Rugby paying price for putting change on the back burner

06 June 2016 - 09:47 By The Times Editorial

Njabulo Nzuza, the secretary-general of the youth league, promised that the three-Test series (Newlands hosts the first on Saturday) would be disrupted in protest at SA Rugby's "poor transformation" record.Coetzee named a 31-man squad last month, which featured 12 players of colour - the most ever - including Lionel Mapoe, Garth April, Bongi Mbonambi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe and Rudy Paige.But the warning of disruptions should be a timely reminder to Coetzee, SA Rugby and the rest of the sports governing bodies, that his selections are a first go at redressing a feeble record of developing black sportsmen.South Africa is capable of producing endless talent. It is in our DNA.It is the perceived lack of desire to develop black sportsmen, and of the patience to do so, that is testing blacks, who have been patient enough.Coetzee, who is expected to come out with a 100% record at the end of this series, has too few tried-and-tested black players to choose from - such has been the insistence by his predecessors on ignoring the issue.The mere selection of these players is not enough to get the demonstrators off his back.Coetzee, by the way, is only an employee of SA Rugby, at which the brunt of people's anger should be directed.Its general manager for corporate affairs, Andy Colquhoun, was quoted as saying it had met the youth league and would "continue to engage with them".It is a typically South African response - the promise to investigate and engage, and then hope, as our society tends to do, that events will move on.Perhaps SA Rugby was counting on exactly that - fleeting indignation and then to be left alone. This year has taught us that those days are dead and gone...

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