Rugby union in South Africa

Rugby union along with cricket and football are the three most popular ball sports in South Africa. Football.Fact|date=October 2007 however remains the most popular sport amongst South Africans but rugby union along with cricket are very popular as opportunities are opened up to all South Africans. The South African national team are currently the world champions after winning the Rugby World Cup 2007 in France, beating defending champions England 15-6.

Given South Africa's history, as with much else in South Africa, the organisation and playing of rugby has been entangled with politics, and racial politics in particular.

History

When Canon George Ogilvie became headmaster of Diocesan College in Cape Town in 1861, he introduced the game of football, as played at Winchester College. This version of football, which included handling of the ball, is seen as the beginnings of rugby in South Africa. Soon, the young gentlemen of Cape Town joined in and the first match in South Africa took place between the "Officers of the Army" and the "Gentlemen of the Civil Service" at Green Point in Cape Town in 1862 and ended as a 0-0 draw. The local press reported a series of football matches between scratch sides "Town v Suburbs" or "Home v Colonial-born".

In around 1875 rugby began to be played in the Cape colony, the following year the first rugby (as opposed to Winchester football) club was formed. Former England international William Henry Milton arrived in Cape Town in 1878. He joined the Villagers club and started playing and preaching rugby. By the end of that year the Cape Town had all but abandoned the Winchester game in favour of rugby. British colonists helped spread the game through the Eastern Cape, Natal and along the gold and diamond routes to Kimberley and Johannesburg. British troops would also play a key role in spreading the game throughout the country.

Rugby union was introduced to South Africa by British colonists and began to be played in the Cape colony around 1875. In 1887, the Stellenbosch club was formed in the predominantly Boer farming district outside Cape Town and rugby was enthusiastically adopted by the young Boer farmers. As British and Boer migrated to the interior they helped spread the game from the Cape colony through the Eastern Cape, and Natal, and along the gold and diamond routes to Kimberley and Johannesburg.

In 1883 the Stellenbosch club was formed in the farming district outside Cape Town, rugby was enthusiastically adopted by the young Boers. The game was strong enough in the Western Cape for the Western Province Rugby Football Union to be formed that same year; Griqualand West followed in 1886; Eastern Province in 1888; Transvaal in 1889 and in 1889 the South African Rugby Board was founded. Kimberley was the founding city of the South Africa Rugby Football Board in 1889.

In 1889 the first nationwide tournament was held at Kimberley, with the Western Province (rugby team) prevailing over Griqualand West, Eastern Province and Transvaal.

The first-ever tour of the British Isles by a team from southern Africa (drawing on players from the then independent republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal) took place in 1891, with the trip financially underwritten by (the British arch imperialist) Cecil Rhodes of the Cape and (the resolutely Boer) President Kruger of the Transvaal Republic. Seven years later Brtain was at war with the Boer republics, and during the Boer war British troops would play a key role in entrenching the game throughout the country, and games amongst the Boer population in prisoner of war camps popularised the game further.

From the early years the game had been enthusastically and passionately adopted by coloured and black populations in the Cape colony, and the Eastern Cape in particular, but rugby organisation (under the South Africa Coloured Rugby Board formed in 1896) and teams were kept segregated with discrimination against black and coloured players and little government funding.

Even before the 1948 elections in South Africa in which the apartheid government came to power and legislated systematically along racial lines, foreign sporting teams going to South Africa had felt it necessary to exclude non-white players. New Zealand rugby teams in particular had done this, and the exclusion of George Nepia and Jimmy Mill from the 1928 All Blacks tour, and the dropping of "Ranji" Wilson from the New Zealand Army team nine years before that, had attracted little comment at the time. From in 1960 international criticism of apartheid in particular grew in the wake of "The Wind of Change" speech by the British Prime Minister, Macmillan, and the Sharpeville massacre near Johannesburg in South Africa. From then onward, the Springboks, perceived as prominent representatives of apartheid South Africa, were increasingly internationally isolated.

Coming shortly after the Soweto riots as it did, the 1976 All Blacks tour of South Africa attracted international condemnation and 28 countries boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics in protest. The next year, in 1977, the Commonwealth signed the Gleneagles Agreement, which discouraged any sporting contact with South Africa. A planned 1979 Springbok tour of France was stopped by the French government, which announced that it was inappropriate for South African teams to tour France, and after the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand went ahead in defiance of the Gleneagles Agreement, South Africa was banned by the International Rugby Board from international competition until such time as apartheid ended.

From 1990 to 1991 the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished, and in 1992 the Springboks were readmitted to international rugby. On the 23rd of March 1992 the non-racial South African Rugby Union and the South African Rugby Board were merged to form the South African Rugby Football Union. The unified body changed its name in 2005 to the current South African Rugby Union.

