The recent announcement by Saru that the Springbok rugby team will have to be 50 percent black by 2019 was met with derision and disappointment on online forums over the past week.
“A black day for Bok rugby”, someone chirped.
“We’ll never win another World Cup”, said another.
“We’re going to do as well as Bafana are doing,” it was added.
Such drastic swipes – and such sweeping quota measures, for that matter – are premature, and wouldn’t be necessary, if the playing (selection) field was even. But as many promising players of colour keep finding out, the goalposts appear to be further away for some than others.
The race card is all too often pulled out prematurely in this country, but when a trend becomes a norm, it is hard for the man in the stands not to wonder if there is something slightly more cynical than rucking and mauling at play.
How many Bok supporters – who unanimously praised his Super Rugby form, mind – honestly feel that Oupa Mohoje has been given the same opportunities as Lood de Jager? The lanky Cheetahs utility forward has carried tackle bags across three countries in the Rugby Championship so far, and watched on as he was overtaken for playing time by Juan Smith’s Lazarus-like return, and then Warren Whiteley’s call-up.
Both Smith and Whiteley are quality players, but how does Mohoje drop down the list without being given his own chance?
Juan de Jongh and S’bura Sithole have also swallowed a similar dose of reality this year. Praised across media circles for their form in Super Rugby, and picked in Heyneke Meyer’s opening squad of the season, they have both watched themselves slip out of the reckoning. They had to watch on as Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen were picked ahead of their specialist offerings at the start of the season, in a World XV friendly that didn’t even have Test status.
Steyn and Pietersen are in Japan making millions, as they always said they would, but the pair of De Jongh and Sithole are slumming it in the Currie Cup. In terms of continuity or simply reward for good form, that decision to play a pair of individuals about to leave South African shores ahead of two committed, in-form alternates, was bizarre.
But not uncommon.
The list of blacklisted darkies whose climb to top Bok honours has hit a cultural cul-de-sac is long and lamentable. Meyer has resolutely stuck to his tried and trusted (Jake White’s players, as some critics used to pipe up before Meyer took over), even going so far as encouraging some warhorses to come back from semi-retirement and the commentator’s couch, instead of looking to give a fair shake to other players at his disposal.
Meyer admitted earlier this year that he did have a tendency to opt for players that he has worked with before when faced with a 50/50 selection. That is not a good mindset for a national coach to start from. In fact, that is a quota policy in itself, really.
For one thing, he has only worked within a limited part of the South African rugby landscape, traditional stronghold though it may be. Added to this, he is loyal to one style of rugby, predictable and outdated though it may be.
It still remains one of Meyer’s greatest surprises that he picked the smaller, but infinitely slicker Willie le Roux over a steady donkey at the back. Le Roux’s interplay with like-minded players like Cornal Hendricks, for example, have given a further hint of what headaches the Springboks can cause the mighty All Blacks, if given the freedom to express themselves.
And across backlines in South Africa, there is plenty more expressive talent for Meyer to pluck from, even beyond incumbents Bryan Habana and Hendricks. It is telling that most of them have their grounding in Sevens rugby, which irons out any flaws, while encouraging flair and unpredictability.
In an ideal world, there should be no need for all this c**p of quotas and so-called compromises. Especially not in a country full of so much rugby potential. But, administrators and political mouthpieces are forced to stand up and make suggestions or, worse, enforce stipulations when that transformation is stopped dead in its tracks by key figures who refuse to remove their blinkers. Listed below is a so-called Spring-blacks XV, a clutch of players of colour who have either had a brief taste of international rugby or, in future years, may be ripe for higher honours.
A look across that team confirms plenty of talent.
THE SPRING-BLACKS: 15-Cheslin Kolbe, 14-Seabelo Senatla, 13-S’bura Sithole, 12-Juan de Jongh, 11-Lwazi Mvovo, 10-Elton Jantjies, 9-Rudy Paige, 8-Tera Mthembu, 7-Oupa Mohoje, 6-Siya Kolisi, 5-Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 4-Lubabalo Mtyanda, 3-Trevor Nyakane, 2-Bongi Mbonambi, 1-Alastair Vermaak