The ghost of Chester Williams is here to haunt the Springboks

A demoralised Springbok rugby squad, having just flown into Edinburgh after being thrashed in Marseille, will be unsurprised to learn they about to be pursued even more fiercely by the controversy that has trailed them ever since their former "Coloured" icon, Chester Williams, published his autobiography last month.

One of their World Cup stars in 1995, Williams now reveals that his supposed ground-breaking status within the team was a sham and that he was subjected to systematic racial abuse from South Africa's rugby authorities and his fellow Springboks.

Nelson Mandela, who cele brated the Springboks' historic triumph so memorably in 1995, addressed the thorny issue when he met the team shortly before their departure for Europe.

"Mr Mandela said that the 1995 World Cup final was a great day for South Africa," says Mark Keohane, the Springboks' media liaison man. "But when concerns about rugby are raised we can't deny them or run away from them."

It is typical of South Africa's complex and incestuous political wrangles that Keohane, an opinionated former rugby journalist, should also have ghost- written the Williams book. His official attempts "to keep a lid on the issue" while also publicising the book will require some dextrous juggling as South Africa prepare for Tests against Scotland and England.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that one of Williams's World Cup team-mates, Rudolf Straeuli, is now the Springboks' coach. "Rudolf was Chester's team-mate in 1994," Keohane confirms, "but he didn't know that Chester was hurting." This one will run and run.

·Tomorrow night another intriguing cultural clash will unfold in a small Italian restaurant up the road from Highbury. About an hour after Arsenal play PSV Eindhoven in their final Champions League group match the joint will be packed - with the most pressing question being whether someone cerebral like Julian Barnes will arrive and ask, in French of course, if Patrick Vieira could get Ray Parlour to sign his replica shirt.

Three weeks ago the Melvyn Bragg-Howard Jacobson-Anthony Howard clan of elder Gooner statesmen were at the Clock End side of the restaurant, some way from the Nick Hornby table. Yet they were momentarily united, bursting into applause and standing up with the whole restaurant, as Vieira, Gilberto Silva and Edu wandered in for a post-match bowl of pasta after their dismal performance against Auxerre.

The Arsène Wenger table, with spaces for 10 to celebrate his birthday that night, remained conspicuously empty - for the manager had decided dutifully to return home and study that humiliating defeat on video.

A win tomorrow, so securing the top spot in the group if Dortmund do not beat Auxerre, will surely bring out Wenger, Barnes and maybe even Parlour himself.

· Without a Highbury ticket myself I may instead set out early for the annual Langland Boardriders Surfers Against Sewage Toxic Trophy at Langland Bay in south Wales this weekend.

The British Surfers Association website has helpfully pointed out that last year's event "was cancelled due to lack of swell - although the evening fundraiser event raised over £400 to keep our oceans and its surrounding environments clean."

This year's pre-surfing bash, swell and sewage permitting, is to be held at the Mumbles Motorboat & Fishing Club and will feature the latest surfing films, a set from the Aggy Allstars and a raffle. Sounds like another Melvyn Bragg sort of a night.