White has taken the precaution of calling in Geo Cronje after Botha injured his foot in the 31-17 first test win in Bloemfontein, but White was confident that his star turn will recover in time to take his place in the side.
"He was a little sore on Sunday but that bit better today," said White.
"Things should be fine by Saturday, although we might not put him in training sessions now. He knows all the lineouts and the calls. We might just keep him off his feet for a while. Geo is there in case Bakkies does not pull through, but that is simply a precautionary move."
Botha was one of the outstanding performers against Ireland last Saturday and besides scoring two tries caused the Irish no end of trouble with ball in hand and as a highly successful ball retriever from re-starts. His contribution was recognised by White when he said, "You know there was a lot of talk about the two Irish locks as being tyrants in world rugby.
"But all credit to Bakkies. On Saturday he's stood up and I think in terms of world rugby he has put his name up as one of the best locks around. "
White was particularly pleased with the way his young side handled themselves against an experienced Irish side.
"To get a win against Ireland after they've had such a great season was really very important for us.
" What we're trying to do is prepare a side for the upcoming international tour games. So we've been training hard and when you've a heavy work-load you lose a couple of guys as we did in the run up to the game. But all credit to the players who got picked later on in the week they definitely put their hands up on Saturday afternoon.
" I was a little disappointed with the score at half-time. We got a good start with that early try and I thought maybe it would be the boost for a young team to really put it on. But Ireland have been around a while they've been playing together, they didn't panic and they worked really hard in that first half to get back to eleven all by half-time.
"Then in the second half when Ireland went in front our side didn't panic. Remember we had a very inexperienced side out there. They could quite easily have paniced when they went down after such a good start.
"We knew the altitude would play a huge factor. It always does, not just with international sides but also with domestic sides when they play Currie Cup games here.
"So it was a case of keeping ourselves in there. We knew that as long as we were in there with a shout there'd be enough legs at the end to get us through."
And what abot the return in Cape Town ?
"Ah you know, Test rugby, it never gets easy. But it is always easier to go back to the second Test when you've won, as opposed to pick yourself up losing the first one. I think it's going to be a great occasion."
