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South Africa coach Peter de Villiers today told the Lions they should take up ballet if they couldn't handle the blood and thunder of rugby and accused them of being bad losers.
De Villiers spoke out just hours after disgraced flanker Schalk Burger was given an eight-w-ek ban for gouging Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald in Saturday's Second Test.
In an astonishing press conference at the Springboks Johannesburg HQ, De Villiers described Burger as "an honourable man" who would "never, ever" lower himself to eye gouging.
And he also criticised the tourists management for not congratulating him on the Springboks' series victory.
Burger received his penalty from an independent tribunal in the early hours of this morning after damning television pictures showed him apparently trying to gouge Fitzgerald 41 seconds into the Pretoria Test.
He only received a yellow card from the referee Christophe Berdos, which De Villiers disputed after the game, but was cited by New Zealand commissioner Stephen Hinds three hours after the final whistle.
The Springboks initially said they would wait for the findings of the judicial hearing only for De Villiers to break ranks as he launch into his tirade.
He said: "If you know Schalk's nature and character, if you know the man as I know him, he would never do this.
"He is more physical than any other rugby player in the world. To go to those kind of measures, he'd never ever do it. And I don't think he did it.
"I have watched the TV footage and I am still convinced there is no way he went there on purpose. He never meant to go to anybody's eye. Rugby is a contact sport and so is dancing.
"So guys can go and make a decision. There were so many incidents in that game that we could say we want to cite this guy for maliciously jumping into another guys face with his shoulder.
"Why don't we do it? The reason we don't do it is because this game will always be a game to us.
"If we are going to win games in board rooms and in front of television cameras and in shops we must say to ourselves 'do we really respect this game that we really honour so much?'
"If it's the case that we are, why don't we all go to the nearest ballet shop, get some nice tutus and get a great dance going on. No eye gouging, no tackling, no nothing. Then enjoy. But in this game there will be collisions. There are no collisions in ballet.
"And the guy who wins the collisions hardest is the guy we always will select. We are not going to make it soft because we won a series and people don't like it then I can't do anything about it."
De Villiers is incensed that no one in the Lions management has personally congratulated him on the Boks' first series win over the Lions in 29 years.
He said: "I'd love people to just stand up, take it on the chin and say 'well done for victory, well done for what you have achieved in the series and well done for winning'. Nobody has congratulated us up until now. Maybe they will do so after the Third Test."
Rumours coming out of the Springbok camp suggest the team are being guided by senior players like captain John Smit and second-rower Victor Matfield.
"If I am the weakest link then we are bloody strong!" De Villiers said. "I know myself that I am a God given talent. I am the best ever that I can be so whatever you think about me doesn't bother me. I know what I am and I don't give a damn."
The Springboks will consider appealing against Burger's ban, along with the two-week suspension given to Bakkies Botha for the illegal charge that left prop Adam Jones with a dislocated shoulder.
