Springboks make the powder speak on Japanese lawns. But off the field, the situation can be just as explosive. At issue: the sensitive subject of apartheid in South Africa. No later than Sunday, October 6, the South African coach Rassie Erasmus had to endorse his firefighter costume to extinguish a heated controversy caused by the broadcast of a video that seemed to demonstrate the existence of racial tensions within the team .
We see a group of players (François Steyn, RG Snyman, Francois Louw, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert and Steven Kitshoff), all white, to gather to celebrate the victory of the Boks on Italy (49-3). With a gesture, Steyn seems to dismiss Makazole Mapimpi, one of the black players of the team of South Africa, who goes away, head down.
"Some people are going to see something wrong, I can assure you that as a coach, I would never allow anything like that to happen, and there is nothing like that in this team. 'is a very close group,' said the Springbok boss, who faces Canada on Tuesday.
"Everyone knows that in a tour or a world cup, in a group of 31, there are the fifteen holders and replacements.This time, these substitutes call themselves the 'bomb squad' (the team "Because they either go in to fix everything, or everything is fine and it's a false alarm," said the coach. He received support from Makazole Mapimpi, who broadcast a video where he explains that he actually left by seeing that the players in this small group were those of the 'bomb squad'.
A "pack of wolves"
This case has been echoed by accusations of racism against one of South Africa's iconic players, second-line Eben Etzebeth. The latter is accused of insulting a homeless person and pointing a gun at him in late August. Before leaving for Japan, Etzebeth was heard by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) before which he denied the facts.
His denials did not convince the commission that confirmed, Friday, October 4, to have "formally filed a complaint" with a court specialized in discrimination cases. "Members of the black community have said that Etzebeth and his friends call themselves 'the pack of wolves', spreading terror in the Western Cape province," said Buang Jones, a representative of the SAHRC. The plaintiffs claim financial compensation (60,000 euros) and an apology.
This incident does not seem an isolated affair. Other cases of racism involving rugby have been reported, according to the SAHRC, citing a retiree who claims to have been a victim. The Sunday Times has also published in its latest edition several testimonials involving Etzebeth and some of his relatives in different racist attacks.
The iconic captain Kolisi
For the Springboks, world champions in 1995 and 2007, the management of this business is very delicate. The Federation announced that it would cooperate with the investigators. In the meantime, the 27-year-old, who will join the Toulon club after the World Cup, continues his adventure in Japan. As for his teammates, they are careful not to express themselves openly on the subject. Their captain Siya Kolisi thus contented himself with saying that the Springbok coaches were dealing with this issue and that the players were concentrating on their competition. A particularly delicate situation to manage for this third-line become, in May 2018, the first black to wear the stripes of captain at the Springboks.
The group selected for this ninth world aimed precisely to show the efforts made by South African rugby to promote the integration of black players. Out of 31 players, 10 were selected for this competition, a figure higher than in previous World Cups. The coach Erasmus wanted to reach a goal of 50%, but it failed for lack of black players.
In 1995, South Africa had organized and won this competition. And the image of his captain Francois Pienaar wielding the Webb Ellis Cup alongside the late President Nelson Mandela, dressed in a jersey Springboks, had a very strong impact in the country and abroad. Rugby became a symbol of national reconciliation just after the end of apartheid. In this team, however, there was only one Métis player, winger Chester Williams, who died recently. "Whites only tolerated us on the team because they wanted to show that they accepted change," Chester Williams told Le Monde in an interview in 2015.
Captain Kolisi must manage this legacy and show that the Springboks have come a long way in 24 years. If he came to raise the World Cup on Nov. 2 in Tokyo, the Springboks could then prove their transformation. A goal that they can only achieve by remaining united. However, as noted journalist Jon Cardinelli in the magazine SA Rugby, the defusing of the case of the "bomb squad" shows how a "non-event" can have an impact on the players. The question is to know how much the Etzebeth affair is likely to cause dissension.