World champions South Africa are involved in a race against time to get their secret weapon through immigration control.

The Springboks begin their challenge for the World Cup with a Group A match against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

But they entered the country without their scrum machine `Green Mamba' - named after a venomous snake - which won't be available until tomorrow when it has cleared customs.

The Springboks' assistant coach Heyneke Meyer said: "It is currently held up at customs and we have been forced to use a smaller Rhino machine for scrummaging practice."