Jake White on SA rugby

[Ospervat]

Former Springbok coach Jake White has warned that South African rugby will end up in the junkyard if decision-makers don’t take a firm grip of the steering wheel.

http://www.vodacomrugby.co.za/time-running-sa-rugby-jake/

“In the next five years, unless we make some really strong decisions as a union and a country, our rugby reputation will be lost â€" maybe forever,†White told Vodacom Rugby from France where he serves as head coach of Montpellier. “The writing is on the wall.â€

The Springboks have surrendered four historic losses in the past 12 months â€" including defeats against Japan, Ireland and Argentina. The recent resignation of SA Rugby president Oregon Hoskins, and the retirement announcement of Bok captain Adriaan Strauss, has come at a time when the gap between the quality of rugby in New Zealand and South Africa is arguably at its widest since the game went professional.

With the majority of South Africa’s best players plying their trade abroad during the Currie Cup, what was once considered the world’s premier domestic championship has effectively been downgraded to a competition that showcases junior talent.

“I love South Africa and our rugby, I always have,†said White, “one of the greatest days of my life was becoming the Bok coach. But when I look in from overseas and see the Blue Bulls playing the Golden Lions in a Currie Cup match on a Friday night, when there’s no Test match on the following Saturday, that for me is a telltale sign of where our rugby is going.

“The Currie Cup was South African rugby’s saving grace during the isolation era. To play Currie Cup rugby was almost tougher than playing Test matches at times â€" when touring sides came to South Africa, and they had to play Northern Transvaal, a lot of teams called it their ‘fourth Test match’.

“If you look at the kind of players who are playing Currie Cup now, with the Springboks and internationals away, we are saying that the Currie Cup is not what it used to be, and my fear is that we’re accepting mediocrity.

“When I was a youngster, the likes of Hennie Bekker, Schalk Burger Snr and Henning van Aswegen were playing for Western Province. How many 19-year-olds played then? None. And how many of the youngsters playing today would make that Western Province team? None.

“That’s a worrying sign because whatever is happening now, there’s no doubt it will impact where we will be in the next five years. There are a lot of factors â€" overseas players, spreading the talent base â€" but I don’t think people want to admit that the consequences are going to come back to bite us.â€

The Boks won three out of eight Tests against the All Blacks during White’s term at the helm between 2004 and 2007; South Africa have only beaten New Zealand twice in 13 matches dating back to 2010.

“The difference is that New Zealand are not using rugby as the benchmark for their success. The All Blacks coaches aren’t measuring themselves against the greatest rugby teams, they’re looking at the greatest professional sporting teams in the world â€" Barcelona FC, Ferrari’s F1 team…

“As an ex-Bok coach and a fan of South African rugby, it hurts to say that, the way we’re heading, we’re going to end up where we can’t be a force in World Rugby anymore. And remember, the All Blacks aren’t waiting around for us to get our house in order.â€

South Africa head into the third round of the Rugby Championship eager to rebound from their first loss in Argentina when they take on Australia in Brisbane on Saturday. White says that a big part of the Boks’ current poor form is because the coaches who succeeded him failed to make any provision for their successors.

“When I started the Bok job, we had 175 Test caps, of which Breyton Paulse had 60 and Os du Randt had 40.

“I remember it like yesterday, it was the first Test for Eddie Andrews, Jacques Cronje, Fourie du Preez and Henno Mentz, and it was Schalk Burger’s second Test. That’s where we were in 2004.

“That same group, when they finished with me in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, had 649 Test caps. That group played under Peter de Villiers and Heyneke Meyer, and in some games went over the 1000-Test mark.

“I looked at a team photo of the current Boks the other day. Traditionally, the front row of the team photo always has the guys with the most experience. I saw Lood de Jager and Damian de Allende in the front row. They’d have 16 or maybe 20 Test caps each, and they’re in the front row.

“Guys like Juan Smith wouldn’t sit in the front row when he played for us, and he had 60 caps…

“What I’m saying is that there’s a glaring obvious flaw in what you see. There’s no succession plan. When the Bok coach packs his bags and leaves, he doesn’t leave anything for the next guy. Heyneke never rested a player, never rotated his team, he knew that he needed to get results. You can’t blame him for that, that’s the nature of the job.

“But the irony is, that when he left, Lood and Damian are in the front row. From 2004 to 2016. you can see enough in that photo to see that things aren’t right.

