In an electrifying match that had the world on the edge of its seat, South Africa&#8217;s Springboks made history by clinching their fourth Rugby World Cup title. Defeating the formidable New Zealand All Blacks 12-11, the Springboks claimed the Web Ellis Cup for the fourth time.



On October 28, 2023, the Springboks etched their names into the annals of rugby history. For the first time ever, a team hoisted the coveted Webb Ellis Cup four times. The moment was profound, and its ripple effect was felt far beyond the walls of Paris&#8217;s Stade de France. South Africa defeated New Zealand 12-11 in a nail-biting battle for rugby supremacy, marking their fourth win in the history of the Rugby World Cup.


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<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="700" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762438181.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60048" style="aspect-ratio:1.4628571428571429;width:654px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762438181.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762438181-300x205.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762438181-768x525.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Julian Finney &#8211; World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


In 80 tense minutes that could have gone either way, South Africa displayed a level of intensity that was palpable from the get-go. Leading 6-0 just 13 minutes into the game thanks to two penalty goals from flyhalf Handre Pollard, the Springboks signaled their intent early. The All Blacks notched their own penalty goal in the 17th minute, but Pollard&#8217;s third penalty four minutes later kept South Africa ahead; by halftime, the Boks led 12-6.



The New Zealand All Blacks left no room for complacency. Despite being a man down for much of the game due to red cards and injuries, they nearly clinched it. Their first try was disallowed due to a clear knock-on, but when Beauden Barrett scored the first valid try of the match, the tension was almost unbearable.



However, South Africa managed to hold their lead during the All Blacks&#8217; sensational second-half performance, driving the Springboks constantly back toward the try-line but never quite managing to cross it again. By the final bell, South Africa had clinched the victory by a single point.



South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was on the sidelines of the match itself and joined the team to hoist the Webb Ellis Cup. His office congratulated the team in a statement: &#8220;Stronger Together is a belief that came to life for Springbok supporters all around our country, continent, and the world. Sport has the power to transform lives and lift the spirits of entire nations.&#8221; The President also extended his congratulations to New Zealand for a hard-fought campaign, calling them &#8220;deserving finalists.&#8221;



In South Africa, fans swarmed public venues like the Durban International Conference Centre and Montecasino, many of which reached full capacity hours before kickoff. &#8220;Tonight, Siya Kolisi and the 2023 World Cup champions have gifted us an extraordinary, inspired, and inspiring national achievement that lifts our hearts and hoists our flag even higher,&#8221; President Ramaphosa added.


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<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="682" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762113459.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60050" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762113459.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762113459-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762113459-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, with Springboks. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


This win has lifted the gloom of a nation plagued by corruption, power outages, and social strife, allowing South Africans, for a moment, to dare to dream again. &#8220;We found a way,&#8221; said Springbok Captain Kolisi in the post-match interview, still breathless from the game. &#8220;Honestly, I don’t think people not from South Africa understand what this means for our country… Our country goes through a lot, and we are that glimmer of hope that they have.&#8221;


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<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="724" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762435141.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60047" style="aspect-ratio:1.4143646408839778;width:462px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762435141.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762435141-300x212.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1762435141-768x543.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Julian Finney &#8211; World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


As the dust settles on this monumental victory, one thing is abundantly clear: the Springboks have done more than win a tournament; they&#8217;ve won the hearts of a nation desperate for unity and triumph. And that, perhaps, is the greatest victory of all.

New Zealand v South Africa: Final – Rugby World Cup France 2023

South Africa’s Springboks Make History with Fourth Rugby World Cup Win: A Nation Rejoices

In a dramatic Rugby World Cup semi-final, the Springboks edged out England 16-15. Fueled by unity and last-minute heroics from Handré Pollard, the South African team are now gearing up for a highly-anticipated final against their arch-rivals, the New Zealand All Blacks.



In a stunning display of resilience, skill, and unity, the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, clinched a nail-biting victory over England in the Rugby World Cup semi-final on October 21, 2023. Thanks to a last-minute penalty kick from Handré Pollard, the Springboks demonstrated that their journey to the final was far from a fluke. Their 16-15 win over England was a nerve-wracking affair, with Pollard&#8217;s kick ensuring the Springboks&#8217; entry into the final.



