Local is still lekker

It caused near mass hysteria when Heyneke Meyer recently suggested he could recall Bakkies Botha from abroad.

Some emotional readers even suggested he might as well recall Naas Botha. Such demonstrative, flaming blowups shows the passions Springbok fans have for their national team.

But what is Meyer's policy on overseas-based players?

We bring you the answer in his own words!

"I am in contact with a lot of the senior, and best, players on a weekly basis.

"The difficulty there is that a lot of those players are now in their off season and they haven't played a lot of rugby ... for about five to six weeks.

"I always said, if it is a 50-50 call, I will go for the guy that is in South Africa.

"I think by the second leg of the Rugby Championship a lot of those guys would have played [some rugby].

"They are playing some friendlies now, so then we can have another look at them.

"There are some guys who have impressed me and most of the guys want to play for South Africa, but they also have other commitments.

"We will assess them week-by-week."