SA Rugby celebrated 100 years of test rugby in 2006 and unveiled a new logo at a function at ABSA Stadium in Durban. Celebrations continued later on in the year, with two tests against England at Twickenham.

Present

According to the IRB South Africa has 434,219 registered players broken down into: 157,980 pre-teen males; 121,879 teen males; 143,722 senior males (total male players 423,581); 1,653 pre-teen females; 5,504 teen females; 3,481 senior females (total female players 10,638).

There are 4,074 referees.

South African born players who have represented other countries

Since the readmission of South Africa to international rugby, its rugby talent has migrated across the world. There are many high profile South Africans who, through residence or ancestry, are representing other countries.
Players of note are
Matt Stevens, Stuart Abbott, Nick Abendanon and Mike Catt for nrut|England
Clyde Rathbone and Daniel Vickerman for nrut|Australia
Brian Liebenberg and Pieter de Villiers for nrut|France
Marcello Cuttitta & Massimo Cuttitta for Italy
Rhys Thomas for nrut|Wales
Andrew Mehrtens and Greg Rawlinson for nrut|New Zealand (although Mehrtens' case is more marginal, as his parents were New Zealanders who were living in South Africa when he was born, and he was raised in New Zealand almost from infancy)

Demographics

From 1990 to 1991 the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished, and in 1992 the Springboks were readmitted to international rugby. The history of discrimination and the high profile association of rugby union with the apartheid era could not, however, be dismissed at a stroke of a pen and the issue of race remains very sensitive post-apartheid in South African rugby. Somewhat ironically, racial classification has become an important part of the attempt to open up the sport and provide opportunities for the previously disadvantaged. Various rugby competitions are now required to operate racial quotas whereby a specified number of each team must be non-white. The Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament in 2007 and provided that sports federations would be compelled to supply government with a racial demographic breakdown of their membership in order to qualify for state funding.

Quotas have not however officially been applied to the national Springbok team, but there has been increasing frustration at the lack of elite black players resulting in growing political pressure. A number of MPs of the African National Congress (the governing party), including the influential Parliamentary Sports Committee chairman Butana Khompela, have called for powers for the government to influence the selection of national teams. In July 2006, Springbok coach Jake White told the press he had been unable to pick certain white players for his squad "because of transformation" - a reference to the ANC government’s policies of requiring racial selection in attempting to redress the racial imbalances in national sport. Prior to the 2007 World Cup, Butana Komphela gave an interview in which he suggested that passports would be confiscated if the Springbok team was not "representative" i.e. did not have a racial make up representative of the demographics of South Africa (the white part of the South African population amounts to approximately 8% (4 million) of the national population but dominated the 2007 World Cup winning squad).

Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile has been a vocal critic of the Springboks lack of "representivity" and the slow rate of "transformation", and was widely expected to be the driving force behind the campaign to instal a black coach for the 2008 season who would be expected to give preference to black players. Jake White's contract as the coach of the Springboks expires at the end of December 2007.

The presence of only two coloured players in the winning team's starting line-up, 13 years after the end of white minority rule, has led to a new bout of soul-searching about how to ensure the progress of more black players. However, the debate may however be moving away from quotas and transformation. The failure to develop sport at school level is one of the country's biggest mistakes, President Thabo Mbeki said in Pretoria where he was handed the Webb Ellis Cup by the Springboks following their World Cup victory against England. "We don't put sufficient development in sports and we haven't committed resources needed and this is one of our biggest mistakes". He said development needed to be built from below. Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile recently emphasised the development of talent, ruled out racial quotas for national teams pointing out that this resulted merely in window dressing for international consumption, as a failed experiment in South African rugby showed a few years ago.

However the issue remains politically fraught. Although a survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has showed that only a slim majority of the population favoured racial quotas in national sports teams, there were still strong racial disparities in the level of support for quotas. The survey found that black South Africans were more than four times as supportive of quotas compared to the white population.

The severe economic inequalities in South African society remain a fundamental problem for rugby. The policy of racial segregation was designed to promote the political and economic power of the white minority. To this day, South Africa has to deal with the consequences of this disastrous policy. South Africa has one of the largest income inequalities in the world. The average income of the richest 20% of South African households, largely white, is 45 times more than the average income of the poorest 20% of households, largely black. A large part of the fast growing black majority lives in oppressive poverty. In the outer districts of the cities, there are vast miserable settlements of tin and carton shacks, lacking sufficient sanitation, electricity and water. Many of the residents are illiterate.

