South African coach Peter De Villiers has once more defended his side's reputation ahead of this Saturday's grudge match in Croke Park, claiming that nothing "extraordinary" happened during the controversial three-Test Lions series.

Despite Schalk Burger's eight-week ban for eye-gouging Luke Fitzgerald during last summer's Lions tour, De Villiers lashed out at suggestions there was bad blood between the sides.

"Well, I think the bad blood was only with you guys," he said. "There was no bad blood with us.

"We extended the hand, like we do in all our other games, to have the opposing team come to our dressing-room and we provide them with a beer or two so the guys could mingle. They never accepted that invitation.

Bad blood

"I don't think there was anything extraordinary on the field of play that could cause bad blood. Again, it's where you stand and look at things. I think most of the reports were overrated over here.

"Guys were looking for things that were non-existent. For us, there's nothing. The (bad) blood thing is nothing at all that can affect us."

Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll, who harshly criticised De Villiers' initial defence of Burger's actions -- the coach subsequently back-tracked -- sat out training with a dodgy stomach yesterday. It was not clear whether his condition was exacerbated by De Villiers' latest outburst. Stephen Ferris, Keith Earls and Jerry Flannery also sat out training with knocks.

South African captain John Smit's pointed comments in his autobiography, claiming that a senior Lions tourist was behind the refusal to share a post-match beer. Munster's new Springbok signing Jean de Villiers has spoken to Lions captain Paul O'Connell about the whole farrago and concluded that it was all a misunderstanding rather than a pointed diplomatic snub.

"Maybe they don't like South African beer!" the coach exclaimed yesterday, before further placing rugby into its non-balletic context.

"Rugby is like any other sport. You are there to build bridges. There is nothing between the players on the field. When they leave the field they are really disappointed when they lose and they feel great when they win.

"But that goes on now for over a century. Nothing's changed. Not all of us have the same mental approach to the game, not all of us worry the same about winning and losing. So we have to respect that too as individuals.

Perhaps they'll share a beer this time? Here's mud in your, erm, eye and all that?

"We'll be there," declares De Villiers. "I don't think we should make a big thing out of that. My choice is to have bit of lunch with you. The person next to me doesn't want to have lunch with you. Why make a big deal of it?

"That's life, you know. As long as we cherish this great game and be servants of it and make a difference through it, that's all that counts."