SA Rugby is one of the few sport bodies in the country that know how to make money. Getting a black player that can actually play and making him captain was a calculated profit generating move.

Making Siya Kolisi the captain was not all down to the fact that he was a natural leader or the one best suited for the job. You had your Duane Vermeulen, Handre Pollard , Frans Malherbe , Eben Etzebeth , Steven Kitshoff . These are all guys that have been leading rugby teams from their primary school days and even at Craven Week. Siya Kolisi was captain of the Stormers for less than 3 seasons before he was named the Bok captain. Siya Kolisi is a gem of a rugby player that plays his skin out for any Jersey he puts on but circumstances made him captain and he is now imprinted in the highest echelons of the black society.

Jurie Roux and Rassie Erasmus are both smart men . They both know what they are doing . There are less than 5 million white South Africa over 44 million blacks South Africans , add that with almost the whole of black Africa which follows the trends of South Africa. South Africa provides essential services like Television, Media , Communication and Entertainment from Cape to Cairo. Almost every African that has access to these services knows about South Africa and now the Springboks. The Springboks winning the World Cup has probably multiplied their support base by 100. The Springboks are now probably the biggest national sporting brand in the whole continent. People now support the Boks even if they don’t know what rugby is about. Even the Nigerian pastor accused of rape was seen wearing a Bok jersey and attire when he recently went to court. Springbok merchandise is flying off the shelves. Even the Super Rugby teams are getting a piece of the cake continent wide.

Jurie Roux is an astute business administrator, you can even ask them at the University of Stellenbosch they know that. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the first rugby game of the season was held at Soweto at a 90 000 seat stadium. The cheapest ticket will be sold at 60 and its recorded that 50000 people flocked in to watch both games. The games didn’t disappoint and they were a hit with fans especially children. Not factoring television sales and or other revenue generating mechanisms SA Rugby used there they made a minimum of 3 million rand just by gate takings. White peoples and black attended that game, while many watched on releve because it gave us pride to be world champions and even those who don’t understand the game were there just to see Siya Kolisi. From SA Rugby’s part it is genius.

It’s concerning to note that amidst all this positivity and talk about rugby already being transformed we find that all 9 Varsity captains are white and Afrikaaner. It might be a coincidence but it’s impossible that from all the many rugby schools in the country we can’t even produce one black captain for a varsity cup. Is it because it is not an international tournament where the world doesn’t pay attention to or perhaps they just deserve it. Whatever it maybe but too many top black talented rugby players get lost in the system. Those who manage to don the springbok emblem have to move through even and earth to get where they are. A guy like Lukhanyo Am was a high school prodigy in his position but none of unions took him and he had to grind his way up to be recognized while you have other mediocre players sitting on hefty contracts. It is also worth mentioning that out of the 4 Super Rugby teams , 3 (Lukhanyo Am at the Sharks , Siya Kolisi at the Stormers and Elton Jantjies at the Lions) of them are captained by players of color.

Let’s hope SA Rugby is not blinding us by making ceremonial leaders out of our players and implement transformation at all age levels and not only in the big leagues because this has the potential to make us struggle like we are struggling in the cricket. The cricket authorities demanded a certain number of players of color must be selected at franchise and national level but that doesn’t make total sense .

Cricket unlike other sports is quite an expensive sports because you need be in a certain school just to play it and a kit sets you back about 2000 rand and most black parents cannot afford to pay that as they are barely making enough to pay tuition for that school. Those who make it in cricket either have full scholarships or their parents can afford it. The average family cannot.Rugby on the underhand is played barefoot in primary school and you just buy boots in high school. High schools must stop using talented black players for their selfish populism and actually give them a proper foundation to go professional. After the sensational winning of the World Cup there was an outcry about the exodus of top players to the Japanese, French and English leagues but how many of them were black? Racism or apartheid in paper is a thing of the past and should be left there.

Rugby has grown in leaps and bounds in this country and it’s time we have a proper league like the English Premiership but investments has to be made in conjunction with the Department of Education so that all the schools in the country can be afforded the opportunity to play. Tournaments, facilities and grass should be high on their list. Rugby has now become our pride as South Africans and we seek continuation and to spread the game. Congratulations to Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisi on making a nation proud let us all in our respective fields adopt a sense of patriotism to make it a better country.

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