SOUTH AFRICA - SPORT

RUGBY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa, one of the three major sports with football and cricket. Its evolution, organization were related to political and racial history.

 

Until the 1990s, the rugby was considered a bastion of Afrikaners, descendants of Batavian emigrants. The sport was also popular among white South Africans of English descent, but sometimes they chose to wear the colors of their original nation (as Stuart Abott and Mike Catt for England and Clyde Rathbone for Australia's.

''Springbok'' is the name of gazelles in southern Africa and was the symbol of white rugby and the black majority was not interested in rugby or they supported the opposing team.

During 2007 it was still a sport that had a strong support and rooting among whites as blacks prefered South African football.

In the past, the system of Apartheid segregation operated and prevented non-whites to face the white players and they were not accounted for the South Africa rugby union. Since, the end of the Apartheid arrived but even after the World Cup Rugby in 1995

and the many reforms of the administation of rugby, it was a very sensitive issue and crises erupted. Competitions applied racial quotas to allow the integration of non-white players. While officially there was no quota for the national team, the suspicion was in order to justify the choice of a black or mixed race player, the forward position was often assigned to a non-white player.

Today, five South African franchises(Bulls, Lions, Central, Cheetahs, Sharks, Stormers) participate in the Super 14, which is a provincial and international competition. There is a prestigious national competition level below the Super 14, Currie Cup.

The South African Rugby Federation, the South African Rugby Union (SARU), is responsible for organizing and developing rugby in South Africa. It manages the team of South African rugby.

The Springboks compete annually for the Tri-Nations against teams from New Zealand and Australia, they also conduct regular tours to confront the European teams and these teams meet every four years during the rugby World Cup. The South African team won the title of world champion in 1995, they reissued the performance in 2007.

In 1995, South Africa hosted the World Cup of Rugby. Nelson Mandela began his first term as president. Against the opinion of his supporters, he felt the sporting event could create a sense of national unity behind the Springbok team, symbol for decades of white South Africans, and their domination of apartheid (1948-1991). "One team, one country". The story was so symbolic that Clint Eastwood decided it was a good subject for a film and he named it “Invictus”
This film combines the political history and the symbolism of the sport: can a sport influence the state of mind of men? This was the political and human challenge of Nelson Mandela after 27 years of imprisonment, against the reciprocal fear of communities in South Africa causing a climate of tension. This was to support the nation's “rainbow sky”. Mandela, in peace, trying to change things, attitudes, he had to learn to change himself to try to change the rest. That's what this film depicts the necessary struggle for forgiveness. A president and a team captain from each community hating each other, two leaders for a cause: the union. Did the Springbok team help for reconciliation in South Africa? "This nation is hungry for greatness" was Mandela's hope.

Mandela sent forward to Springbok's captain a poem by William Ernest Henley, from which is derived the title of the film, where it is stated in particular: “I'm the master of my fate, I'm the Captain of my soul.”

A wonderful lesson of sport and humanity.

Leyla & Tiffany.