“For the All Blacks, when Dan Carter left, they had Beauden Barrett and Aaron Cruden. When Richie McCaw left they had Sam Cane. That was their succession plan and they showed it to you; it wasn’t a secret.

“They also don’t make a secret of what they want to do. The All Blacks say that they want to be the top team in the world. Why are we so scared to say that? We say ‘we want to e competitive’.

“The whole package has to be right if you want to be a top team in the world. We’ll be okay for a while, because our schools rugby is among the strongest in the world, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that our aura is disappearing.â€

 

[Ospervat]

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[McTallshort]

Doea this mean England might finally beat them?

 

[saulan]

Doea this mean England might finally beat them?

To put it bluntly, we lost a match against an injury weakened Irish side at home this year and have looked shaky in almost all of our matches. I feel like the concern now isn't that we will lose to you, but rather whether we can avoid 2002 occurring again.

 

[McTallshort]

To put it bluntly, we lost a match against an injury weakened Irish side at home this year and have looked shaky in almost all of our matches. I feel like the concern now isn't that we will lose to you, but rather whether we can avoid 2002 occurring again.

I would be happy with just a win against you

 

[ALJ]

To put it bluntly, we lost a match against an injury weakened Irish side at home this year and have looked shaky in almost all of our matches. I feel like the concern now isn't that we will lose to you, but rather whether we can avoid 2002 occurring again.

Ah, one of those games when I can remember exactly where I was - happy days.

The article above seems a little bit mixed up to me.

Is he saying that the understudies haven't been given enough experience at international level (Caps and the NZ comparison)?
Is he saying that the next generation of players aren't good enough (implied in the Currie Cup comment)?
Is pitching for a job?

 

[Sker]

Ah, one of those games when I can remember exactly where I was - happy days.

The article above seems a little bit mixed up to me.

Is he saying that the understudies haven't been given enough experience at international level (Caps and the NZ comparison)?
Is he saying that the next generation of players aren't good enough (implied in the Currie Cup comment)?
Is pitching for a job?

Feels to me like all of the above, although the Currie Cup comment is more aimed towards all our good players going overseas for the money (and to get the hell off of the sinking ship that is SA)

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Great article - Jake White on state of SA rugby. Worth a read.

http://www.vodacomrugby.co.za/time-running-sa-rugby-jake/

I'd like to ask white, and the south africans here, how much would your opinion change if

1) The lions would have won SR's final
2) You would have won last game against Argentina

I am asking because, at least in my book, both results had a lot to do with luck. The lions could have played a slightly stronger team against Jaguares which would guarantee them a home final.
And about the last game, i believe we played better but the scoreboard shows you paid dearly for all the kicks you missed (which you generally do not).

I am asking this because sports fans (not just rugby fans) are extremists. We go from "the best team in the world" to "worthless lot that can hardly tie each other's shoe laces" almost instantly.

Australia went from being TRC's champions and world cup finalists to a laughing stock in less than a year.
South Africa went from losing by 2 points to "the greatest rugby team in the history of the game" to commentators worrying about the writings on the wall.

I am a bit like that too, but it is easier to see things when your team is not involved, allowing you to have more perspective.

I don't think RSA's situation is as dire as some people believe. You guys will be fine.

 

[TRF_heineken]

I moved a few posts form the Aus vs. SA match thread to this one, as it's more applicable to this topic than the match itself.

To me Jake White has a point to some extent, but he's also missing the point on other issues.

The reason why our Currie Cup is perhaps in a worse condition than in the past is because of NH clubs, like Montpellier where Jake White is coaching, who keep on poaching our talent. He has how many Saffas playing for him now? 10+??

Now we have no choice but to start playing our U/19 players because our senior players are all in France living it up and getting filthy rich.

It's not really an article that is making quiver with fear.

 

[ALJ]

Feels to me like all of the above, although the Currie Cup comment is more aimed towards all our good players going overseas for the money (and to get the hell off of the sinking ship that is SA)

So what are the work permit requirements for SA players to play in Europe? I assume there must be some (no idea though tbh).

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

So what are the work permit requirements for SA players to play in Europe? I assume there must be some (no idea though tbh).

currently i think because they fall under the Kolpak agreement none.

Brexit will change things should it happen but that is the current situation i think.

 

[TRF_heineken]

currently i think because they fall under the Kolpak agreement none.

Brexit will change things should it happen but that is the current situation i think.

Correct!

