SPRINGBOK coach Andre Markgraaff has received death threats after dropping victorious World Cup captain Francois Pienaar from the national squad, the Johannesburg Sunday Times reported yesterday.

It said the threats had prompted Markgraaff to stay away from a match on Saturday between Transvaal and Northern Transvaal, who were playing for a place in the Currie Cup final.

Transvaal, led by Pienaar, won the match in Pretoria. Pienaar put in a storming performance that critics of Markgraaff said proved he had been wrong to drop the flanker.

The newspaper quoted Markgraaff as saying he had received about 100 phone calls since announcing Pienaar's axing from the squad to tour Argentina, Wales and France in November and December.

About half of them had been abusive and some of those had included threats against his life the paper quoted him as saying. "I am taking the threats very seriously" he said.

Markgraaff was unavailable for comment yesterday but Alex Broun, spokesman for the South African Rugby Football Union, said he thought the report was legitimate".