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South African rugby is expected to make history again tomorrow when the Springboks name their first all black front row for the opening test with England in Johannesburg on Saturday.
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The match is already historic for South Africa as the team will be captained by Siya Kolisi, the first black player to be given the honour, and the make-up of the Boks will get close to the 50 per cent transformation figure due to be in place for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Loose head Tendai Mtawarira will start his 99th Test on Saturday in an expected all black front row completed by hooker Bongi Mbonambi and tighthead Trevor Nyakane. Lukhanyo Am is due to be at centre with Aphiwe Dyantyi and Sibusiso Nkosi set to join Willie le Roux in the back three.
The transformation objective for the leading South African sporting federations set by the government is the 60% generic black African target and in the latest report, Rugby showed a 17 percent improvement to achieve 60 percent of the targets agreed with the sport and recreation South Africa (SRSA) department and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). The EPG sets a minimum target of 50 percent achievement as the measure of successful compliance.
“Rugby is succeeding in the transformation process and we’re pleased with the outcomes of the Eminent Persons Group on Transformation in Sport (EPG) report,” said Jurie Roux CEO of SA Rugby. “We’re proud of the fact that rugby was the top performing federation from the five sports that were part of the pilot project in terms of transformation – we have worked hard to achieve our targets. We remain on track to deliver on our five-year Strategic Transformation Plan (STP), which we launched in 2015.
“Rugby in South Africa needs to continue transforming if it is to survive in our nation’s changing demographic landscape, as the report highlights. It is a business imperative for rugby as well as a high performance opportunity to access untapped talent.”
England defence coach Paul Gustard has reacted to comments by World Rugby’s Augustin Pichot questioning the decision to include Kiwi Brad Shields in the English squad.
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“We are just abiding by World Rugby law,” he told Sky Sports News.”He is EQP, he is eligible to play for England and we are delighted to have a quality player like him available. Martin Johnson played for New Zealand Colts – things sometimes happen – but the important thing is he is EQP, we are not doing anything illegal, so we are looking forward to having him in the squad.
“He is obviously a very good player, has settled into the group really well, is keen to learn and very coachable and we are looking forward to working with him. He has played a lot of high-level rugby with the Hurricanes over the last six or seven years.
“He is a quality player and we are going to make some judgements on that in our selection meeting.”
