|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Honored at last Black South Africans receive Springbok blazers
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -- There was a time when Cassiem Jabbar would make his way to the Newlands rugby ground in Cape Town to cheer on the team playing against South Africa. It didn't matter who the Springboks faced, a victory for the opposition was a defeat for apartheid. On Wednesday, Jabbar was back at Newlands with 140 other veteran players to be presented with a South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) blazer, whose Springbok emblem he once regarded as a symbol of oppression. As a non-white South African, Jabbar never had a chance of playing international rugby during an outstanding career as a scrumhalf in the 1960s and 1970s. "I don't say I would have been better than anyone else but I do know I was never given the opportunity to gauge myself," Jabbar told Reuters. "Before the politics of our country changed we used to come to Newlands to support the touring teams playing against the Springboks. "This ceremony will help us get our kids behind the new rugby of South Africa." The event was the seventh and final "capping" ceremony to take place across the Republic. It is part of a campaign by the SARFU to weave together the strands of South African rugby tradition that were once strictly segregated on race lines. "If we want to go forward and make rugby the sport of the nation, as it should be, we can't build on a platform where there are players from the past who are unhappy about the way they were treated," said SARFU chief executive Rian Oberholzer. "By honoring these former players, SARFU will be closing the chapter on the past and opening a fresh chapter for the new millennium." More than 700 players have been identified as being eligible for the new Springbok colors. They are drawn from the four major governing bodies of apartheid era South Africa, who all selected their own "national" teams. Prominent white Springboks such as Carel du Plessis and Morne du Plessis (no relation) as well 96-year-old George Daneel -- the oldest living Springbok -- were also presented with new blazers. They represented the white-run South African Rugby Board (SARB) Springboks and at least had the chance of playing international rugby against the likes of New Zealand and the British Lions, although South Africa's pariah status meant the players of the 1970s and 1980s collected only a fraction of the caps they might have expected. Boycotted ceremonies Some of their white teammates, including legendary lock forward Frik du Preez, have boycotted the ceremonies, complaining that the honor of being a Springbok had been diluted. "They can't tell me they played for South Africa then, when they were so-called Springboks," said Jabbar. "No-one in the past played for South Africa. I believe we all played for our people. "There are players here who have never even heard of greats like Morne du Plessis, that's how divided we were. "If just 10 per cent of the guys go back to their communities and put something back into the game then we will have strengthened unity in the sport." Louis Babrow won his five caps for the white Springboks in 1937. He said: "I thought about it very, very carefully before I came here and I understand why people have objections. But I came in the spirit of reconciliation. "I think in time those who object may be persuaded to fall in line. This has been a happy occasion." The capping ceremonies conclude with a 'Yesterday's Heroes' banquet for the players in Johannesburg.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
