Bok camp smacks of double standards

Lungani Zama asks: how can Heyneke Meyer select a player who has just gotten off the rehab table? Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images

Lungani Zama asks: how can Heyneke Meyer select a player who has just gotten off the rehab table? Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images

Published Sep 22, 2014

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Apparently all it takes to be a racist these days is to dare to question the selection policy of a national coach, particularly one of a sports code that still suffers from an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality.

You could swear that instead of imploring the Bok coach to at least attempt a move away from his one-dimensional selections, I had donned a red beret, organised a mob, and marched to SARU’s offices with a land claim.

It would be almost funny, if it wasn’t so misguided.

Let’s be clear, people; never was it said that the so-called Spring-Blacks must take the place of the current Boks. Neither was it argued that any of those players had to be given special treatment, which is what quotas are basically inferring.

The knee-jerk responses to the Spring-Blacks were fast and furious, saying it wasn’t right how certain sections of the media always take one good performance from a player of colour, and prematurely declare him as the best thing since sliced bread.

But, surely, those same detractors can not have their bread buttered on both sides?

Because there is seemingly nothing wrong with slapping a ‘future-Bok star’ tag on a white player at the drop of a hat. On these very pages, I have championed the merits of Pat Lambie, of Pieter-Steph du Toit, of Willie le Roux and, to cast the net wider, Dean Furman (a Bafana Bafana white midfielder, to the uninitiated), as well as a host of cricketers pushing for higher honours.

Not once was I called out for favouritism then, though those arguments were saying essentially the same thing as last week’s musings about the so-called Spring-Blacks. But, in one column, I was suddenly stirring the racial pot, causing even greater divide by suggesting that the Bok hierarchy wasn’t giving every player in his squad a fair shake.

I do not believe in quotas, having seen first-hand what damage that can do to team dynamics and, worse, individual development. But I also don’t believe in double standards, which is what the Bok camp increasingly smacks of.

There is an autobahn to the playing field for some, and a rickshaw lane for others – both black and white players, mind – and that is simply a load of kak.

The Bok propaganda machine has been at it again this past week, paving the way for Schalk Burger to jump from the treatment table to the starting line-up for the Wallabies Test at Newlands, by pointing out that it makes pure rugby sense.

And anyone who disapproves of such a move would be ‘tactically ignorant’. Meyer’s fast-fading rhetoric of rewarding form seldom gets questioned, with the conversation instead steered in a new direction, conveniently.

Burger is a wonderful player, but what form do you get straight off the rehab table?

The only purpose of those ‘Spring-blacks’ names last week was to remind those who routinely bemoan the supposed lack of black talent coming through that there are, indeed, perfectly capable options in the much-maligned system already.

Meyer himself expressed his ‘excitement’ at several of these players in his first squad announcement of the year, and also his desire to give them a chance to see what they can really do.

Now unless those words were purely tokenism or political sugar-coating, then we have to wonder what has changed since then? And by some of us putting those misgivings on the public table, does that make us trouble-makers?

Just because an injustice or imbalance of opportunity isn’t your personal reality, it doesn’t mean that it is not true. Surely that is the point of public opinion; it should be a melting pot of comments and concerns, each not necessarily agreeing with the other, but also being mature enough to take on board alternate views?

Every coach will have his favourites, rightly or wrongly. And so long as he is winning, it is hard to question that logic. But, as true Bok followers – which is why we are all so vocal about their fortunes on these platforms – if we are still not concerned by the direction this team is taking, then perhaps we are watching different matches.

The Bok hierarcy seem hell-bent on ignoring other avenues, despite our fabled physical presence no longer being decisive in the international fold. Other nations are now just as big, if not bigger and, tellingly, marry that size to some sensational skills.

At several intervals in this Rugby Championship, the Boks have been bullied off the ball, and then outsmarted by craftier players. Size, it seems, is not everything, especially if it isn’t married to skills that take advantage of what you win at the coal-face.

This Championship is no longer there to be won, so why not cast aside the shackles and see what Plan B could produce?

It is that resolute defiance to stick to the Jurassic game-plan of years ago, with a select band of brothers, that will define this era of Bok rugby. In a year from now, we will again be wondering just what the last four years have produced, unless by hook or tender crook, we burgle the William Webb Ellis Cup from the United Kingdom.

And while we speak so tentatively of blacks here, a look across the seas to the original darkies of rugby shows that they have built their depth purely on rewarding form, there and then. That isn't to say they are cheapening the All Black jersey - far from it. They are creating depth, as well as a steady stream of pride and excitement when a new player walks into the team for the first time.

They now have two or three world-class players for each position, and each has enough international experience to slot straight in, should a crisis arise, as it did for them at fly-half at the last World Cup.

We have way more playing resources than the All Blacks. Yet, more and more, it seems that only a select few are entrusted with the responsibility of the Springbok jersey.

That can’t be right. - Sunday Tribune

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