Four black players must start for SA Super 14 sides

[NewsBot]

Four black players must be included in the starting line-ups for the five South African teams in this year's Super-14 competition, South Africa Rugby Union (SARU) chief executive Johan Prinsloo said on Friday.{br}{br}View the Entire Article{br}

[Burgs]

I understand the underlying intent but there is little wonder that young white South African rugby players are queing up to come to Perth with measures like this in place!
There has to be a fairer way based more on merit than this?

[Darren]

Given the player base in SA, I think they'd be hard pressed to NOT be able to find 4 black players who deserve a starting position anyway! They may just need to look rather than over-look as done in the past. It may be tough and unfair on todays up and coming non-black players, but they are essentially paying for the biased treatment their predescessors got.

I'm not a really fan of "affirmative action" such as this - but until the scales are leveled or something fairer/better comes along, I personally am willing to accept it. If my first statement *is* true, then perhaps greater investment in scouts to go out and find the best black players?

Mind you, I have never been affected by these sorts of policies, so should probably keep my mouth shut...

[Burgs]

I think your first and last lines pretty much sums it up Coach, there must be players there but we aren't there so hard to comment. But I'm going to anyway
I would say that regarding "paying for the past", two wrongs don't make a right though.
Perhaps a better system would be to leave Springbok selection to be fully on merit and have an "All Black" team competing in the likes of the African Cup to build International exposure that way?
I just feel that fair enough at all the development levels of all the SA sports but when it comes to selecting the team to represent the country then it should be the best of the best regardless of skin colour.
To beat the Springboks now is a little hollow if you know that some of the players may not be there on merit, but rather to fill a quota system. It's fine while their stars are fit but what happens if they get a year like 05 for the Wallabies and lose 15-16 top line players, suddenly they will be into the searching for players of the right pedigree rather than the best skills? You would have to assume that there is some percentage of heritage that would need to be met? Does this include the (don't know the modern PC word for them now but the mixed race) Coloured players as well?

[Darren]

There is lots of possible debate with this one, political, philosophical ....

I think the net effect of this policy will be that they *will* find themselves some skilled black players, and then train and coach them to the standard the world expects . A win against the bok will still be anything but hollow.

Now I think I'll go and shut my mouth.....