Sadly I have already written about the demise of Spurs this week and I don't want to keep kicking them while they are down... well maybe I do... but I won't.
Instead I want to look at race and rugby in South Africa.
The history of the Springboks is fairly eventful to say the least.
It wasn't until 1992 that the current Rugby Union was established with the unification of the former whites-only South African Rugby Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union.
This led to readmission into international rugby after eight years of isolation due to apartheid.
Episode One
During the 1995 RWC, hosted and won by SA, the Springboks were the toast and hope of the 'Rainbow Nation'. An emotional closing ceremony with Mandela passing over the Webb Ellis Trophy to Pienaar was meant to be symbolic. Chester Williams was the first post-apartheid black player to where the green and gold and it was expected that the sport would now reach out into the townships.
However for various reasons this never happened.
Ten years of scandal, misery and embarrassment meant that it wasn't until Jake White stepped up from U21 coach that there was any hope.
A New Hope
Having comfortably won this year's World Cup it was once again hoped that rugby in South Africa could reach out to the clearly fervent support in the black regions, and discover more players.
I strongly believe that the strongest XV players should line up at kick off, no matter their colour, I also feel that rugby is a sport that should support all corners of all countries. Coaching and money should be invested in the game where there are people who want to play, and South Africa as World Champions should set a standard.
The Empire Strikes Bok
Unfortunately it looks like Sarfu have not learned any lessons from 1995. Yesterday the planned visit of the returning champions to the Township of Soweto was canceled and the disappointment was clear to see.
"We're devastated about it. We were expecting to see our heroes within the backyard of Soweto," said Johannes Mhlongo, captain of the Soweto Rugby Club.
Lets hope I'm wrong and they have learned some lessons.
3 comments:
The Empire Strikes Bok?? Love it!
But seriously...about the whole race and South Africa issue, read this guardian blog, or at least the contributors' articles, from a few weeks ago before the final.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/10/16/rugby_a_reflection_of_nations.html
The comments go on for ages and get fairly heated, but a lot are worth trawling through if you get a spare few hours!
Mainly caught my attention since the articles are chock full of such a wealth of shite it's hard not to get ranty..
Wait wait wait - that link's not right..i know my IT skills are fairly hard up, but just sort of, paste these 2 together:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/10/16/
rugby_a_reflection_of_nations.html
good comment tim, i thought you would like the old star wars pun's!
that article was good, as always the comments are fun to read!
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