With the ARU considering lifting its ban on foreign players representing Australia’s Super 14 teams, a South African report that claims the Springboks will be set a quota of ten black and coloured players from 2008 onwards should be lighting little light bulbs above the heads of the ARU’s decision makers.
Rugby in South Africa has been a political weapon used by both the old and new governments. Rugby lost out when the Springbok jersey was the reserve of white players only and will lose out again under a quota system for black and coloured players. Neither decision has anything to do with selection based on the quality of the players.
At the moment the South African squad contains five black and coloured players. Potentially next year there will be five white players cut from the current squad to ensure the proposed quota is filled. Regardless of if this becomes reality or not there are bound to be a hell of a lot of good white South African rugby players concerned about their international playing future right now.
These are not over-the-hill rugby pensioners we are talking about here. These are Springboks and those snapping at their heals.
If the ARU is at all serious about recruiting a small number of high-quality foreign players into Australia’s Super 14 ranks it should act now and start using its network to contact a few of South Africa’s best. If the ARU decides that importing foreign players is not the path it wants Australian rugby to go down then it should also act now, declare the debate over and move on.
The worst outcome in this situation for the ARU would be allowing the deliberations to continue and meander whilst in the meantime several South African players are lured to one of the northern hemisphere’s dreaded cashed up clubs. The Australian rugby public has had enough ‘what ifs’ in recent years and whatever the decision, here’s an easy first up win for the rebuilt ARU.
Great players are able to make the most of their opportunities and the same goes for great organisations.
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