THOSE who are distributing social media petitions calling for a stop to “quotas in rugby” are basing their campaigns on the premise that black people have never really been interested in rugby.
It is wrong, of course. But are these battles being waged out of sheer ignorance?
Or do their purveyors have more sinister motives?
It is not a secret that blacks have been playing organised rugby for more than 125 years, long before the formation of the Union of South Africa.
The black clubs, which started playing on dusty fields in the 1880s, less than three years after the first white clubs were formed, promoted the game diligently,often under the most difficult circumstances.
But they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
The key areas for the growth of this very British sport among black communities were in Cape Town (in the then District Six and in what is now known as the Bo-Kaap); in the Eastern Cape (in many ways, in the heart of British colonialism), and in Kimberley (near the location of the diamond diggings).
The first club to be formed in Cape Town was the mighty Roslins, in 1881, in District Six.
Two years later, Arabian College, from Cape Town’s Malay Quarter (Bo-Kaap) was formed, followed by Good Hopes, from the same area, and Violets from Claremont.
In the early days, with none of the clubs having their own grounds, matches were played all over the peninsula: in Maitland, Brooklyn, Ndabeni, Claremont and in Athlone, near Vygieskraal.
In 1886, Roslins, Arabian College and Good Hopes, following the example of clubs in other regions, formed themselves into a union – the Western Province Coloured Rugby Union. In 1896, Western Province, Eastern Province, Griqualand West and Transvaal formed a national body for rugby – the South African Rugby Football Board.
It was a time of great fluidity in politics, with African, coloured and Indian community leaders arguing with ever greater intensity for political rights, few could envisage how much stronger they would be if they were to unite.
The tendency to operate in silos was also very much in evidence in sporting codes such as rugby. In 1898, a new club, Wanderers, was formed in District Six. But instead of linking up with the Western Province Coloured Rugby Union, it looked elsewhere to play its matches.
In a country already deeply divided on racial grounds, members of Wanderers felt they would not be comfortable playing in what they saw as a Muslim union. Instead they drew together other clubs that shared their sentiments and formed their own union.
And so it was that California, Temperance, Thistles, Riverstones, Oaks and Africans formed themselves into the City and Suburban Union.
They were later joined by Perseverance, Primrose, Woodstock Rangers and Progress.
Cities were quickly regarded as one of the most progressive unions in Cape Town, even more so after they acquired their own piece of land between Belgravia and Thornton roads in Athlone for £4 000, and turned it into a landmark sports stadium in the area – City Park.
The journey to a non-racial mentality among the country’s black rugby players would be a long one. From 1950-1967, even as some black sports administrators were castigating their white counterparts for their apartheid mindset, black rugby union saw nothing wrong with “interracial” test matches between “South African Coloureds” and “South African Bantus”.
And in another blow to unity, 14 unions, representing more than 10 000 players, broke away from the South African Coloured Rugby Board in 1959, to form the South African Rugby Federation, following a bitter power struggle between the Board’s general secretary Abdullah Abbas and Cuthbert Loriston, who became president of the new body.
In 1965, City and Suburban, which had thrown in its lot with the Federation, returned to the Board.
In 1966, in a giant step towards non-racialism, the Board changed its name, dropping all reference to colour, and calling itself the South African Rugby Union (Saru). But much water still had to flow under the bridge, with splits, threats of splits, walkouts and walk-ins the order of the day.
But among the turmoil, there were some moments of hope…
In 1971, the Kwazakele Rugby Union joined Saru, bringing with it a large number of top-class African players, as well as a number of white players, most notably Cheeky Watson.
Kwaru’s movement to Saru coincided with a much more anti-apartheid approach being adopted by the national body.
In 1972, when the fight for non-racial sport had already started, the Tygerberg Rugby Union came into being after a split in the Northerns Rugby Federation Union, an affiliate of the collaborationist South African Rugby Federation.