Teboho ‘Oupa’ Mahoje

A racial row has erupted in South Africa on the eve of the Wallabies’ showdown with the Springboks.

A selection battle between rising Cheetahs star Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje and World Cup winner Schalk Burger has pitted sections of the South African media against Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer.

The battle was eventually won by Mohoje, with Burger selected on the bench for the Test.

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“Apparently all it takes to be a racist these days is to dare to question the selection policy of a national coach, particularly one of a sports code that still suffers from an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality,” wrote Lungani Zama in the Sunday Tribune. (See Article below)

Zama appeared to have riled sections of the Springboks hierarchy the previous week after publishing a “Spring-Blacks” XV (See Article below) in response to the South African Rugby Union’s decree that black players must constitute 50% of the Springboks by 2019.

Tensions seem to have been further inflamed by a selection debate pitting Mohoje against Burger, who has been recalled from the Top League in Japan to play against the Wallabies.

“There is an autobahn to the playing field for some, and a rickshaw lane for others – both black and white players, mind – and that is simply a load of kak,” Zama wrote.

“The Bok propaganda machine has been at it again this past week, paving the way for Schalk Burger to jump from the treatment table to the starting line-up for the Wallabies Test at Newlands, by pointing out that it makes pure rugby sense.

“And anyone who disapproves of such a move would be ‘tactically ignorant’. Meyer’s fast-fading rhetoric of rewarding form seldom gets questioned, with the conversation instead steered in a new direction, conveniently.”

Mohoje is a player on the rise who’s been part of the Boks squad all year while Burger is a proven big-game performer who boasts 71 Test caps.

Writing for iol.co.za, Jacques van der Westhuizen is tired of the excuses being offered up in opposition to Mohoje’s inclusion.

“He needs to be nurtured,” van der Westhuizen began. “Play him off the bench. He must be handled with care. Why?

“It’s not as if Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje doesn’t know how to play rugby. It’s not as if he’ll break. I’ve heard all the excuses under the sun why the Cheetahs man isn’t ready to start for the Springboks, and I’m pretty tired of it.

“Why shouldn’t Mohoje get an opportunity to play at the highest level? Because he’s black?

“C’mon, the guy is seriously talented; he showed as much in the Varsity Cup – where he actually led Shimlas – and he showed it in Super Rugby.

“The fact he didn’t start all the games isn’t his fault; that’s a question coach Naka Drotske has to answer.

“I feel for Mohoje. He was leapfrogged into the Bok side by, first, Marcell Coetzee, then Juan Smith and then Warren Whiteley. It’s no fault of these players they were picked, but why not Mohoje?”

Burger has endured an injury-interrupted season in Japan and, like fellow squad addition JP Pietersen, wasn’t available for the opening rounds of The Rugby Championship because of his club commitments in Asia.

The Japanese Top League is well down on intensity and that could well be why Meyer went for Mohoje.

Sarugbymag.co.za’s Jon Cardinelli believes the issue could hinder the 24-year-old’s promising career.

“It’s a difficult situation for a Bok coach under pressure, for a Bok team under pressure, and for a young black player who wants to be judged on his ability rather than the colour of his skin,” Cardinelli wrote.

“The comparison between Burger and Mohoje is grossly unfair. The former has been playing at the highest level for 11 years, while the latter has been playing in the top-flight for less than six months. Burger has 71 Test caps, Mohoje has one.

“There will be a lot of pressure on the 24-year-old rookie this Saturday. There will be great expectations, expectations he will struggle to live up to.

“There’s a lot to play for in the coming weeks. The Boks’ place in the world rankings is at stake, and there’s still an opportunity to beat the All Blacks.

“In an ideal world, Meyer would pick the strongest available back row for the coming games against the Wallabies and All Blacks. Raw rookies like Mohoje would continue to be nurtured until they were in a position to succeed.

“Starting Mohoje before he is ready could have devastating consequences, not just for the Boks, but for the player’s career.”

Bok camp smacks of double standards

By Lungani Zama, published 22 September 2014

Apparently all it takes to be a racist these days is to dare to question the selection policy of a national coach, particularly one of a sports code that still suffers from an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality.

