Pointless to mourn demise of Bok rugby

EDITOR – It seems to me all this agonising over the demise of Springbok rugby is quite pointless.

After all, the root causes are obvious.

Question is, can the situation be rescued and if so, what are the remedies?

Given the circumstances, particularly with regard to international team sport, one needs to accept the fact that decline in prowess is inevitable. Fact is, the New Order in South Africa has been chipping away at the foundations of rugby, and sport in general, since coming to power. Nowadays, this is rather cutely referred to as ‘decolonisation’.

Like a building with its foundations undermined, collapse is inevitable. Quality suffers.

SARU’s leadership crop over the last 20 years has consisted of entitlement ideologues. As with team selection, merit has no place. Political subservience and commitment to the ruling party are the main qualifying criteria. Quality is immaterial. Like the team selection, quotas apply, except that in the case of SARU presidency, whites are automatically excluded. SARU’s latest appointment continues the trend.

Apart from the ideological, there are unexplained governance issues which have left a distinctive odour lingering in the air. Sport is huge business driven by vast sums of money. Self-enrichment is an obvious consequence.

One empathises with our quota rugby players, caught in a catch-22 situation. Sadly, they are compelled to follow, abject and subjugated, hoping to pick up crumbs. Demotivation and poor performance are a natural consequence.

Is there no player courage, pride and self-respect? Not a peep from anyone when our chortling, gadfly minister of sport publicly exhorts departing teams to ‘moer hulle’ or the like. It stands to reason that the quality of the minister would be reflected in the quality of the rugby team.

And what of the sponsors and corporates who fund this affair? All boast wondrous principles and glowing mission statements and lay claim to virtue, yet are happy to sanction moral corruption. SA Breweries for example claim “Our culture…. is built on transparency and meritocracy.” If that is true, then they should surely not be sponsoring SARU?

It is possible to rescue the situation, but only if corporates, people and players of quality, character and integrity come to the fore. Courage now, stand up and be counted.

JEFF VAN BELKUM