Lawes and Kolisi guiding lights for game’s diversity
When Courtney Lawes and Siya Kolisi lead their teams out at Twickenham today it will be a significant moment.Two black captains in a top-level international match – I’m not sure if that has happened before.
Much has been made of the Kolisi story – and it is a remarkable one – but don’t underestimate the importance of Lawes’s presence too. It shows that now everyone has an opportunity not just to represent England but to lead them, too.
We need to keep pushing on diversity – the more people get opportunities, the stronger the pool of players England will have – but after the week English cricket has just endured, a multicultural success story like this represents a powerful and positive image for rugby.
It would be wrong to assume rugby has everything cracked but I’m glad to say I’ve never come across anything on a par with the Azeem Rafiq case in a dressing room.
Sometimes remarks were made, but never directly towards me.There was maybe a sense that I was viewed as being all right because I was part of the team. But I would say that the vast majority of offensive stuff I did hear would have been said through ignorance rather than malice.
Education overcomes ignorance and the next generation will have a better understanding of the hurt racism causes.The mascots today will include 11-year-old Liam Henderson, who is the great-great grandson of Jimmy Peters, the first black man to play for England. He played against Scotland and France in 1906 but was left out of the side against South Africa that autumn. It was reported at the time that this was because the South Africans preferred not to share the same field with black men.Times have thankfully changed, although slowly – it took another 82 years for the next black man to play for England. Another of the mascots today will be six-year-old Noah Robinson, whose father was England’s first black men’s captain.That was me by the way. Noah will be wearing my World Cup winners’ medal so I hope he doesn’t lose it! He should get to see a great game. Don’t believe all that talk from England about this not being about a revenge mission for theWorld Cup final repeat. It will be. England will need to be good in the set-piece and physical, but they will also need to do something they didn’t do in that final – test the Springboks around the field.With that in mind, I’m happy to see Manu Tuilagi back at centre, which gives Joe Marchant a great chance on the wing. A diverse England team have become the norm now, which has to be a positive thing. Where the game still needs to make further strides is in key areas of influence off the field. The RFU have their first black chair in Tom Ilube but more representation in boardrooms will bring a wider spread of opinions and experiences to the table.
I’ve never experienced things like in Rafiq’s case