You could swear that instead of imploring the Bok coach to at least attempt a move away from his one-dimensional selections, I had donned a red beret, organised a mob, and marched to SARU’s offices with a land claim.

It would be almost funny, if it wasn’t so misguided.

Let’s be clear, people; never was it said that the so-called Spring-Blacks must take the place of the current Boks. Neither was it argued that any of those players had to be given special treatment, which is what quotas are basically inferring.

The knee-jerk responses to the Spring-Blacks were fast and furious, saying it wasn’t right how certain sections of the media always take one good performance from a player of colour, and prematurely declare him as the best thing since sliced bread.

But, surely, those same detractors can not have their bread buttered on both sides?

Because there is seemingly nothing wrong with slapping a ‘future-Bok star’ tag on a white player at the drop of a hat. On these very pages, I have championed the merits of Pat Lambie, of Pieter-Steph du Toit, of Willie le Roux and, to cast the net wider, Dean Furman (a Bafana Bafana white midfielder, to the uninitiated), as well as a host of cricketers pushing for higher honours.

Not once was I called out for favouritism then, though those arguments were saying essentially the same thing as last week’s musings about the so-called Spring-Blacks. But, in one column, I was suddenly stirring the racial pot, causing even greater divide by suggesting that the Bok hierarchy wasn’t giving every player in his squad a fair shake.

I do not believe in quotas, having seen first-hand what damage that can do to team dynamics and, worse, individual development. But I also don’t believe in double standards, which is what the Bok camp increasingly smacks of.

There is an autobahn to the playing field for some, and a rickshaw lane for others – both black and white players, mind – and that is simply a load of kak.

The Bok propaganda machine has been at it again this past week, paving the way for Schalk Burger to jump from the treatment table to the starting line-up for the Wallabies Test at Newlands, by pointing out that it makes pure rugby sense.

And anyone who disapproves of such a move would be ‘tactically ignorant’. Meyer’s fast-fading rhetoric of rewarding form seldom gets questioned, with the conversation instead steered in a new direction, conveniently.

Burger is a wonderful player, but what form do you get straight off the rehab table?

The only purpose of those ‘Spring-blacks’ names last week was to remind those who routinely bemoan the supposed lack of black talent coming through that there are, indeed, perfectly capable options in the much-maligned system already.

Meyer himself expressed his ‘excitement’ at several of these players in his first squad announcement of the year, and also his desire to give them a chance to see what they can really do.

Now unless those words were purely tokenism or political sugar-coating, then we have to wonder what has changed since then? And by some of us putting those misgivings on the public table, does that make us trouble-makers?

Just because an injustice or imbalance of opportunity isn’t your personal reality, it doesn’t mean that it is not true. Surely that is the point of public opinion; it should be a melting pot of comments and concerns, each not necessarily agreeing with the other, but also being mature enough to take on board alternate views?

Every coach will have his favourites, rightly or wrongly. And so long as he is winning, it is hard to question that logic. But, as true Bok followers – which is why we are all so vocal about their fortunes on these platforms – if we are still not concerned by the direction this team is taking, then perhaps we are watching different matches.

The Bok hierarcy seem hell-bent on ignoring other avenues, despite our fabled physical presence no longer being decisive in the international fold. Other nations are now just as big, if not bigger and, tellingly, marry that size to some sensational skills.

At several intervals in this Rugby Championship, the Boks have been bullied off the ball, and then outsmarted by craftier players. Size, it seems, is not everything, especially if it isn’t married to skills that take advantage of what you win at the coal-face.

This Championship is no longer there to be won, so why not cast aside the shackles and see what Plan B could produce?

It is that resolute defiance to stick to the Jurassic game-plan of years ago, with a select band of brothers, that will define this era of Bok rugby. In a year from now, we will again be wondering just what the last four years have produced, unless by hook or tender crook, we burgle the William Webb Ellis Cup from the United Kingdom.

And while we speak so tentatively of blacks here, a look across the seas to the original darkies of rugby shows that they have built their depth purely on rewarding form, there and then. That isn’t to say they are cheapening the All Black jersey – far from it. They are creating depth, as well as a steady stream of pride and excitement when a new player walks into the team for the first time.