&#8220;In a tournament that began back in September, the dedication and unity of the Springboks have been nothing short of extraordinary. The path you’ve walked is not a sprint but a steady and relentless race. You have faced the world’s best with unparalleled speed, tenacity, and power,&#8221; said Herbert Mensah, the newly-elected President of Rugby Africa, in a message addressed to Mark Alexander, President of the South Africa Rugby Union (SARU).


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The Springboks had an arduous journey to the semi-finals, squaring off against some of the world&#8217;s top teams. Their performance was &#8220;extraordinary,&#8221; Mensah noted, emphasizing how the team &#8220;moves as one, whether on the field with seven, fifteen, or twenty-three players, or behind the scenes with the dedicated staff and medics.&#8221; This unity was not just apparent in their play, but also in how the players perceived their collective achievement.



Springbok Captain Siya Kolisi, discussing the match, reiterated that everyone involved in the team contributed to the victory. &#8220;In this team, we remind each other that if we are successful, we will say that South Africa won, not just the 23 who played,&#8221; he said in a post-match interview.



A key part of the Springboks&#8217; strategy was rotating their forwards and introducing crucial substitutes early into the second half. Ox Nche, Vincent Koch, and Bongi Mbonambi were standout performers, tipping the balance in favor of South Africa, particularly during scrums. These tactical adjustments allowed South Africa to mount a comeback after trailing England early on.



The final moments of the match were fraught with tension. With both teams performing at their peak, it was a touch kick that set the stage for RG Snyman&#8217;s 69th-minute try, leveling the playing field for the Springboks. This pivotal moment allowed Handré Pollard to make history with his match-winning penalty kick, reprising his heroics from the 2019 World Cup.



As the Springboks gear up for the final showdown against their old rivals, the New Zealand All Blacks, Herbert Mensah&#8217;s words resonate more than ever: &#8220;From the very beginning to the end, it is the enduring spirit of positivity that will see us through.&#8221;



The Springboks are set to face New Zealand’s All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final on October 28th.

England v South Africa: Semi-Final – Rugby World Cup France 2023

Springboks’ Last-Minute Triumph Sends Them to Rugby World Cup Final

A long way to go before captain Siya Kolisi can hold the World Cup trophy aloft in Paris.



South Africa’s nerve-jangling 29-28 quarterfinal victory over hosts France has reignited belief the side can win back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles, but there is a long way to go before captain Siya Kolisi can hold the trophy aloft in Paris.



The Springboks were immense in the cauldron of the Stade de France and while there will be plenty of sore bodies, they must immediately turn their attention to semifinal opponents England, who they meet at the same venue on Saturday.



On paper, the Boks will be favorites with England having come into the tournament on the back of five defeats in six games, and had a gentle ride through the pool stages before almost coming unstuck against Fiji at the weekend.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="840" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1726782550.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59915" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1726782550.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1726782550-300x246.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1726782550-768x630.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">South Africa celebrate victory at full-time. (Photo by Christian Liewig &#8211; Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



But South Africa’s Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus believes it will be another huge test for his side.



&#8220;If we think England is bad because people from outside say they are not doing well &#8230; our reality is the truth, not the reality that people create outside our camp,” he said.



&#8220;We know from the (English) Premiership, a lot of our players play against them and we know Steve Borthwick is an excellent coach, which he showed at Leicester, and as a captain and a player for England.



&#8220;It will be a very tough test against a team that hasn&#8217;t lost a game (in France) and more or less conceded the same amount of tries and racked up the same amount of points (as South Africa).”



The Boks have shown their ability to switch between two styles, the attacking, ball-in-hand rugby they displayed in the first half against France, and then when they needed to close out the game, the more conservative use of the boot, for which they have been criticized as ‘dull’ in the past.



&#8220;As a team, we don&#8217;t want to be this wonderful rugby side that the whole world loves (because of their expansive style), but we do want to score tries,&#8221; Erasmus said.



“We had to adapt to try and score tries through more open, fluent, running rugby. And you could see in our try-scoring tally, there&#8217;s a lot scored by our backs, more than our forwards.”



The first World Cup semifinal will be played in Paris on Friday night between New Zealand and Argentina.

