South African coach Jake White believes the infiltration of rugby league culture into the Wallaby ranks may be to partly blame for the decline in player behaviour standards in the Australian team.

White, who had little doubt events of the past two weeks had affected Australia's preparations for the Tri Nations Test, said the Springboks were "fortunate that we don't have a rugby league culture in our team".

"I say that with respect to rugby league - I don't know them all that well but you read and they often have a different make-up," he said.

"We have traditional rugby schools, it's very important to us how we prepare for rugby union games.

"It's how important the rugby union ethos is."

Two of the players at the centre of the controversy in the Australian team are rugby league recruits Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor.

The pair were out nightclubbing two days before the Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg till 4am with Tuqiri also involved in a heated altercation with third string halfback Matt Henjak - the latter sent home over the incident.

White said he could understand why former Australian rugby greats such as David Campese and the vocal Simon Poidevin expected better of the current players.

The South African mentor has had a relatively trouble-free run with the senior Springbok team since taking over in 2004 but could certainly sympathise with Jones.

Afterall, White's predecessor Rudolph Straueli had to deal with reports of racism in his team and also presided over a bizarre pre World Cup training camp which saw naked players forced into freezing water at gunpoint.

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