Johannesburg (AFP)
The symbol is strong ... Siya Kolisi, the first black captain of Springboks, waved the Rugby World Cup Saturday in Yokohama. But more than two decades after the end of the apartheid regime, the racial transformation of the South African rugby team remains a long way.
The progressive integration of blacks into the South African XV, from which they were banned during apartheid (institutionalized in 1948 and gradually abolished in the early 1990s), has had its ups and downs.
The ups first. At World-2019 in Japan, Siya Kolisi was the first black captain of the Springboks, while only White had led the team for 90 years.
"Captain of the nation, Siya Kolisi (...), you have restored the pride of South African rugby and (you) let us all feel good," said Thursday, two days before the match, the Nobel Prize of peace, Desmond Tutu, longtime friend of Nelson Mandela, the first black South African president.
On Saturday, just before brandishing the trophy, Kolisi became a rallying force. "We have so many problems in our country but a team like this, coming from so many different backgrounds, different races .. We all came together with one goal and we wanted to reach it. We have done for South Africa, it shows that if we all pull in the same direction, we can achieve something, "he said.
- "A very close group" according to Erasmus-
There have also been a lot of lows with, recently, the second Eben Etzebeth line accused of racist insults before he left for Japan. He denied the accusations.
The Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, was forced to speak on the subject: he assured that he would "tolerate" no racism in his team, which is "a very close group".
However, he had to play the firefighters in early October after the broadcast of a video, viralized on social networks, where we see six substitute white players gather to celebrate the victory of the Springboks on Italy (49-3) and one of them dismiss Makazole Mapimpi, one of the blacks of the South African team.
In fact, the tradition is that the "bomb squad", which brings together the substitutes, celebrates separately from the rest of the group. Mapimpi tried in vain to defuse the case on Twitter, nothing worked: he was treated on social networks, "sold".
- Quotas -
On Saturday, the Springboks won the third title in their history, after the awards of 1995 and 2007.
The 1995 World Cup final, played at home, had been a succession of strong symbols in a country battered by racial tension.
President Mandela had donned the green and yellow jersey. The Johannesburg stadium, filled mostly with white fans, had sung "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson". And blacks celebrated the victory in the streets around Johannesburg's Ellis Park stadium, suggesting that rugby would contribute to the unity of the "rainbow nation".
On the field, however, winger Chester Williams - who recently died of a heart attack - was the only black player, while whites made up only 10% of the South African population.
And when the Springboks won again in 2007 in France, the team had only two blacks, the wingers JP Pietersen and Bryan Habana. Saturday, against the English, swept (32-12) there were six on the ground at kickoff, and the black wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe scored the two tests of the Boks.
Wearing, for years after the fall of apartheid, several Springbok coaches continued to ignore rising black stars. Prior to the World Cup in 2003, the second Geo Cronje line was excluded from the group for refusing to share a room with a black teammate.
Furious at the slow pace of change in the national rugby team, the South African government has introduced quotas to restore balance between blacks and whites.
This year, 12 black players made the trip to Japan among the group of 31, a record for the XV "Boks", even if it remains below the 50% of summoned referred by the government.
But Kolisi kicked off the puddle, suggesting recently that Neslon Mandela would probably not have supported the idea of rugby quotas.
The 28-year-old, born three years before the end of the apartheid regime, does not like the label that puts him as the first black captain of the Springboks at a World Cup.
"This is not a description I find natural," he told AFP. "I am privileged to be the captain of a team that represents all South Africans," he rectified.
According to rugby analyst Mark Keohane, the 2019 team is also very respectful of different cultures and ethnic groups in the country. "They are only one," he said, "they represent what is possible in the future, not what was lamentable in the past."
© 2019 AFP