France v South Africa: Quarter Final – Rugby World Cup France 2023

‘A Very Tough Test’ Awaiting South Africa’s Springboks

After their epic win beating England at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan on November 2, the Springboks returned home to South Africa, undertaking a nation-wide tour, in an open-top bus, holding high the Webb Ellis Cup. In this image, in the township of Soweto, they pass the iconic Vilakazi Street with throngs of screaming, cheering residents and Springbok fans lining the street. The sport united the racially-divided country. For the third time in history, the South African national rugby team was crowned world champions.



Image by Motlabana Monnakgotla

Boks 298

The Springboks And The Cup Of Good Hope

Speedster Seabelo Senatla is the leading Sevens rugby player in the world but is now taking aim at glory in the 15-man game as he targets a first cap for South Africa’s Springboks this season with one eye on the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
A young Senatla dreamed of being an Olympic sprinter and idolized American 100-meters star Marion Jones, but it is with the oval ball in hand where he has risen to global fame and achieved his aim of appearing at the Olympics.
Athletics was always his first love, with a passion for rugby only coming once he had left school, but it still satisfies his need for speed.
“I loved Jones,” Senatla tells FORBES AFRICA. “After every race of hers I watched, I would go outside and mimic her running, trying to be as fast as I could.”
“I remember later, at nine years old, going out with my dad, who had plastic bags that he would use to simulate the sound of a starter’s pistol, and I would be off, fast as I could.”
“I just love running, still to this day. It was always my dream to run the 100-meters at the Olympics. I feel so free when I’m running; I imagine like a horse must feel when they are in full gallop.”
Senatla is already the leading try-scorer in Springbok Sevens history with 189 and the 24-year-old says that having made the switch to 15s, he will not be lost to that format completely, with the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the next Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 to look forward to.
But, in between those tournaments is the chance for the dreadlocked try-machine to be a part of the Bok squad that competes in the 15-man World Cup in two years’ time having taken up his contract with South Africa’s Cape Town-based Stormers Super Rugby franchise this season.
It has been a momentous few years for the Welkom-born flyer, who admits he never saw rugby as a serious career path until he left the Riebeeckstad High School in the Free State province’s mining city.
“I only played socially at school to be honest. I never took it seriously at all; it was just a chance to play with my mates, enjoy the tours and have some fun.”
“But after I finished school I decided to take a gap year before tertiary education. I was invited to the Harmony Sports Academy [in Virginia in the Free State] and that really opened by eyes.”
“There I was working with people who lived and breathed rugby, and put everything into the game. Everything changed for me. I was in a proper, professional rugby environment for the first time and that grew my passion for the game. I went from loving the social side, to loving playing.”
Oddly for a player of his extreme pace, Senatla says he barely played as a wing in his formative years.
“I was always the smaller type, so I was scrumhalf and then moved around a bit, to center and fullback. I actually never played wing for my school.”
It was while studying at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein and playing for his provincial Under-19 and -20 sides that Senatla started leaning towards a career in rugby.
“I could see there was something there. I could see this was something that could feed me and my family. I won a contract to play Sevens and then was called-up to the [2013] Junior Rugby World Cup squad in 15s, and it has gone on from there.”
Sevens has grown in glamour in recent years and is now a sport played at the Olympics. Senatla helped South Africa to the bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro last year, despite being injured for the latter stages of the tournament.
He was undoubtedly the best player on the Sevens circuit in 2016 and was honored as such by being named World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year.
He still has ambitions in that format, like turning Olympic bronze into gold and winning the Sevens World Cup, but for now there is another global prize that has caught his eye.
Having returned to Super Rugby with the Stormers in 2017, he is gunning for a place in Allister Coetzee’s Bok squad this year and was called up for a training camp in March.
“It’s obviously a very different challenge and basically a different game altogether,” he says. “I’m getting back into it slowly, but luckily the team I am at are a great bunch of guys who create a great environment to be in.”
“They play to a system-based structure, which is what I am used to in Sevens, where everybody knows there roles and moves in the same direction. So I am in the right team to develop.”
“There is no doubt my aim is to acquire the Springbok jersey and that is what I am working towards. The next World Cup [in 15s] is the big target. Imagine, I could win the World Cup in 15s and Sevens; that would be really something!”
Senatla says he views his career in phases – the first of which is now complete as he begins the second.
“The first phase was for me to play a lot of Sevens, supplemented with a bit of 15s, to help me develop my skills. Sevens is the best development any rugby player can have because of the skills needed to play the game,” he says.
“The second phase was to move to 15s on a more permanent basis, playing just limited Sevens. I want to remain in 15s for quite a few years, but obviously that depends on my contract situation.”
There is something else that drives him too. His mother, Patricia, was a fine netball player, but was denied the opportunity to compete on the international stage. He believes he gets his athletic ability from her side rather than father Bery, who is a police detective in Welkom.
“My mom was very good at netball, but apartheid took the chance of competing internationally away from her. Now I have the opportunity, it is a chance I want to use to the maximum. I feel very blessed, very lucky and very driven to succeed.”
More success is on the horizon for Senatla and the speedster plans to get there quickly.

