Almost 14 years after the end of apartheid, South African rugby (a sport I left behind a long time ago) makes a bold decision: The national rugby union appointed its first black coach (in South African parlance he is a coloured; more on that politics, inherited from its racial state past, another time).
Peter de Villiers, the new coach, is as qualified as his predecessor Jakes White was when the latter was first appointed (White would later coach the 2007 World Cup winning side although he did have two sub-par seasons along the way and was given time to develop his coaching skills and the squad), but that has not stopped the premature criticism of De Villiers. For some it will always be too early to have black coaches in top flight rugby in South Africa. If black coaches do eventually get appointed it must be reverse racism and politics: As if rugby was always just about sport in South Africa; not about race (white racism) or politics (its links to a police state and an exclusive ideology).
Of the Western press, the British media have followed the story the most intensely, including sensationalizing the appointment. (For all its claim to be a ‘world sport,’ rugby is very much limited to the UK, the former British settler colonies, some Pacific islands, France and Argentina.) The best example is an ominous sounding ‘expose’ in the UK Observer this past Sunday claiming De Villiers’ appointment is part of a ‘secret plan’ to storm the ‘last bastion of white power.’ Someone forgot to tell the reporter that one swallow does not necessarily make a summer.
The odd thing is that the story is really about a conflict between a group of whites rugby administrators and enthusiasts, including rugby writers (the latter who are incidentally, not a very progressive bunch).
One of the disputes involves one of the country’s top white players, Luke Watson, who was included in the Springbok side as a ‘… “black player” under a quota system designed to allow the disadvantaged a place in the team.‘ This only happened because members of the white rugby establishment (including presumably Jake White) held the fact that the player’s father (Cheeky Watson) opposed apartheid, against the son.
I know. You figure that out.
The full story here.
