When you start feeling down on the ARU and the Wallabies, just be grateful that we don't have the sort of issues they are continuing to have to battle in SA these days!

SA rugby leaders talk racism

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

South African rugby leaders confronted criticism in parliament on the sport's racial transformation.

The sports portfolio committee met with national and provincial rugby bosses, who along with Springboks coach Jake White came under fire for the allegedly slow pace of rugby's transformation from a white-dominated sport.

Few black players got to play in the Super 14, said committee member Cedrick Frolick.

"We do have the players in the system. It is a question of giving them playing time," Frolick said according to the South African Press Association.

Member Mgolodi Dikgacwi agreed, and asked: "How many get to play and how many must sing?"

South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins said some apartheid-era issues still needed to be fixed.

He apologised to the committee for any member subject to racist behaviour in rugby, referring to chairman Butana Komphela being abused by a white supporter at a recent match.

"Some of the criticism is justified but what we are saying is ... encourage us as well," Hoskins said.

He assured the committee SARU was committed to change, and cited the adoption on Friday of a transformation charter.

But committee members believed the process was taking too long, and queried the absence of certain black faces from the South Africa squad for upcoming matches. Cas Saloojee said he would be convinced there really was transformation when he was "sitting in a committee room like this not faced with essentially white officials."

Lions president Jannie Ferreira told the committee that transformation wasn't an overnight process.

Rugby had been forced into player quotas, yielding what he called the "two black wing syndrome" in which black players were put in positions "where the perception is they can do the least damage."

But Ferreira said rugby wanted to transform, and it would when there was love for the game at community level and skills taught to schoolkids. The government could help, he added, by investing more in facilities in poor communities to encourage children to play.

"We need to develop these kids. We cannot just pull them out of thin air," Ferreira said. "Provide us with opportunities so that we can provide opportunities to people and from there can deliver a performance-based system."

The formation of a national academy was being discussed to help the process, noted SARU chief executive Johan Prinsloo.

White was criticised for overlooking some in-form black players for "over-the-hill" white ones, and being conferred with too much power by SARU.

"A coach has never been so powerful as this guy," said committee member Lanval Reid.

However, Hoskins noted White had to work within guidelines, and he had to be given some freedom for producing one of the best winning records ever for a Springboks coach at more than 70 per cent.

Hoskins said White was questioned about his decision not to include at least one of the Ndungane twins, Odwa or Akona, in his squad and "acknowledges that he slipped up by not inviting at least one of them."

AP