The Dreadlocked Flyer Spicing Up Rugby

In this home away from home, the grey-haired former British cabinet minister holds forth in a South African hotel – one glimpse of the glint in his eye and you can imagine the long-haired rebel he once was, running riot and giving the finger to authority.
Forty six years ago, Peter Hain was probably the most hated man among white sports fans in South Africa; the country of his birth. He was barely 19 when he earned the moniker ‘Hain The Pain’ and emerged as chairman of the rebellious anti-apartheid campaign, Stop The Seventy Tour, in Britain. With his friends, Hain ran amok, invading rugby pitches and causing mayhem for the touring South African teams between 1969 and 1970. Their campaign helped bring an international ban on the lily-white South African sport teams of yore.
“I was sports fanatic, like a lot of South African boys. I understood that sports could be the Achilles heel of apartheid, because apartheid in South Africa was terrible and was condemned but still (their) cricket team was appearing at Lord’s and the Springboks at Twickenham. Football (was) everywhere and athletics and so on. So, I thought if we hit that then we could really hit white South Africa morale very deeply,” Hain told Forbes Africa after giving a speech in Johannesburg.
Hain graduated from an unruly activist to a Labour Party minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, between 2001 and 2015. Brown was a fellow anti-apartheid activist in 1969.
Back in 1966, his parents, Walter and Adelaine Hain, were jailed for opposing apartheid and were exiled in London. His parents continued their activism, protesting outside the South African embassy in Trafalgar Square. The teenage Hain immersed himself in non-violent, anti-apartheid protests at all sports grounds.
“In 1969, it was a period of a lot of direct action and non-violent protests, students occupying the campuses, protests against the Vietnam War, in 1968 students revolted in America, I was part of that generation. I thought there was no good in standing outside the stadium holding up placards, that doesn’t get you anywhere, so we ran onto the pitch, we stopped the matches.”
That was not all. Hain and his friends booked a young woman into a London hotel where the Springboks were staying. The woman jammed the door locks of the Springboks rooms the night before a test match at Twickenham. In the morning they had to break the doors down. Then the campaigners lured the Springboks’ driver into the hotel. Just a few hours before the kick-off, the protesters stole the bus with half of the team on board. One of the players wrestled with the driver and the bus crashed into other cars. It took the police an hour to unchain the driver who was tied to the steering wheel.
“South Africa was expelled from the Olympics until Madiba (Nelson Mandela) walked out of the prison and became the president. Those South African teams were never South African, they were white South African teams,” he says.
Now, 50 years after his family’s unceremonious exit, Hain was back in South Africa to address the Wits Business School about Brexit; populism, and the European refugee crisis.  Commenting on the thorny issue around the Springboks’ lack of transformation, he says it doesn’t happen overnight.
“You have to have positive action to promote African, colored and Indian players. But you also have to be competitive internationally. And squaring those two is pretty difficult, I would simply say, it’s going to be bumpy, but somehow you are going through a phase of transition. The cricket team is very, very good. Compared them with when I was protesting, it is millions kilometers better,” he says.
The week Hain arrived, the university fees protests raged across South Africa.
“The economy is being neglected by the ANC. The schools systems are horrifying. In the global school performance index out of the 140 countries, South Africa is 138, below Benin and Mauritania, the poorest countries in the world. This is unacceptable. Where is the money going? They have done fantastically in building houses and giving electricity to people who didn’t have under apartheid,” he says.
Hain was sneaked into the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Parktown, Johannesburg, a few miles from the Wits Business School. The establishment that brought him here was under siege from hot headed activists. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

