JOHANNESBURG, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - South African rugby officials on Tuesday offered a cash reward to try and track down three white men who allegedly attacked a black fan at an international game last weekend.

The South African Rugby Union (SARU) described the attack as 'despicable', and offered 10,000 rand (1,280 dollars) to anyone who could identify perpetrators of the 'racist attack that took place during Saturday's Vodacom Tri-nations Test between Springboks and the Australia'.

Ziningi Shibambo, 30, told the media that she was assaulted and racially verbally abused by three white men during a half-time break in Saturday's game.

She said that a man's shoulder initially bumped her.

'I thought it was an accident, I looked at him and I was about to walk away when he said 'you bloody k....r (full kaffir, racist abuse against blacks, meaning bastard) what are you doing here?

'You people have taken over ther country and now you want to take over the only white sport left,' she told The Star on Tuesday.

'They told me that (President Thabo) Mbeki had messed up the country and it was going to be like Zimbabwe, and now we had even taken away their sport and appointed a black coach,' she said.

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is a black South African.

The incident has triggered a fresh row over post-apartheid black-white relations in a game which had been regarded as for whites.