This article gives a short answer to ALJ's question:
http://www.rugbytoday.com/columns/brexit-and-rugby

 

[smartcooky]

I think that one of South African Rugby's key problems is, and will continue to be, political interference in player selections, not just at the international level, but at all levels of the game. Its the elephant in the room. When coaches have their hands forced by having to meet selection quotas based on skin colour, it will always compromise their ability to put the best team on the park.

Now, I might well be labelled a racist for suggesting this, but I don't care because its the truth. The proportion of rugby players of colour compared with their overall population in South Africa is much smaller than for white players, its a simple fact, and if you don't think that quotas based on ethnicity & skin colour would have a serious impact on a team, try the following for an exercise.

Imagine that New Zealand had a quota system and that the squad of 23 for the All Blacks had to match as closely as possible, the ethnic make up of the general population.

Using very simplified, but accurate statistics from StatisticsNZ

Pacific Islands 6.9%
Asian 9.2%
Maori 14.6%
European 69%

So we apply this to the last Alll Blacks squad that played Australia (names colored as appropriate)

1. J. P. T. Moody
2. D. S. Coles
3. O. T. Franks
4. B. A. Retallick
5. S. L. Whitelock
6. J. Kaino
7. S. J. Cane
8. K. J. Read
9. A. L. Smith
10. B. J. Barrett
11. S. J. Savea
12. A. Lienert-Brown
13. M. F. Fekitoa
14. I. J. A. Dagg
15. B. R. Smith
16. J. W. Parsons
17. W. W. V. Crockett
18. C. Faumuina
19. L. I. Squire
20. A. Savea
21. T. T. R. Perenara
22. A. W. Cruden
23. S. Tamanivalu

Using the stats above

16 players have to be European (only 10 are, so six non-white players would have to be dropped)
Only two players are allowed to be Pacific Islanders and there are six, (so four of the dropped players would be among them)
Only three players can be Maori and seven are so four of them have to be dropped.
There are NO players of Asian ethnicity, and there must be a minimum if two, so someone else has to be dropped to make way for them.

All I can say is, thank God we don't have the political interference in our sports teams selections that South Africa has.

 

[Ospervat]

@ Smartcooky
In this politically correct mad world be careful you aren't arrested for shooting the elephant now!

The concept of quotas is in itself a discriminatory and racist practise but nobody dares to point that out.

The population breakdown is about
80% black
10% coloured(mixed race)
10% white

The problem lies at grass roots level - in schools rugby the inverse applies where about 80% of players are white and only about 20% are players of colour.

This imbalance can never be reconciled in the current climate at the top level. You can't realistically apply quota targets without compromising the quality.

Once these kids leave school they go into club level from where they are selected to play provincial level and so on ....and that's where the quota system really kicks in.

Clubs and provincial sides are forced to select players of colour from a very small pool of talent - more talented players who are discriminated against at this level either give up or move abroad and are lost forever.

Jakes points this out in a very subtle way when he refers to accepting mediocrity at Currie cup level.

Unfortunately there are racist radical elements within the ruling political elite that view rugby as a beacon of apartheid and their agenda is to reduce SA Rugby to a non-entity.

The glory days are over and we will see an accelerated deterioration in the quality of SA Rugby over the next 5 -8 years.

As a prediction I can see SA Rugby dropping out of the top 10 by 2023.

 

[gaston le gaff]

I moved a few posts form the Aus vs. SA match thread to this one, as it's more applicable to this topic than the match itself.

To me Jake White has a point to some extent, but he's also missing the point on other issues.

The reason why our Currie Cup is perhaps in a worse condition than in the past is because of NH clubs, like Montpellier where Jake White is coaching, who keep on poaching our talent. He has how many Saffas playing for him now? 10+??

Now we have no choice but to start playing our U/19 players because our senior players are all in France living it up and getting filthy rich.

It's not really an article that is making quiver with fear.

in that case increase the players wage to a level of France and stop whinging.!!!!

 

[unrated]

I agree with the last two posts. To just quickly add to that. we can all agree that if you want the best chance to one day play for your country that you have to play the sport from a very young age. Something like grade 1 already. The black kids in SA dont want to play rugby. some of them do but the majority does not. Most of them chooses Football. So what happening is that there is more white players in SA and the system keeps churning out a very large amount of white players and small amounts of black players from rugby schools here and there. Because all white boys in SA dream of playing for the Springboks and only the best of them one day make it to that level. The provincial teams gets filled up with quality white players very quickly because there is a huge interest in rugby from white schoolboys. but because of quotas even at provincial levels the clubs fight to sign the best black players available to meet their quota requirements which is completely justified. If quotas are forced upon you then at least make the best of it.

