Toulouse, France - The Springboks were furious with a botched rendition of South Africa's national anthem before they lost to France 20-13 on Friday.
Coach Peter de Villiers said the French deserved their win in Toulouse, but was angry with the hosts for the poor singing of the anthem. The singer at times paused and seemed to struggle to remember the words in front of a puzzled crowd.
'We expect people to show respect for our anthem'
"We were annoyed with the fact that the French disrespect(ed) our anthem," De Villiers said. Continues Below ↓
"They didn't get somebody there who really knows (it) and show any respect to it. We expect people to show respect for our anthem ... we expect everybody else to show the respect to the anthem of any other country."
The lyrics of the anthem employ the five most popular of South Africa's 11 official languages.
South Africa lock Victor Matfield said the players were so shocked and angered by the anthem blunder that they lost concentration as they prepared to take on the French.
"Every time (we) go out on the field and sing the national anthem it's very important for us. That is something that really fires you up because you know you are playing for your country," Matfield said. "Like the coach said, it was a joke out there and the guys couldn't even sing (along) and even the crowd was starting to laugh. That was really disappointing."
Boks flyhalf Morne Steyn said the players were upset and spoke among themselves about the matter in the dressing room at halftime.
"It is actually very shocking. I don't know what else to say about it," he said. "It's very disrespectful against the South Africans." - Sapa-AP
Social bookmarking allows users to save and categorise a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. This is different to using your own browser bookmarks which are available using the menus within your web browser.
Use the links below to share this article on the social bookmarking site of your choice.
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
