the SPRING boks

[Dpleezy]

Black rugby players have to be exceptional to play for the national team, whilst everage perfomances from their white counterparts is sufficient to earn em a place.

Have you got some examples? I'm not saying this doesn't happen, like I said, I don't know much about rugby,,, but this team just beat the best in the world - are you really saying there are better black players that could have won more easily?

[rob_one]

Sin, you have a point. However, transformation - legitimate, effective transformation - is not going to come from affirmative action. It's going to come from investing in gra**roots rugby development. The talent is out there, we just need to unearth it.

[blaqsouljah]

sin writes:

Black rugby players have to be exceptional to play for the national team, whilst everage perfomances from their white counterparts is sufficient to earn em a place.

i find that to be such a bullshit and weak argument. the problem is that kids should not see rugby as a white sport. and i don't think that at 19 you can decide that you want to play professional rugby and then expect to have the same knowledge and in depth understanding of the game as someone who started playing the game at 12 or earlier. you're already behind and you'll wonder why you're known as a 'development' player even at the veteran age of 23 years.

as per dplanet's request - name one black player who 'had' to be exceptional to take the place of a 'mediocre' white counterpart?

maybe you're a bitter 55 year old who has nothing better to do than moan and shit -  or worst still - you're 33 and still consider yourself as 'youth'. what would be even more pathetic would be that you're a mid-20's dude of model c education who couldn't kick a ball straight, was the last one picked for anything and always considered rugby and cricket to be white sports. why bitch now? maybe you wanted to be a professional football player who couldn't make it off the bench during sunday league games arranged by your church. at the end of the day stop this systematic take over governed by the "it's our turn mentality". there's no place in sport for politics - remember how south africa got excluded from the international sporting arena? of course you don't you snotty-nosed imp!!

get a f***ing life!!

[rob_one]

you're 33 and still consider yourself as 'youth'. what would be even more pathetic would be that you're a mid-20's dude of model c education who couldn't kick a ball straight, was the last one picked for anything and always considered rugby and cricket to be white sports. why bitch now? maybe you wanted to be a professional football player who couldn't make it off the bench during sunday league games arranged by your church. at the end of the day stop this systematic take over governed by the "it's our turn mentality". there's no place in sport for politics - remember how south africa got excluded from the international sporting arena? of course you don't you snotty-nosed imp!!

get a f***ing life!!

Come on mate, you can do better than that. If you're going to chuck out insults then you can go sit at the kid's table, yeah?

[blaqsouljah]

rob one, sorry about that. i lose it when someone starts jumping on the it's a white racist mentality that governs the sport.

maybe i should have been more eloquent and level-headed and said, that development is a long curve and transformation an even longer one. one cannot impede the progress of the so-called white component of the game for blacks to catch up - and neither can we afford to put out a sub-par standard all in the name of 'development'. that will make us the laughing stock of the world - and let's see how many tours we can have with such a team. where do we develop then? there is so much emphasis on development in rugby - whereas football in south africa only heard of it when our national team coach - who happens to be brasilian told us about things like a reserve league.

if you look at rugby and competitions like the curry cup - which is the premier competition in the country each team has a team that plays in the curry cup (1st XV) and one that plays in the vodacom cup (the reserve or 2nd XV) - and the 2nd XV feeds the first team.

that's development and sustainability of a certain standard. not affirmative action directed towards the first team (springboks) because it's a more instant cosmetic approach.

[rob_one]

I agree completely. Well put.

[fahfee]

Congrats to the Springboks! They played exciting rugby and were clinical in execution.

Unfortunately Rugby SA is still allowing itself to be used as a symbol of racial supremacy and that is where the problem lies.

[stix]

@sin we did not have black good players who cud have played in the final. the best we had were on the field (habana & jp). we have been given the chance to compete amongst white ppl 4 yrs now but lazy f***ers r still complaining.... a shit load of talent is round but these kids r not good enough... Africans will forever complain.... i wud rather hav steyn @ centre than julies coz he sucks...thanks to the quota system we field useless players ie willemse(he sucked this time around but guess what qouta system.... bobo was smoking weed in the mountains but hey his black so its alright... white players r too disciplined..... if HABANA CAN BE irb PLAYER OF THE YR WHY CANT OTHER BLACK PLAYERS DO IT... i am tired of my ppl blaming the whites 4 kicking a** & putting us on the map... if black ppl ran SA Rugby we wud be ranked 12th with Fiji & them so lets the BOKKE be...enjoy the moment u racist South Africans

@sin the people in taxis were happy we won....4 80min no-one cared how many players of colour were there... @ the Airport there were more blacks than whites... compare our soccer to rugby & u will understand why my blood is green and Koos in my friend... Sometimes u South Africans r stupid....