So on the one hand you have a low number of black players coming through the system and secondly because of the large number of white players produced yearly its easier to produce good players which in turn makes it even harder for those black players to break through.
The real issue here is to get the playing numbers up from the other ethnic groups. lets say we produce 200 white players per year and 20 black players (just an example) they should focus on getting the black schoolboy numbers up to at least match the white players. They will then most likely be able to select a Springbok team meeting the quotas on merit because the selection pool is larger. There is simply not enough interest from the ethnic groups other than the white and coloured communities to be able to achieve a Bok team made up of 80% black players that has the required quality that we currently have. And everyone is asking why compromise our quality for the sake of quotas.

Unfortunately nothing will be achieved by me ranting here unless there is the off chance one of our politicians is a TRF forum member.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I'll wade into this discussion from the perspective of someone who generally favours political interference to advance social mobility on occassions when the evidence suggests leaving current systems in place isn't advancing anything. So I think of it mainly in terms of social mobility and educational attainment in schools, but I'd argue this can be applied to South African rugby (and indeed Scottish rugby if we switch race, for social class). I could write an essay on it but will try to spare you that (plus rushing as NZvsArg game about to start). The main points I'd make are:

i) The ANC are awful and have been getting worse - no arguments there. But I think we have to try and seperate this argument from the ANC. A more level headed, moderate party might also consider such policies of political intervention in sports.

ii) for all my arguments below you could replace "white" with "wealthy" and "non-white" with "any colour, but from a less wealthy social class". Its not wholly a racial thing, and is possibly more economic. Scotland (and by the sounds of it other countries) have issues with rugby being largely the preserve of fee paying schoolboys and the thought of a Scottish lad from a housing scheme making it into top level rugby has been pretty laughable for decades.

iii) as an outsider, the SA national side doesn't appear to have become all that more multi-racial / ethnic since their post-Apartheid RWC victory 20+ years ago (neither has cricket). This indicates to me that "leaving things alone" was not producing encouraging cultural integration or spreading the sport into non-white communities in SA.

iv) if the national side is filled with white men, there are a lack of role models for non-white kids. It is then not surprising that non-white kids will massively favour football over rugby. It is in part a self-fulfilling prophecy.

v) yes, quotas means "better players" can sometimes lose out to "worse players" at all age groups. However, many "better players" who are white, will have had consistently far superior facilities, coaching and financial security to enhance their progression at every single step of their development? I'd argue that a "better player" of say age 12-16 can easily be overtaken by a "worse player" who may not be white, once that "worse player" gets access to comparable facilities etc.

vi) I genuinely think that, no matter how wrong headed you think they are, these quotas may be the saving of SA rugby if it opens the sport up to widespread youth participation for 90% of the population (some 35 million people?). That's like an entirely new large country of potential talent that can be fed into the existing highly successful school systems in SA can tap into. The thought of the talent SA will be churning out (of both black and white) in 10-15 years time is pretty frightening. You only have to look at the Lions this year (and their second XV looked great first half against the Jaguares) to imagine what a team combining the best athletic talent from all ethnic groups in SA might look like in the future. This in turn gives great white talent like van Rensburg a stronger platform in which to demonstrate their ability and to challenge for major honours.

vii) I've seen more ethnic asian players in SA top flight rugby (1 player, Kassim for Cheetahs?) than I have in the UK, despite the UK having a huge asian population. So this post is not a European looking down his nose at SA, as hilariously in Scotland rugby could arguably be more elitist and more of a closed shop than it is in SA.

viii) it helps to remind ourselves of the extent of social inequality that we are looking at by viewing things like this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37066738

Do we really think a young kid wanting to play rugby, but was born on the wrong side of the tracks in those photos stands any realistic chance of maximising their potential in a situation where there is no political interference? A century of SA history would suggest not.

ix) the situation will get less painful and less open to accusation of "not being fair" once non-white kids of today, who have been routinely given access to top facilities etc begin to filter through into top flight rugby. That is when we will truly see SA sides filled with players based on sporting merit.


