes you have to bash it, but not all the time. We've got to make sure we play the way we can and then we'll have a fair chance of winning tomorrow.
'They've got a huge amount of talent and certainly they'll be wanting to tick the home-win box as well, which is important.
'There's two teams pretty desperate for a result for different reasons, my hope is that we get it right and they get it wrong, but they're a team with a huge amount of potential and a number of threats on attack.'
According to the Wallabies camp, open side flanker David Pocock could be the key to their chances of victory as he is the only genuine ball-gatherer on the field.
Pocock established himself as a genuine world-class forward against the Springboks during the corresponding Tri Nations match in Brisbane last year, and against the physical South Africans his influence will be vital.
Australia skipper Rocky Elsom was another predicting a dominant showing from Pocock at the breakdown.
'He's performed really well so far this year,' he said.
'He's the only genuine on-baller out there and he'll do a really good job of that.'
However the humble Zimbabwe-born Pocock was playing down his importance, and remained wary of the danger in facing a Springboks line-up desperate for redemption.
'In the modern game everyone's got that (ball-fetching) ability,' he said.
'A lot of it depends on the way the ref interprets the breakdown on the night. South Africa is such a proud rugby nation, and having lived there for a bit you know how much it means to the public and how much it must mean to be a Springbok.
'To lose three games in a row for them is unheard of - it just doesn't happen - so we're expecting a very fired up Springbok team to come out of that dressing room.'
