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Quite a well balanced article from beyond the country's borders I reckon.
Springboks facing black dawn
By Bret Harris
June 16, 2007
SHORT-term pain equals long-term gain for South Africa. So said a NSW Rugby Union delegate after an unsuccessful motion to cancel the 1971 Springboks tour of Australia at the height of apartheid.
Almost 40 years after that controversial Springboks tour that saw protesters march on the streets of Sydney and led to a state of emergency in Queensland, the issue of race in rugby union is still a divisive topic in South Africa.
The question is no longer whether blacks and coloureds should be allowed to play for the Springboks, but how many should be in the Test team.
South Africa's chairperson on the committee of sport, Butana Komphela, has threatened to pull the Springboks out of this year's World Cup in France if the team does not have enough black players.
Since the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, South Africa has adopted a policy of "transformation", or positive discrimination, covering every aspect of life. Slowly that has come to include the Springboks, a team traditionally dominated by South Africa's white Afrikaaner population.
Over the past few years an unofficial quota system has been phased in that deems at least three players of colour be chosen in the Springboks' starting XV for every Test. Further, there is a preference for at least one black player to selected.
The colour quota has created a rift within the Springboks' set-up. Coach Jake White has managed to turn a disastrous South Africa team into the world's hottest side. And he has done so using South Africa's tried and true methods: a big, aggressive, forward pack creating space for a big, aggressive, set of backs.
Last weekend it emerged there is a push to raise the colour quota from three to 10 players, with White to be replaced by black coach Peter de Villiers after the World Cup.
The plan has created chaos in South Africa and threatens to derail the team's World Cup chances as the white establishment fears for its future. In the long-term, the incorporation of black talent into South African rugby has the potential to revolutionise the game and return the Springboks to the top of the world.
Former Wallabies wing Jim Boyce, who toured South Africa in 1963, is sympathetic to the cause of black players in the republic.
Boyce was one of seven Wallabies who protested against the 1971 Springboks tour of Australia because the South African team was chosen on the basis of colour.
But Boyce is not convinced affirmative action is the answer to the racial issues in South African rugby.
"Politics and sport will always be mixed," Boyce said. "There is certainly a keeness for the Government, which is predominantly black, to see that rugby heroes are drawn from the black population. But that's easier said than done, really."
Boyce said the Springboks needed to field their best team, although he would favour black players in 50-50 selections.
"One would want to encourage black players, but in the end you have to have the best side," Boyce said. "Obviously, where they are equal you would try to favour a black player to come through.
"I think it is important that there are black heroes in rugby. The South African Rugby Union, I would imagine, would want to see black heroes and black referees, black coaches also. A full representation of the population in the rugby side.
"But the Government should be aware of the difficulties of trying to bring black players through to international level.
"It's an issue that everyone in South Africa has to deal with one way or another."
Lloyd McDermott, the first Aborigine to play for the Wallabies, is no stranger to the issue of race in sport.
McDermott, who played on the wing for Australia against the All Blacks in 1962, describes himself as a "guarded supporter" of transformation in South African rugby.
"You have to look at the history of the matter," McDermott said. "The Springboks have always been the champions of rugby.
"They are steeped in the history of the Afrikaaner game. They were world champions before they were excommunicated because of apartheid. They were the strongest rugby nation in the world, excluding the blacks. Now they've got the Rainbow Nation they have to give black players an opportunity, which has been denied them.
"They are playing catch-up rugby. They haven't had the facilities or the coaches to develop. They had nothing. You can't put someone in who is going to mess up. That's the problem. You've got to avoid that.
"I'm guardedly a supporter, but it has to be fine-tuned. If they are not up to it, it can do more damage to black athletes."
Whether you agree with transformation or not, the frustration at the slow pace of change in South African rugby is understandable.
A glance at South Africa's World Cup teams is indicative of a lack of black representation in the Springboks' first XV.
Chester Williams played on the wing in South Africa's World Cup-winning team of 1995 and later said he felt like a token selection. Breyton Paulse was on the wing in the 1999 World Cup campaign. Another winger, Ashwin Willemse, was in the top side in 2003. In France this year, the Springboks will most likely have two black/coloured wingers, Bryan Habana and either JP Pietersen, Odwa Ndungane or Willemse.
Unlike the descendants of west Africans who dominate American sport, southern Africans are generally small, which explains why they are mainly chosen on the wing.
It is understandable that small athletes are not chosen in a rugby team's tight-five, but it is intriguing that there has never been a black Springbok five-eighth.
"I have a feeling the coaches in South Africa, who are drawn from the apartheid era as players, are a little bit unreconstructed," Boyce said.
"The style of play is a traditional South African white style of play. It tends to favour the physical type of white South African. It hasn't incorporated the brilliance that is often found in black players.
"There was a tremendous reluctance - you could say it was racism and it probably was - to play black players at quarterback in American football. I've even heard in New Zealand, 'don't play Maoris at five-eighth'. It's so silly. It's been proved wrong again and again and again.
"I'd love to see black players playing five-eighth and inside positions yet they tend to be selected on the wing.
"If you got a South African version of Mark Ella at five-eighth; if suddenly you got this incredible inventiveness ..."
While rugby is a quasi-religion in white South Africa, soccer has traditionally been the game played by blacks.
South Africa will host the 2010 Football World Cup, which will be a major fillip to the code in the republic.
"If I was a black guy in South Africa, that's quite an attraction," Boyce said. "There are only a few black heroes in rugby, but there are a lot of black heroes in soccer. Benni McCarthy plays in the English Premier League, for instance.
"A black guy growing up. Which sport does he play? Gee, there's a huge attraction to play soccer. You tend to follow your heroes.
"Certainly, black heroes will play rugby, but it takes a long time to come through. You look at the websites of the various clubs and there aren't that many black faces.
"I can't think of too many black coaches in South Africa at all. These are the type of things, when black people are fully integrated into rugby, that will happen. It takes a very long time for it to happen."
Ironically, the most controversial selection in the Springboks this year was a white player, Luke Watson.
Jake White has always overlooked Watson, claiming he is too small to play on the flank of the Springboks scrum. However, the SARFU has overridden the coach and added Watson to the squad.
Watson is the son of Cheeky Watson, an icon of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, who famously turned down a Springboks jersey as a form of protest.
Luke Watson, who has strong opinions on black rights, is seen as a child of the struggle and there is talk of him becoming Springboks captain post-World Cup and leading a South African team that is coached by a black man and includes no fewer than 10 black players.
"That strikes me as somewhat heavy-handed," Boyce said. "There should be a natural progression if possible."
Whether the end is achieved by revolution or evolution, the future of South African rugby is potentially mind-boggling if the Springboks can ever bring together the best of their white and black players.
South Africa has hardly scratched the surface in the development of black players, which is a largely untapped reservoir of 40million people.
Imagine a South African team made up of white forwards and black backs with a Springbok Mark Ella calling the shots.
"It's a huge population," Boyce said. "You are drawing on a population which is twice the size of Australia's. They could be an incredible team.
"They are a very good team now but the potential is endless."
As that NSWRU delegate said in such colourful language in 1971, South Africa was hard enough to beat without black players. Just think how good the Springboks will be when the team is fully representative.
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Originally Posted by Burgs
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau." 