‘Hain The Pain’ All Grown Up

For decades, Dan Qeqe Stadium, in the dusty Zwide township of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, was a bedrock of black rugby and home to African Bombers, a former first-tier club. It nurtured a handful of professionals, including Springboks Akona Ndungane and Siya Kolisi. The two were among the few blacks to represent their country and earn big money.
<div id="attachment_5060" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5060" class="size-medium wp-image-5060" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-119660385-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" />PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA &#8211; JULY 23: Akona Ndungane of Bulls scores during the Absa Currie Cup match between Vodacom Blue Bulls and Toyota Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on July 23, 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa (Photo by Lee Warren/ Gallo Images/Getty Images)</div>
These days Dan Qeqe is a rundown shadow of itself. The changing rooms are dilapidated and the pitch is baked hard with patches of red grass. Despite the dire condition, without fail, every winter hundreds of boys tackle each other on this pitch; the hope of becoming a Springbok lives on. As a young lad, I donned my oversized hand-me-down rugby jersey and threw my body into the tussle for the oval ball. We stomped the pitch, barefoot, until we were hardened veterans at 17. In 15 years I covered every inch and cut my knees open every week.
Fifty kilometers north of Dan Qeqe Stadium is the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, a state-of-the-art facility built for the football World Cup in 2010. It is home to Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU). In the hot days of summer, just before Christmas, this was the scene of a battle for the soul of grassroots African rugby. It was where managers from over 100 clubs fought their provincial bosses. It was so bad that a scuffle broke out and the security manhandled the angry.
It is part of a struggle to bring hope to black rugby in one of Africa’s hotbeds of the game. The problems run deep at EPRU. For years, there’s been no sponsorship due to lack of accountability; for months players weren’t paid and their reputable coach Carlos Spencer resigned; black players left in droves under claims of financial discrimination and the controversial signing of eight white players, compared to one black player, for the 2016 Super Rugby season.
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Bantwini Matika, the coach of the rugby club Young Collegians and a chairman of a national lobby group Rugby Transformation Coalition, led the fight.
“We have identified these problems for years and followed the due process but without any reward. Now we have seen a collapse of the whole system. Financially, never before has EP Rugby been so in the red. It’s a crisis of unprecedented proportions,” says Matika.
The clubs demanded accountability and a change of management in the provincial structure. At the top of the agenda was the non-payment of EP Kings – the provincial players.
“We are in a serious crisis in the Eastern Cape. This is the home of black rugby. The only reason we got the Super Rugby franchise was solely because Saru (the South African Rugby Union) wanted to create a platform for black players to showcase their talent to the world and for Springbok selection. This has been in the plans of Saru since time immemorial that we need a platform for black players and then the franchise was ideal… Unfortunately the Eastern Cape, which is Border and Eastern Province, has always been unstable because of a lack of resources and lack of sponsors, no solid administrators,” says Matika.
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Since 2014, EPRU has not held a quarterly meeting nor AGM. Matika says, besides the annual grant from Saru, EPRU cannot attract sponsorship because there’s no financial accountability.
“That’s a recipe for disaster. We have talent in abundance (but) our system and administration is not in place. If we don’t have ethical and decisive leadership, if we don’t have proper resources to create an enabling environment for our young people to prosper, we are doomed to fail. Hence you see them running to other unions at a young age. The rot is within the administration,” says Matika.
Mervin Green is Saru’s general manager in strategic performance. He says EPRU made it difficult for Saru to support them in running the business.
“Saru does not interfere with union’s domestic affairs, such as clubs and schools development. We support unions with finances and expertise to ensure they deliver on their own development programs. It is indeed not an ideal situation for everyone what is currently happening at EPRU. However, it is only the clubs that can change the situation,” says Green.
Transformation Rugby Coalition was launched in Soweto, Johannesburg, in 2012. Matika, the former University of Fort Hare captain and coach, was its founding chairman. He laments the lack of transformation in the Springboks.
“After realizing that all the agreements around transformation, whether it is through charters or Saru development plans since 2000, every three years we have a new document that is fruitless. All the rugby activists and (concerned) managers nationwide decided to launch this national structure in 2013 in Soweto. I am glad now we are speaking with one voice and seem to be making a difference and the approach is working for us.”