I appreciate this will be going against the grain in these parts, but I thought I'd offer up a completely different perspective. In summary, there are issues with SA rugby going forward, but that is mainly around the economic situation to me. I fully expect SA to be a top 4 nation for decades to come despite rising stars like Argentina, England, Japan and Ireland and that you will soar away from Australia and put real pressure on NZ.

 

[TheOvalBall]

I moved a few posts form the Aus vs. SA match thread to this one, as it's more applicable to this topic than the match itself.

To me Jake White has a point to some extent, but he's also missing the point on other issues.

The reason why our Currie Cup is perhaps in a worse condition than in the past is because of NH clubs, like Montpellier where Jake White is coaching, who keep on poaching our talent. He has how many Saffas playing for him now? 10+??

Now we have no choice but to start playing our U/19 players because our senior players are all in France living it up and getting filthy rich.

It's not really an article that is making quiver with fear.

It is a bit weird that Jake is saying that when he himself has South African's in his team.

 

[TRF_heineken]

I'll wade into this discussion from the perspective of someone who generally favours political interference to advance social mobility on occassions when the evidence suggests leaving current systems in place isn't advancing anything. So I think of it mainly in terms of social mobility and educational attainment in schools, but I'd argue this can be applied to South African rugby (and indeed Scottish rugby if we switch race, for social class). I could write an essay on it but will try to spare you that (plus rushing as NZvsArg game about to start). The main points I'd make are:

i) The ANC are awful and have been getting worse - no arguments there. But I think we have to try and seperate this argument from the ANC. A more level headed, moderate party might also consider such policies of political intervention in sports.

No, they won't. and that has been made ubundantly clear. In fact certain factions inside the ANC have also jumped on the wagon with regards to abolishing the quota system.

ii) for all my arguments below you could replace "white" with "wealthy" and "non-white" with "any colour, but from a less wealthy social class". Its not wholly a racial thing, and is possibly more economic. Scotland (and by the sounds of it other countries) have issues with rugby being largely the preserve of fee paying schoolboys and the thought of a Scottish lad from a housing scheme making it into top level rugby has been pretty laughable for decades.

That might have been the case from 1992 – 1997, but it certainly isn't anymore. If we look at the current demographics of SA and the economic sectors, you would see that there is a massive decline in "White wealth".

iii) as an outsider, the SA national side doesn't appear to have become all that more multi-racial / ethnic since their post-Apartheid RWC victory 20+ years ago (neither has cricket). This indicates to me that "leaving things alone" was not producing encouraging cultural integration or spreading the sport into non-white communities in SA.

That's because they didn't apply it correctly. They went for the "top-heavy" approach in Targeting the National team and Elite level instead of starting the integration at schoolboy level and working it up to a more viable model. For the ruling party the quota system is about image, and having less pale faces in the Bok team.

iv) if the national side is filled with white men, there are a lack of role models for non-white kids. It is then not surprising that non-white kids will massively favour football over rugby. It is in part a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is a fundamentally racist statement. You are basically saying that all rugby loving fans and kids only have role-models based on skin colour. Yet the most recognised players in South Africa happens to be Bryan Habana and Beast Mtawarira. If you ask some black kids who play rugby at school who their role models are, I bet we'll find a bunch of them naming white players as well.

v) yes, quotas means "better players" can sometimes lose out to "worse players" at all age groups. However, many "better players" who are white, will have had consistently far superior facilities, coaching and financial security to enhance their progression at every single step of their development? I'd argue that a "better player" of say age 12-16 can easily be overtaken by a "worse player" who may not be white, once that "worse player" gets access to comparable facilities etc.

This is the problem that our government is failing at miserably. And the 2010 FIFA World Cup didn't help their cause either. They use every drop of government funding they get to introduce soccer into the rural areas and to get more kids to play soccer. They completely disregard the other sports, not just rugby. The girls especially have it worse off as Hockey and Netball doesn't get any help from government. And here it is a cultural thing, because in the Xhosa and Zulu tribes, the male is the dominant sex and there isn't a lot of compassion for females.
The current situation is that SARU has given all the unions instruction to have a budget aimed at youth development. But the situation is that the unions can't develop the sport as much as they want to due to political interference around every turn. Take Limpopo for example, one of the biggest provinces in the country and part of the Blue Bulls Rugby union. Last year the Blue Bulls gave the Limpopo area about R5 million to use on development alone. They organised a rugby day in my hometown of Polokwane (which is the capitol city of the province) and invited every school in the province (Primary and Secondary). They had Victor Matfield (who comes from Polokwane), Trevor Nyakane, and a bunch of Blue Bulls players at the function. They even went as far as to pay for the buses that will transport the kids, some as far as 300km away.
What happened? Only the rugby playing schools came, which was about 18 primary schools and 12 High Schools. The other schools then said they won't come to "white privilege convention". This infuriated a school like Ben Vorster High School who is currently the top team in the province and sent 12 boys to the Craven Week and their first team is 75% ethnic black players.
The outcome was that the BBRU used the funding that was left, and provided aid to the schools to develop their rugby facilities. They used half of those funds to start a rugby clinic and the rest was spread evenly to every school in the province (regardless if they had a rugby program). Guess what? Only the 30 schools who attended the function used the funds for rugby purposes, the other schools used it to fund their soccer programme or to better their infrastructure at the school itself.

