Rugby Union: White Feels the Heat As Quota Row Rumbles on

South Africa may have emerged as the leading challengers to New Zealand in the run-up to the World Cup but their coach, Jake White, continues to lurch from one crisis to the next.

Last night he was cleared in an inquiry by the South African Rugby Union after a friend was involved in an alleged altercation with a journalist who had been critical of the Springboks, but he has been told by his employers to cancel a meeting he has arranged with the country's president, Thabo Mbeki, on Friday.

SARU has told White he should air any grievances with it first before speaking to Mbeki, amid accusations aired before a parliamentary sports committee yesterday that the president and the African National Congress are considering taking over the running of rugby union in the country in frustration at the tardiness of the union in responding to demands for a quota of black and colored players in professional squads.

The government's policy of transformation, ensuring racial equality across the spectrum of society, could force the Springbok selectors to select at least 10 non-white players in their match squads of 22, with suggestions that the policy may be applied in the World Cup.

Wales's head coach, Gareth Jenkins, will tomorrow announce his preliminary World Cup squad. One certainty to be named, the wing Shane Williams, has been questioned by police after an alleged incident in an Ammanford wine bar on Sunday which led to the arrest of two men.

Glasgow will groundshare with Partick Thistle next season.