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A few months before the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, calls were made not to send the Springboks because they didn’t have enough black players. Political party, Agency for New Agenda, made a court bid to block the team from leaving. They lost the case. This followed Saru’s climb down from the 50% black Springbok representation by 2015, they moved it to 2019. The move did not go down well with Transformation Rugby Coalition.
“The disappointing factor is that we are not getting a hearing. We speak and we write to Saru but they are not interested in what we saying. At the personal and individual capacity, Saru President Oregan Hoskins would respond with promises but there’s nothing happening, nor do we get any recognition from Sascoc (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee). We would expect that as a lobby group we should have a budget from government but we are currently sustaining ourselves from our own pockets,” says Matika.
The African dream of playing professional rugby reaches far beyond the Eastern Cape. It’s mid-January, a thousand kilometers north of Dan Qeqe stadium. About 40 barefoot boys, aged between nine and 13, are taken through their paces on a rugby field in Braamfischerville, at the Soweto Rugby Club. Their coach is 35-year-old, chubby and outspoken, Zola Ntlokoma.
“We don’t only create rugby players here, we encourage discipline and we want them to pass with good marks. If you don’t go to school, we have no business with you,” Ntlokoma tells me.
Like his counterpart, Matika in Port Elizabeth, Ntlokoma decries the lack of support for grassroots rugby and asserts that he will transform Braamfischerville into a rugby hotbed. Soweto is a football area with three clubs in the Premier Soccer League.
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“Out of 49 townships there’s none with a junior team anymore after [the Golden] Lions Rugby Union took over development and government pumped money to them to champion development. But the money is not filtered down to grassroots where it is needed most. Hence we were forced by those circumstances to form Soweto Rugby Union. It’s not a racial thing, it is just we are tired of complaining. We won’t beg someone to play rugby, we love rugby,” he says.
Ntlokoma, who is also the secretary of Transformation Rugby Coalition, says in the 1990s Soweto Rugby Club dominated the Golden Lions Rugby junior teams with star player Stanley Mlotshwa representing the junior national team in 1998. The last was Malungisa Nkosi, who played for the under-19s in the World Championships in 2006, in Dubai.
Transformation Rugby Coalition researched why black players were not as involved in South African rugby as they should be.
“We discovered that rugby is not run as it is portrayed in the media. There’s a lot that our government doesn’t understand about how rugby runs. We felt that this is a mafia-like organization. It is held to ransom by businesspeople in Stellenbosch who are controlling the executive of Saru, telling them this is the direction they must take. It is that rich white group that decides who is going to be the president of Saru and the coach of the Springboks,” says Ntlokoma.
“Englishmen introduced rugby in South Africa, not the Afrikaners. Now should we give up and say it is the Afrikaners’ sport, I don’t think we will be doing justice to back off. It is a South African sport, that’s why we should continue embracing it. Some of us still hate the Springbok emblem because it reminds us of apartheid… I was a gangster and this sport gave me a second chance in life. Rugby, like any other sport, it changes people’s lives,” he says.
Liz McGregor, a rugby writer based in Cape Town, says Saru has enough money to expedite transformation. She’s sceptical about the target of 50% black representation in 2019.
“If our promising young black players are not being given regular game time at this level now, the next target – 50% of black Springboks by 2019 – also looks like a chimera. I have heard complaints about marginalization from black players for years, at provincial and national level. If the strategic transformation plan were effective, marginalization should be a thing of the past,” she says.
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McGregor raises concerns about Hoskins’ silence about the failure to hit targets in the Springbok teams.
“Grassroots development will always be a key strategic imperative of Saru. The current strategic transformation plan emphasizes the importance of this transformation dimension. We are actively involved in all unions to ensure we provide access to the game and particularly focusing on schools where there was no rugby before,” counters Green.
Green says Saru’s recruitment drive in 2015 saw 80,000 new players from over 300 schools around South Africa.
“The program for participation will be extended to high schools this year and we hope to reach township and rural schools to be in organized leagues. Our focus is also on capacitation programs of thousands of teachers and volunteers as certificated coaches, match officials and administrators,” says Green.
Clearly there are not enough to help more black Africans play the sport.
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Is A White Mafia Trampling  Black Dreams?

