Johannesburg (AFP)

The Springboks, winners of the Rugby World Cup, are back in the country on Tuesday for a breath of fresh air in a South Africa in crisis, a quarter of a century after the fall of the apartheid.

Erected as "heroes" since their triumph on Saturday (32-12) against England in the final of the Japanese edition of the world tournament, the first players of the South African XV are expected at the end of the day at the Johannesburg airport.

Coach Rassie Erasmus and the black captain of "Boks" Siya Kolisi have to open the ball by a press conference.

Once reunited on national soil - the rear of the players must return on Wednesday - the Springboks will begin Thursday a series of popular parades that will lead them to Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth. in Cape Town next Monday.

Tens of thousands of fans are hoping on their way. On Monday again, the government urged the population to reserve a "hero's welcome" to the team, now decked out with the hashtag #PlusFortsEnsemble.

After those of 1995 and 2007, this third world title could no better fall in a South Africa plagued by difficulties, depression and doubt twenty-five years after the long-awaited advent of democracy.

A year after his election, the appearance in the 1995 finals of the first black president of the country Nelson Mandela wearing the green tunic of the national team rugby long reserved for whites had caused a breath of hope.

It is now largely down. The economy is stagnating, unemployment is close to 30%, poverty persists and inequalities are widening, to the point of making the first industrial power of the African continent, dixit the World Bank, the global champion of inequalities, social as racial.

Increasingly contested, the black government has not failed to seize the triumph of its rugbymen - against all odds - on those of the former colonial power.

- The "dream" Kolisi -

"At a time when South Africa is facing considerable challenges, we all found ourselves around this victory in Japan," said President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday.

"Saturday was a day of triumph in confirming that we are a nation, determined to draw unity in its diversity, and our national rugby team has set an example," said the head of the team. the State.

In a country still sick of his race relations, he naturally insisted on the strength of the "symbol" Siya Kolisi.

Born in a poor township on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth, the 28-year-old third line became the first black player to lead a team that deliberately banned them from his ranks for ninety years.

"It is the dream of a young man of modest origin to wear the green and gold jersey and the dream of a country that allowed him to achieve it," summarized Cyril Ramaphosa.

From the final whistle on Saturday, Siya Kolisi did not hesitate to don himself the costume of new icon of the "rainbow nation" dreamed by Nelson Mandela.

"We come from different origins, different races but we came together with a single goal and we wanted to reach it," he said, very politically, on the edge of the field. "It shows that if we all pull in the same direction, we can achieve something."

But, behind the fervor sparked by this world title, the racial reality of South African rugby remains more contrasted.

In their first world title, the Springboks still hosted only one black player. It took a recent and highly controversial quota policy to make six - not even half - the start of the final against England.

And just before the World Cup, one of Yokohama's winners, White Eben Etzebeth, was accused of racist remarks. What cool the most enthusiastic speeches ...

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