Quotas may make Boks the forgotten giants

THE argument that the South African squad has to go through the pain of positive discrimination for as long as 20 years – as reflected by the 50 per cent quota for non-white players by 2019 – was advanced by David Flatman recently.

Flatman, who is one of the most astute rugby broadcasters around, said that the policy is probably the only way of ensuring that the youngsters in South Africa’s black majority have the right rugby role models to attract them to the sport.

I take a different view. The best means of any sport progressing in a fractious political and racial landscape is through a meritocracy. It is the qualities that a player brings in terms of character and talent that define sporting role models, and while black youngsters will identify strongly with black players, it is not an absolute pre-requisite.

Did the fact that Pele was a black Brazilian stop a legion of football-mad white youngsters in the Sixties and Seventies from wanting to emulate him?

There are few things in sport more corrosive to team spirit than the recognition that a player is selected for reasons other than that they are the best in their position and deserve their place.

There are outstanding black and coloured players in the current Springbok side – Bryan Habana, Oupa Mahoje and Tendai Mtawarira among them – but stacking the team with non-white players who do not merit Test recognition is a fast route to South Africa declining rapidly as a world rugby power.

Youngsters of any colour like to support winning teams, and if South Africa slip off the map as a competitive side the support for them will decline. In 20 years that decline could become almost irreversible, with a generation indifferent to them.

South African rugby should be a vibrant force driven by meritocracy – and if it does so the Springbok Maro Itojes will not take long to emerge.