Will we learn from the latest hullabaloo? Unlikely
The game that first brought the nation together after the 1995 win, is under threat in SA after this year's IRB Rugby World Cup win.
South Africa is a country desperate for good news, and the feel good factor came in leaps and bounds - so to speak - with the South African rugby team’s world cup victory in France last month.
www.keo.co.za has been and remains by far South Africa’s most popular blog. Keo is about rugby and cricket in South Africa. South Africa’s blogosphere has been all abuzz with rugby for the past two months, and tens of thousands have flocked to Keo for up-to-the-minute news on what was happening with the Boks.
What Color Is Your Blood?
When the Springboks arrived back in South Africa three weeks ago, it was to a heroes welcome. Representing every color and creed,an enthusiastic mob ? some had camped at Oliver Tambo Airport ? dressed in green and gold, holding flags, awaiting the Boks arrival on home soil. These scenes were mirrored for several days as the Boks were seen by thousands in street parades. The whole country, it seemed, was celebrating. The media proclaimed: ‘Our blood is green.’
It was wonderful to see South Africans coming together in the streets, happy, laughing, enjoying themselves.
But hardly a week after the victory parades, speculation was rife that SARU, the South African Rugby Union, intended now to make good on threats to tear the number one side in the world apart, in favor of ‘transformation’. South Africa’s Springbok coach Jake White, the Boks themselves and winger Bryan Habana were still enjoying the flush of being respectively voted by the International Rugby Board: Coach of the year, team of the year and player of the year.
Apalling
Despite the accolades, rumors and speculation continued: would the coach be fired despite overwhelming support from the people? Why change a winning team? Naturally, the South African public were appalled at the officious meddling seemingly going on. Within 10 days of their victory, forums on the internet and newspapers filled up with angry repartees on racism. Black writers who probably were never interested in rugby to begin with, now scored points against the Sport. They said it was a racist sport. Racism 1, Rugby 0. Others argued that South Africa’s number one player ? Bryan Habana ? was not white.
Jake White was accused of being racist (for not selecting a more representative side), and White in turn accused SARU of ‘siphoning what they could’ from the game, but not having the interests of the game at heart. South Africans, instead of continuing to celebrate, followed the revelations with growing dismay. It was soon discovered that while the South African coach was trying to hold things together in France, and with just days to go before the crucial final, White discovered his job was being advertised openly back in South Africa.
You’re Fired
Sadly, despite rousing public and personal support from a usually introspective South Africa president, and despite overwhelming support from players and what appears to be the majority of South Africans, the South African coach quit his post less than two weeks after the World Cup win. Many commentators have since astutely suggested that it was less a resignation than a case of the coach being fired.
Subsequently there has been some ironic humor in recalling this turn of events. “Is White the best man to coach an All Black team?” This plays on the fact that the All Blacks already exist in the form on a New Zealand team, they are the arch rivals of the Springboks, but having lost his job, White will still be riding the wave of World Cup celebrity, and will of course be very much in demand to coach other rugby teams beyond South Africa. While New Zealand’s All Blacks have started from scratch (having fired their coach and support staff), White is likely to find a job either in England or Australia.
In the last week, hysterical calls from SA Rugby’s Mike Stofile to insert more black players in the team have since been amended in favor of a more gradual ‘process’. White, having resigned, has defended his choices, saying that in the Super 14 (essentially a tournament that preceded the World Cup in 2007) there were very few South African black players even in these teams. Yet with his arm twisted, he did give a few sub par ? in terms of Srpingbok standards - players opportunities (Kabamba Floors to name just one), before resolving to stick with his first choice of players.
Furious
SARU were furious when they found they could not get White to choose players for reasons other than merit. But this fury has been overwhelmed by massive domestic support for the players and the coach.
SA Rugby have also recently backtracked on calls to block those Springboks who play club rugby abroad from being able to come back and play for the Springboks. This is concession may be due to a mutinous public who has declared they will boycott the next ‘racist’ sub par Springbok team by refusing to buy test tickets, and holding Bok sponsors accountable for supporting this rugby heresy.
On recent news bulletins comments have been raised that Jake White never intended to remain with Boks. He has written a book: In Black and White; The Jake White Story. This book contains much damning evidence against SARU: bizarre practices (bugging of telephones, bullying etc) but which boils down to very ‘unsporting’ conduct from custodians of the sport who ought to know better.
While some suggest that White had made up his mind in advance that he didn’t want to coach the Boks (waving his book around as evidence) his own words perhaps speak more accurately. White said his job had been made very difficult, but that he would like to keep his post. When he resigned he said it was ‘with great sadness’. Since the application process was already underway, said SARU, and White’s application was ‘late’, he would not be considered. This overly legalistic attitude speaks volumes.
Even during workplace discussions, there have been discussions around this ‘reverse racism’. Some have the opinion that since the end of Apartheid in 1994, more and more black people elect to jump the queue by using the race card, and indeed this appears to be so. Affirmative Action in South Africa means that the workplace should contain a large amount of ethnic South Africans (blacks) whether or not they are better qualified. In many instances, they are not. Thus the echoing of this affirmative action mentality in sport is a bitter pill for many South Africans to swallow.
Perhaps the most remarkable irony are the implications for South Africa’s unexceptional Football squad, in lieu of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There appears to be a natural schism in South Africa, where many whites enthusiastically support rugby, but not soccer, and vice versa.
Conventionally, most faces attending Currie Cup rugby games (a domestic rugby tournament that coincided this year with the World Cup) are white. There are no calls to insert white players into the all black national soccer team, possibly because - for now at least - white South Africans still don’t care about South Africa’s soccer teams.
What is true is that everyone loves a winner. For as long as these political agendas are the order of the day, sports suffer, and their power to unite a nation behind them gets squandered. As such South Africa’s soccer and rugby teams face an uncertain future.
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