JONATHAN JANSEN

Now that the dust has settled and our national rugby team found themselves on the wenkant (sorry, could not resist), we need to take a closer look at where these amazing players come from. Somebody made the effort to list the high schools that each of the starting squad came from. With one exception, all of them came from former white schools. That is hugely significant for the future of rugby (and indeed all sporting codes) in the country.

How does it happen? A young boy called Siya Kolisi starts in a school in Zwede township in then Port Elizabeth; somebody must have noted his talent and he transfers to the elite rugby school Grey High (not to be confused with Grey College in Bloemfontein, also a sporting mecca). Cheslin Kolbe the star winger ends up at Brackenfell High, Ox Nche goes to Louis Botha, Lukhanyo Am to De Vos Malan, and Damian Willemse to Paul Roos. You get the idea.

To be sure, there is some hurt among the black schools I spoke to about “them” taking “our” players, but truth be told, few of these players would have had the opportunities that these well-resourced schools provided and come out on top. Ashwin Willemse (Swartberg) then and Herschel Arendse (Paulus Joubert) now are the exceptions and even then some connection had to reveal their exceptional talent and give them opportunity — like Breyton Paulse the ex-Springbok winger did for Ashwin.

What does this mean? If you think short term, you reason that the departments of education or sport are not going to make rugby (or other competitor sports) available in disadvantaged schools; if you believe that will ever happen, you’re not paying attention. That the president of the country had the gall to show up and lift the rugby trophy in Paris is beyond me.

Until we have a government that cares about sports in the disadvantaged areas, send out the scouts, find the talent in the rural and township schools and give them bursaries to access coaches, fields and gyms. Without that financial incentive, few of these children will ever put on a Springbok rugby jersey. It’s as simple as that.

If you think long term, you come to a very different conclusion. We have 26,000 schools and more than 13-million children from which to choose rugby players. If every school had those facilities, New Zealand would not lose by one point; they’d be hammered. But because we draw from such a shallow pool, we are at a severe disadvantage.

Consider this: New Zealand has a small population with only 2,500 schools and less than a million children. And yet they have been competitive in all sports, including rugby, cricket and soccer, year after year after year. Why? Because all their schools have sports. I know, because my 5-year-old granddaughter in the far north of New Zealand hardly enrolled when she had to participate in a cross-country race; hardly a week goes by where there is not an announcement of one sport or another for children to gear up for.

I was touched when I read stories of our Springbok stars returning to a hero's welcome at their primary schools, the black institutions where their talent was first spotted before transferring to white schools.

I remain a sceptic about this government caring about anything but itself, but instead of teasing the country with a possible public holiday after we won the World Cup, how about some serious and sustained investment in school sport across the 26,000 schools? Imagine if every child did serious physical education and organised sport at school? It would not only be good for their health and wellbeing, it would also be good for competitive sports in South Africa. One can only imagine the thousands of Siyas or Kolbes who slip from our grasp because there are no opportunities to catch such potential early.

“The first time I saw a gym,” the great Springbok winger Breyton Paulse told me, “was when I enrolled at Stellenbosch University.” That is too late for most. Why I admire this man is that he regularly visits his primary school in the rural areas of the Western Cape and raises funds for sporting facilities there. Somebody needs to give him a prize for developing the sport and identifying talent such as Willemse. But that is a drop in the ocean compared to the need out there.

I was touched when I read stories of our Springbok stars returning to a hero's welcome at their primary schools, the black institutions where their talent was first spotted before transferring to white schools. Manie Libbok, for example, made his way last weekend to Graslaagte Primary in Humansdorp for this purpose, not HTS Daniel Pienaar or Outeniqua High School, where he did his senior years.

We must celebrate those men and women in primary education who gave these youngsters their start in rugby. But it is such a pity that that is where the glory ended for these coaches who did what they did without the spunky facilities of the white schools. That is the tragedy of South Africa that after all the celebrations of our rugby champions, the inequalities still remain in terms of access to sporting resources for all our children.