NEWPORT target Percy Montgomery is at the centre of a major "quotas" row with South Africa coach Rudolf Straeuli.

On the day the Argus reveal the former All Blacks full back seems on his way to Rodney Parade, Straeuli has reacted angrily to suggestions that quotas are a major cause for Montgomery and other top players leaving the country.

Straeuli said it was a cop-out for players and agents to use quotas and development as an excuse for the lure of the British pound.

Earlier this week Montgomery revealed he was on the verge of leaving South Africa because of quotas in the Springbok team and his search for security for his family. Other leading players in recent weeks to announce their departure include Montgomery's Stormers team-mate Pieter Rossouw (London Irish), Robbie Kempson (Ulster) and former Bok captain Andr Vos (Harlequins).

Straeuli said that any player - or his agent - who blamed quotas was not worth picking for the Springboks. "It is a sad excuse when a player, through his agent, blames transformation for a move overseas," he said.

"The player is going because of the cash incentive. He told me as much. He wants financial security that he feels the English pound will give him. He does not want to play for South Africa any more. It means more to him to earn pounds than it does for him to play for the Springboks.

"Percy Montgomery has played 50 Test matches for South Africa. He has played many of them at a time when his performances were not up to standard. How many black players have been afforded this opportunity at Test level? I don't know of any."

An angry Straeuli said it was a cop-out to blame transformation and an insult from the player's agent, Craig Livingstone, to refer to Ricardo Loubscher and Conrad Jantjes as "players of colour".

"Montgomery was competing for the full back position with Loubscher and Jantjes, because the latter two are among the leading full backs in the country and not because they are coloured players. All three would have been at the (SA) trials. Montgomery would have been selected on his Super 12 form. He opted out of the trial.

"It is a cheap shot. I am under no pressure to pick black players as Bok coach. My responsibility is that I have to look beyond just white players.

"What South Africans expect of me is to judge a player on his merits. If a black player is good enough, then they want him to be given an opportunity. I don't see this as pressure. "Players who want to play for the Springboks will prove themselves on the field and get the necessary reward.

"We are having a trial. It is player against player. Colour has nothing to do with it. And those players who don't make it and then threaten us with overseas club contracts the moment they feel their form may not warrant national team inclusion, must go." Francois Davids, the Convenor of the Springbok selection panel, said Montgomery and his agent should be big enough to look at his lack of form last year as the reason for his axing.

He did not play well against France and was dropped because of poor goalkicking against New Zealand," Davids said.

"This year he has played well in the Super 12, but for his agent to say he was concerned that his player had to compete against two coloured player is a sad reflection. "We would have expected him to show a bit more fight."