vi) I genuinely think that, no matter how wrong headed you think they are, these quotas may be the saving of SA rugby if it opens the sport up to widespread youth participation for 90% of the population (some 35 million people?). That's like an entirely new large country of potential talent that can be fed into the existing highly successful school systems in SA can tap into. The thought of the talent SA will be churning out (of both black and white) in 10-15 years time is pretty frightening. You only have to look at the Lions this year (and their second XV looked great first half against the Jaguares) to imagine what a team combining the best athletic talent from all ethnic groups in SA might look like in the future. This in turn gives great white talent like van Rensburg a stronger platform in which to demonstrate their ability and to challenge for major honours.

We will always produce talented rugby players. It's in our blood and will always be part of us. But the problem we are having is that the Quota system is turning talent away from rugby. The situation has been since the early 2000's that talented White rugby players stop playing rugby when they leave high school, and instead look to a profession after high school, because they are being told that they can't join the team because of their skin colour.
I have seen that happen plenty of times.

vii) I've seen more ethnic asian players in SA top flight rugby (1 player, Kassim for Cheetahs?) than I have in the UK, despite the UK having a huge asian population. So this post is not a European looking down his nose at SA, as hilariously in Scotland rugby could arguably be more elitist and more of a closed shop than it is in SA.

Err, Kassim isn't an ethnic Asian player. He's a coloured player who is muslim. There's a big Muslim contingent in South Africa.

viii) it helps to remind ourselves of the extent of social inequality that we are looking at by viewing things like this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37066738

Do we really think a young kid wanting to play rugby, but was born on the wrong side of the tracks in those photos stands any realistic chance of maximising their potential in a situation where there is no political interference? A century of SA history would suggest not.

What's your point? We have owned up to our mistakes of the past and are doing everything in our power to correct our mistakes. But 2 wrongs don't make a right. What is currently happening is in fact the exact same thing that happened during Apartheid, but the roles are reversed. The only difference is that we now have a democracy and we know what happened during Apartheid was wrong, yet, our people in power don't care, and instead of building the nation, they continue to divide the nation.

ix) the situation will get less painful and less open to accusation of "not being fair" once non-white kids of today, who have been routinely given access to top facilities etc begin to filter through into top flight rugby. That is when we will truly see SA sides filled with players based on sporting merit.

But that's not what is happening though. While we do get more kids involved in Rugby, many of the non-white players gets discouraged very early on.
I actually want a university to do a study on all the races in South Africa with regard to contact sports and see what the results will be. Out of the black kids who was in school with me and my current friends and colleagues, I have come to the conclusion that ethnic black people doesn't like the physical side that is in rugby, and that is one of the main issues that's discouraging young black kids from playing the game.

I appreciate this will be going against the grain in these parts, but I thought I'd offer up a completely different perspective. In summary, there are issues with SA rugby going forward, but that is mainly around the economic situation to me. I fully expect SA to be a top 4 nation for decades to come despite rising stars like Argentina, England, Japan and Ireland and that you will soar away from Australia and put real pressure on NZ.

That's what we are also hoping for. But we will only remain competitive if we implement the same ideals as all the other nations. To be competitive we have to pick players on merit and not by race/ethnicity.
The quota system is also a massive mental issue, as it creates doubt in every player, regardless of race, as you don't know if you are actually good enough (if you're black) or when you'll get replaced (if you're white). This doesn't affect just one culture or race. It affect the entire South African rugby nation.

 

[Ospervat]

Just in case there is any doubt.

http://www.biznews.com/rugby/2016/0...nt-you-to-know-quotas-john-jeffery-and-the-un