Broad and tall, Francois Pienaar is a big man in every sense of the word. A man who ploughs his own furrow. He muscled his way to win the Rugby World Cup before millions of viewers and nearly 20 years later had the guts to dress up as a potato chip in a Lays commercial.
“Sometimes you will be remembered for that, not for the rugby career. When I check-in at the airport the lady at the counter would look at me and say: ‘Oh, the Lays guy,’” says Pienaar.
In many ways, Pienaar is an enigma. He is the law graduate who never argued a case; the conservative Afrikaaner who led his reluctant players to coach black youngsters in the townships; a man as South African as a springbok, who now spends most of his life outside of the country. On the way, he is trying to find the next Pienaar destined for rugby glory.
The image of Pienaar accepting the World Cup trophy from former president Nelson Mandela, dressed in a number six jersey, is one that lived long in the memory.
“Seeing Mr Mandela wearing my jersey was very incredible, emotional and humbling,” says Pienaar.
Overnight Pienaar became a household name through that unifying moment—an Afrikaaner and a former political prisoner together.
“For Mandela to ask everyone in the country to support the Springboks as their team was unusual but also visionary. The 1995 story was a story about human triumph, where a country that was much divided got an opportunity to celebrate together. All religions and creeds became world champions for the first time.”
The celebrity status stuck. In March this year, Pienaar the businessman shared a stage with Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, and Jordan Belfort, the American stockbroker, at the South African Success Summit in Johannesburg, before 5,000 delegates.
Pienaar and Belfort grew up worlds apart but both saw their life stories told by Hollywood. In the 2009 movie Invictus, Matt Damon played Pienaar. Leonardo DiCaprio played Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
The only disappointment about the movie for Pienaar was the rugby.
“It’s the human story of how South Africa came together and there are a lot of emotional scenes that I like about it but I don’t like the rugby scenes. They are awful. If you played the game, rugby is more beautiful than what is shown in the movie. But, I can understand it was made for the American audiences.”
Pienaar has business interests in university sports development, media and entertainment but says his initiative, Make A Difference Foundation (MAD), is his way of giving back to the poor. Pienaar is the chairman of MAD and it enjoys the support of other former international captains, such as David Kirk, the first winner of the World Cup for New Zealand in 1987, John Eales of Australia, Martin Johnson of England, John Smit of South Africa and Nick Farr-Jones of Australia.
“Make A Difference gives back to the poor people. We founded it 10 years ago in order to help kids in the townships and impoverished areas,” he says.
“We get them to good schooling and give them financial backing to achieve success. One of our first learners we brought on board will be receiving an engineering degree at Harvard University this year,” says Pienaar.
Pienaar says these days he lives for sport development. He runs a business called Varsity Rugby which was founded in 2008. It gave birth to the Varsity Cup tournament, in which eight universities compete. A second tier competition, the Varsity Shield, arrived in 2011 and was then followed by the under-20 category, Young Guns.
“I am passionate about sport. My first love at school was cricket but rugby took over. I have been very privileged to see how sport can change people; it can transform people as well as communities and a country.”
Varsity Rugby not only makes money, Pienaar says it has produced nine Springboks (players that have represented South Africa internationally) and hundreds of professionals in the domestic leagues.
“Sport is powerful; it can unite or divide a nation. Rugby in the years of apartheid divided us and in the democracy it united us.”
Pienaar was among the first group of South African rugby players to play in Europe. He signed with Saracens in London and became CEO of the club, before returning to Africa to live in Cape Town.
He thinks it is naïve to stand in the way of players who want to maximize their earning potential in the richer overseas leagues. This is the exercising of freedom that Mandela would no doubt have approved of.