Rugby union as the quintessential team sport, with specialised roles of each player and complicated rules, and requiring a reasonable surface and soaring goal posts with specialised coaching, and nutrition, supplements, and injury recovery programmes, is by its nature an upmarket sport. It is much easer to put together a scratch soccer (or even cricket) game with a tennis ball and some stone markers. There remains a severe shortage of resources for grass roots rugby amongst black South Africans in deprived areas, and until basic but essential facilities and programmes at school level, are more widely available, rugby in South Africa will continue to lose the talent of the poor. The future of rugby union in South Africa largely depends on the development of a black middle class and the ability of the state to create equal opportunities for all people, through access to health, education and employment so that the formerly disadvantaged population groups can have their share of the national wealth.

Governing body

From 1990 to 1991 the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished, and in 1992 the Springboks were readmitted to international rugby. On the 23rd of March 1992 the non-racial South African Rugby Union and the South African Rugby Board (the government approved official governing body) were merged to form the South African Rugby Football Union. The unified body changed its name in 2005 to the current South African Rugby Union.

National team

:"Main article: South Africa national rugby union team"

The national team are known as the Springboks. The jersey is a dark myrtle green with a gold collar and a logo of a leaping springbuck and a protea.

The "Springbok" nickname and logo dates from the 1906/7 tour of Britain. The logo was not restricted to the white team alone, the first coloured national team used the springbok in 1939 and the first black team in 1950.

Domestic Competitions

uper 14

The Super 10 was a rugby union tournament featuring ten teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Tonga and Western Samoa, which ran for three years from 1993 to 1995. It was the predecessor of the Super 12 and now the Super 14 tournaments.

The Super 14 is an international provincial competition featuring teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The competition, governed by SANZAR, was formed in 1996 as Super 12 after the game turned professional. The current format is five teams from both New Zealand and South Africa and four teams from Australia. Each team plays each other team once in a round robin format followed by a knockout finals series featuring the top four finishers.

The South African Super 14 teams are as follows:
*Bulls
*Central Cheetahs
*Lions (known as the Cats until September 2006)
*Sharks
*Stormers.

The Super 10 was won in 1993 by Transvaal but the Super 12/14 competition was not won by a South African team until 2007, when South Africa provided the two finalists, the Bulls and the Sharks. The Bulls scored a last-second win over the Sharks in the final.

Currie Cup

The Currie Cup tournament is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces.

Other competitions

Craven Week is the main schools competition in South Africa.

The Vodacom Cup is similar to the Currie Cup with the 14 provinces competing. It is, however, designed to give opportunities for young players to develop skills and refine their talent with a view to playing rugby union at a higher level.

International Competitions

Rugby World Cup

South Africa did not take part in the first two World Cups, held in 1987 and 1991, as they were still under an international boycott due to apartheid. South Africa however did play an important role in the first world cup; despite knowing that they would not be able to participate, the delegates voted in favor and provided the swing vote for the World Cup.

Since then South Africa have won the world cup twice, in 1995 in their first appearance when they also hosted the event and again in 2007 in Paris. The 1995 tournament concluded with then President Nelson Mandela (at the time described as the world's most famous former political prisoner), wearing a Springbok jersey and matching baseball cap, presenting the trophy to the South Africa's captain Francois Pienaar (a young Afrikaner). Given the political history of South Africa, the moment is seen as one of the most emotional in the sport's history and symbolic of reconciliation and the birth of a new, free South Africa as a "rainbow nation".

The 1995 Springbok victory was not without controversy in rugby terms for some though. After the match, the New Zealand management disclosed that a number of the All Black team had had food poisoning the day before the final, and ascribed their loss to this. In certain circles there have even been mutterings that that the food poisoning was a conspiracy involving a mysterious waitress named Suzie. However, "Suzie" has never been found and nothing further has emerged.

In 2007 the Springboks repeated their 1995 feat winning the 2007 world cup by defeating England at Stade de France.

Tri Nations

The Tri-Nations is an annual competition involving New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Previously this involved each country playing one home and one away game against both other countries. From 2006 the competition has been expanded with each nation playing both the other nations three times.

The Freedom Cup (against New Zealand) and the Mandela Challenge Plate (against Australia) are competed for as part of the Tri-nations.

Africa Cup

The Africa Cup is an annual competition involving ten African nations. South Africa sends its top amateurs to this competition.

Notes

* [http://www.irb.com/en/Home/MemberUnionHomePage?UnionID=34&Tab=2 IRB pages for South Africa]

External links

* [http://www.sarugby.co.za/ SA Rugby Homepage]
* [http://www.planet-rugby.com/Teams/South_Africa/index.shtml South African rugby union news from Planet Rugby]
* [http://www.irb.com/EN/News/Features/061107+SL+CT+RSA1.htm 100 years of South African rugby: Part one]
* [http://www.irb.com/EN/News/Features/061107+SL+CT+RSA2.htm 100 years of South African rugby: Part two]
* [http://www.irb.com/EN/News/Features/061107+SL+CT+RSA3.htm 100 years of South African rugby (part three) - IRB]