Racial transformation plan a challenge for Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer
Aim is to have non-whites making up half of all domestic and national teams by 2019
Former world champions South Africa will include seven non-white players in 23-man match squads in the run-up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the national rugby body announced.
The commitment is part of plans for radical racial transformation in the traditionally white sport, which aims to have non-whites making up half of all domestic and national teams by 2019.
The simple facts are that the majority of rugby supporters and players – at schoolboy and club level – in South Africa are black; 84 per cent of this country’s under-18s are black Africans, and we want them in our game in some way
At least two of the seven non-whites in the 2015 squads must be black Africans, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) said, distinguishing them from players of mixed race who have long played a role in Springbok teams.
Including seven non-whites will be a challenge for Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer, though, because were he to pick a starting fifteen now it would probably include only one black African and two mixed race players.
That would mean four of the eight replacements having to be non-white.
Zimbabwe-born black African prop Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira has been a long-serving first choice, but is injury prone.
And both wings, including 2007 world player of the year Bryan Habana, are traditionally mixed race players.