What Mandela’s Captain Did Next

Money, money everywhere—what a contrast to the first time an African nation won the trophy 16 years ago in the twilight of the amateur game.
<div id="attachment_111" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-111" class="size-large wp-image-111" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Morne-657x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="739" />February 1980. South African rugby legend and Springbok rugby captain Morne du Plessis.</div>
On 24 June 1995, a collection of South African schoolteachers, estate agents and business professionals achieved something very rare; they won the Rugby World Cup on home soil at the first time of asking. What a different game it was just over 16 years ago. At the time, toplevel rugby in the world was run as an amateur sport with players being paid under the table through so-called ‘shamateurism’. On the field, the forwards were a heavy-footed collection of giants and portly gentlemen, who pummeled each other in the scrums and loose, while the backs were a group of lithe speedsters who claimed all the glory. Modestly built men such as Wilf Rosenberg and Hugh Bladen were masters of the sidestep and looked it up the middle’, in the manner of England’s Mike Tindall, France’s
Mathieu Bastareaud or the imposing All Black No 12—Ma’a Nonu. That golden tournament in 1995 will be remembered for Mandela in a Springbok jersey, a last-gasp winning kick from Joel Stransky and a juggernaut of a man called Jonah Lomu.
Here was a 20-year-old man from New Zealand. He was 1.96 meters and around 120 kilograms and yet played on the wing, where he struck fear into the hearts of those who dared get in his way. One Springbok said the mere sight of Lomu striding from the team bus listening to music through oversized headphones put the fear of God into him. Lomu arguably won the semi-final for the All Blacks by shellacking England, in the process bulldozing their tough fullback, Mike Catt, to score four tries in a 45-29 victory. The sport had rarely seen such an athlete and Lomu’s explosive impact pushed the game towards professionalism within a year.
Cut to 2011: the Springboks are in New Zealand to defend the Webb Ellis trophy and a small player in the backline is a rarity. There are now more like four or five ‘Jonahs’ on a team. Players spend five days a week, eight hours a day, working at their game. Highly paid fitness experts, sports psychologists and doctors all play a huge part in preparing players for peak performance and for this there is one requirement—money. Compared to 1995, the present day South African Rugby Union (SARU) is awash with money. According to its financial report for 2010, SARU had R102 million ($14.6 million) in cash reserves, with R82 million ($11.7 million) of these cash reserves attributable to deferred broadcasting and sponsorship revenue.
Television has put many times more money into the coffers of rugby and its players than gate receipts ever could. On top of that, the South African team has three hefty sponsors: Absa, Canterbury and BMW are all pouring millions into the game. Former Springbok captain Morne
Du Plessis, who played from 1971 to 1980 and was also the manager of thevictorious ’95 South African team, believes that although players these days are well paid, the salaries are nowhere near those of professional footballers. “It’s a different game now. It’s a profession. It’s from 08h00 to 17h00— even more. We were amateurs, we practised twice a week,” says Du Plessis. “If you look at footage from my day, it looks like a different sport now. The skills today and the strength is something to behold, the guys today are just so powerful. Professionalism and money in the sport has made it a better sport.”
<div id="attachment_110" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-110" class="size-large wp-image-110" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Trophy-689x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="704" />24 Jun 1995: South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar receives the William Webb Wellis Trophy from President Nelson Mandela after they defeated New Zealand to win the Rugby World Cup Final at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, South Africa. Mandatory Credit: Dave Rogers /Allsport</div>
Looking to the World Cup, Du Plessis, who led the Springboks, is optimistic about the defending champions’ chances. “Don’t take anything that happened in the Tri-Nations as a marker for the World Cup. There are probably three important matches at the World Cup—the quarter final, the semi-final and the final. To be ready on those days will be key. I think we will go in as underdogs but I believe it’s the best position we play from. “I think we can do it. We’ll be up against the Australians and the All Blacks, the Irish team is to be reckoned with and England is also a good team. There are no real favorites,” adds Du Plessis. The final will be on October 23. For South Africa it is the chance of retaining the trophy and winning it for a third time in the land that bore the mighty Jonah Lomu. Win or lose, the Springboks will return home with bigger bank balances than the heroes of ’95 could ever dream of.
<div id="attachment_109" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-109" class="size-large wp-image-109" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Rugby-1024x809.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="374" />New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu is tackled by South African scrumhalf Joost Van der Westhuizen during the Rugby World Cup final played against New Zealand June 24. On left is South African centre Hennie le Roux, on right No 8 Mark Andrews</div>

Tag: Springboks

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