They now have two or three world-class players for each position, and each has enough international experience to slot straight in, should a crisis arise, as it did for them at fly-half at the last World Cup.

We have way more playing resources than the All Blacks. Yet, more and more, it seems that only a select few are entrusted with the responsibility of the Springbok jersey.

That can’t be right. – Sunday Tribune

Give Spring-blacks an equal chance

Published 14 September 2014

The recent announcement by Saru that the Springbok rugby team will have to be 50 percent black by 2019 was met with derision and disappointment on online forums over the past week.

“A black day for Bok rugby”, someone chirped.

“We’ll never win another World Cup”, said another.

“We’re going to do as well as Bafana are doing,” it was added.

Such drastic swipes – and such sweeping quota measures, for that matter – are premature, and wouldn’t be necessary, if the playing (selection) field was even. But as many promising players of colour keep finding out, the goalposts appear to be further away for some than others.

The race card is all too often pulled out prematurely in this country, but when a trend becomes a norm, it is hard for the man in the stands not to wonder if there is something slightly more cynical than rucking and mauling at play.

How many Bok supporters – who unanimously praised his Super Rugby form, mind – honestly feel that Oupa Mohoje has been given the same opportunities as Lood de Jager? The lanky Cheetahs utility forward has carried tackle bags across three countries in the Rugby Championship so far, and watched on as he was overtaken for playing time by Juan Smith’s Lazarus-like return, and then Warren Whiteley’s call-up.

Both Smith and Whiteley are quality players, but how does Mohoje drop down the list without being given his own chance?

Juan de Jongh and S’bura Sithole have also swallowed a similar dose of reality this year. Praised across media circles for their form in Super Rugby, and picked in Heyneke Meyer’s opening squad of the season, they have both watched themselves slip out of the reckoning. They had to watch on as Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen were picked ahead of their specialist offerings at the start of the season, in a World XV friendly that didn’t even have Test status.

Steyn and Pietersen are in Japan making millions, as they always said they would, but the pair of De Jongh and Sithole are slumming it in the Currie Cup. In terms of continuity or simply reward for good form, that decision to play a pair of individuals about to leave South African shores ahead of two committed, in-form alternates, was bizarre.

But not uncommon.

The list of blacklisted darkies whose climb to top Bok honours has hit a cultural cul-de-sac is long and lamentable. Meyer has resolutely stuck to his tried and trusted (Jake White’s players, as some critics used to pipe up before Meyer took over), even going so far as encouraging some warhorses to come back from semi-retirement and the commentator’s couch, instead of looking to give a fair shake to other players at his disposal.

Meyer admitted earlier this year that he did have a tendency to opt for players that he has worked with before when faced with a 50/50 selection. That is not a good mindset for a national coach to start from. In fact, that is a quota policy in itself, really.

For one thing, he has only worked within a limited part of the South African rugby landscape, traditional stronghold though it may be. Added to this, he is loyal to one style of rugby, predictable and outdated though it may be.

It still remains one of Meyer’s greatest surprises that he picked the smaller, but infinitely slicker Willie le Roux over a steady donkey at the back. Le Roux’s interplay with like-minded players like Cornal Hendricks, for example, have given a further hint of what headaches the Springboks can cause the mighty All Blacks, if given the freedom to express themselves.

And across backlines in South Africa, there is plenty more expressive talent for Meyer to pluck from, even beyond incumbents Bryan Habana and Hendricks. It is telling that most of them have their grounding in Sevens rugby, which irons out any flaws, while encouraging flair and unpredictability.

In an ideal world, there should be no need for all this c**p of quotas and so-called compromises. Especially not in a country full of so much rugby potential. But, administrators and political mouthpieces are forced to stand up and make suggestions or, worse, enforce stipulations when that transformation is stopped dead in its tracks by key figures who refuse to remove their blinkers. Listed below is a so-called Spring-blacks XV, a clutch of players of colour who have either had a brief taste of international rugby or, in future years, may be ripe for higher honours.

A look across that team confirms plenty of talent.

THE SPRING-BLACKS: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 S’bura Sithole, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Tera Mthembu, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 4 Lubabalo Mtyanda, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Alastair Vermaak.