Elephant in Lions' living room

19 May 2016 - 02:00 By SBU MJIKELISO

While the Lions are dancing to the sweet melody of being top of the South African Super rugby conference, the elephant roaming Ellis Park is the shortage of black players in their match lineups.The Lions started three players of colour in their 43-5 win over the Blues last weekend - Elton Jantjies, Courtnall Skosan and Lionel Mapoe - and Howard Mnisi and Sylvian Mahuza came on from the bench.Were those the figures of a Springbok match 23 there'd be a nationwide uproar.SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins said last month that some unions "were embarrassed" about the number of black players they produced but didn't come up with measures to give them more opportunities.SA Rugby's strategic transformation plan has set the target for black representation at both the Springbok and Super rugby levels at 50% by 2019. But the bulk of the responsibility appears to have rested on the laps of the Stormers and the Southern Kings.Lions coach Johan Ackermann, however, said the club hadn't abdicated its responsibility towards expanding the black player pool in the country, despite his team putting out the least number of black players (five) at the weekend."We will constantly look to develop black players and it's a process that we will always follow," he said."Saturday night we developed another player in Sylvian [Mahuza] and we've seen Fabian [Booysen], who got his Super rugby debut this year, but is unfortunately injured."Howard Mnisi has become a good Super rugby player but he's still go to grow as we saw with a missed tackle and a couple of others he had."It's also unfair to a player to put him out there and then break him if he hasn't got the confidence. It's my duty to give the guy confidence and the way he gets that is by training well."Sylvian got the nod ahead of JW Bell because of the way he trained and how he performed for the Currie Cup side."I think that's the right way to develop black players, through the right steps. And we will keep on developing them and pushing them where we see talent."He added: "It's obviously up to the union but also the rest of South Africa to develop them - at lower levels as well - so we can get those numbers through and for them to play with confidence."Transformation in rugby, or the lack of it, has been one of the country's biggest talking points for over a year.Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula added fuel to the fire when he banned four sporting codes, including rugby, from bidding for major international events because of their failure to transform. SA Rugby was particularly affected because Mbalula's decision jeopardised its bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.SA Rugby has until the end of next month to submit its tender documents to World Rugby and hope to overturn the decision before then.Meanwhile, the Lions yesterday tied star winger Ruan Combrinck to the province for a further two years.Combrinck, 26, has been with the Lions since joining from Western Province in 2011 and has been tipped for higher honours this season...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.