Sunday Times Editorial: The Minister of Sport, Fikile Mbalula, did not mince his words when the Springboks arrived in New Zealand to begin their Rugby World Cup campaign this week.

He strongly criticised "those self-seeking Johnny-come-latelies who were not there when you played test and Tri-Nations rugby; those recalcitrant pessimistic cowards, who, when faced with challenges, stuck their heads in the sand like ostriches and did nothing to support the team".

Who could argue against his statement that the Rugby World Cup was not the appropriate place to address issues of transformation within rugby because the focus ought to be on wholehearted support for the national team?

Mbalula went further, saying: "People who want to discuss transformation in rugby, this is not the time for discussions.

"We can't polarise the nation when we are supposed to be united around one cause, and that is why I'm confident that the people of our country will ignore such people."

This newspaper shares these sentiments.

But it was the same Mbalula who just a few short months ago - in April, to be exact - delivered very harsh criticism in an address to the SA Rugby Union annual meeting in Cape Town.

Mbalula said on that occasion: "There can be no denying of the challenges we inherited and that continue to be an albatross around our necks and our Achilles' heels."

These included "race, gender and class-based inequalities so pervasive in the South African society and in our federations, by extension - so resistant, tough and unyielding as the crocodile skin, compounded by a yawning gap and divide between urban and rural communities".

He added to his list of criticisms "poor talent-development instruments" and "infighting and internal wrangling for positions and business opportunities for family, friends or allies".

Mbalula, it seems, would like to decide when, and by whom, these issues should be debated.

When it suits him, he demands the right to launch a populist political assault on rugby.

But when the national team enters a major tournament which it has every prospect of winning, he puts this aside and demands that all must offer uncritical and unqualified support for the team.

What South Africa needs is for Mbalula and the rest of the political fraternity to resist the temptation of populism.

Lashing out with large doses of inflammatory rhetoric is not going to take South Africa anywhere.

There cannot be a contradiction between fully supporting our national teams and seeking ways of growing the sports they play.