South African Rugby quota rules run the risk of discriminating against coloured players in favour of black African players, warns Heindrich WyngaardThis year marks 120 years of organised black rugby, dating to the establishment of the South African Coloured Rugby Football Board in 1897. It also commemorates 25 years of rugby unity in South Africa.Up to the end of last year, a mere total of 61 black players — 39 coloured and 22 "black African" — were able to burst through the half-gap into Springbok selection.The first, in 1980, was a construction worker from the Western Cape town of Caledon, Errol Tobias; the most recent was Bongi Mbonambi. (This excludes members of the Bok squad announced two weeks ago by rugby boss Mark Alexander.)Of course, not all 61 black players got a chance to feature in an international test match for the Boks; and some of those selected for the latest squad also remain uncapped.What ultimately counts for every Bok is inclusion in a match 23 and taking the field for his country in a test match.That is what brought Tobias to national and international attention: running out at Newlands rugby stadium in Cape Town for a test match against the Irish in May 1981, now almost four decades ago.For this controversial and politically incorrect pas de deux with apartheid sport, he was vilified and remains unpopular in certain circles to this day.Curiously, new Minister of Sport Thulas Nxesi's prepared budget vote speech makes no mention of the historical importance of this year in rugby. Nor did he mention it in his recent blessing of South African Rugby's bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup —  an attempt to reignite rugby's role in post-1994 reconciliation.What the minister did mention, though, is what he referred to as "the elephant in the room": that, amid all South Africa's sporting achievements, "the majority of our schools —  in the townships and rural areas —  provide little or no physical education and sports opportunities".Equally troublesome, he added, was that "many of the national teams draw most of their players from a relatively small number of private and former model C schools". Nxesi offered three arguments why this is a worrying situation, two of which are:It is morally wrong to exclude any child from fulfilling their potential; andSuch exclusion is extremely short-sighted from the standpoint of high-performance sport, considering the amount of potential and talent that exists in schools across demographic boundaries.There is, as far as rugby is concerned, great hope that the playing field will become more level in the run-up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, a commitment that was recently re-emphasised to Nxesi by rugby's governing body.Hence the minister's blessing for the 2023 RWC bid, while his predecessor, Fikile Mbalula, refused to offer his own unless transformation figures showed improvement.Has there been any visible change? The composition of the current Springbok squad certainly gives insight to the progress achieved. South African Rugby has set a target of fielding a 50/50 black-white Springbok team for the 2019 RWC in Japan.Judging by the group put together for the test series against France, the first match of which was played yesterday, there seems to have been progress: 12 of the 31 players are black (just short of the required 15.5 players to make up 50%). Then, the make-up of yesterday's match 23 — 15 white and eight black players — creates flashbacks of the past.There exists a different angle, an inconvenient truth, to the black segment: it is subdivided into 30% "black African" and 20% coloured targets. It shows in yesterday's match 23: of the eight black players, five were "black African" and three coloured.Seemingly, what is ignored by the quota creators (unknowingly or intentionally) is that rugby has historically been a sport with meaningful participation and support from coloured communities — formally since 1897.It is therefore telling that the critics of rugby quotas always make a fuss over it offering opportunities to black players, generically speaking, which by implication would limit opportunities for white players. Yet their silence is audible about coloured players being "out-quota-ed" from the Bok group while the 50% white quota is guaranteed by South African Rugby's transformation plan.When announcing the new Bok group, rugby boss Alexander, a coloured, seated next to Bok coach Allister Coetzee, also coloured, stated: "I think this team represents what we've presented in our transformation targets with government. We're on track."But is it not off-track —  if not "morally wrong" and "extremely short-sighted", to use Nxesi's words somewhat out of context —  to present such a skewed representation of South Africa's rugby demographics?One wonders whether this might explain why not much has been said by rugby bosses about this year's commemoration of 120 years of organised black rugby —  and 25 years of rugby unity. Or should that be 25 years of continued disunity?• Wyngaard is an author, broadcaster and motivational speaker. His book, 'Bursting Through the Half-Gap', is available from loot.co.za and the Springbok Experience Rugby Museum in Cape Town..