While he selected only two more players of colour in his World Cup squad than his predecessor, Springbok coach Peter de Villiers insisted that transformation within the game has taken place.

"We transformed this team from a team that wasn't accessible to the people to the team that is now the people's team," said De Villiers.

In the 2007 Springbok squad, six "non-white" men were included in Jake White's final group of 30 players who went on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup in France.

Four years later, the team's first "non-white" coach was also scrutinised for the situation which is now under his control.

In recent weeks Currie Cup coaches have been taken to task for fielding white-dominated sides, despite the fact that so many black youngsters are representing their provinces at schoolboy level.

De Villiers took offence to a question posed to him, directly after he had presented his team to the media with regard to transformation.

He said he had hoped that, by this stage, people would look beyond skin colour and only judge players on their performance.

"I don't know how many black players there are in the squad, we never sat down and worked that out or decided to pick someone based on the colour of their skin," said De Villiers.

"We wanted South Africans to be proud of the team that is going overseas and we selected the best players in this country, at this moment, in their specific positions.

"If they are black, they are not to blame for it and if they are white they are not to blame for it either."

SAPA