SARU President, Oregan Hoskins
SARU President, Oregan Hoskins has hit back against attacks and critisism from factions and political party game play against the racial make-up of the Springbok rugby squad who will represent South Africa at the Rugby World Cup, which runs from 18 September to 31 October in England.
This follows a High Court Application, later abandoned, by the ANA (Agenda for… wait what are they called again… Agents for New Agenda party) as well as fierce critisism by Cosatu and former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers regarding the amount of players of colour in theSpringbok setup.
A lot of critisism can and has been levelled over the years against Oregan Hoskins and his “Bunch of merry misfits” at SARU for the way South African rugby is run and administered.
Here’s what Hoskins syas in his letter:
An Open Letter to SA from the President of SARU
Thirty-one proud South Africans, their coach and management team will climb aboard a flight to London on Friday to set off on a great adventure with one goal in mind: to bring back the Rugby World Cup for their fellow South Africans.
They are the pride of our nation – and those are the words of the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula, who spoke so passionately and brilliantly in support of the team at their farewell banquet on Tuesday evening.
Those players will move heaven and earth to make our country proud; they will throw their bodies into those places where the contest is at its fiercest and their chests will be bursting with pride at the honour of representing every single one of their fellow countrymen.
Not one of those players selected himself and yet there are those who wish them ill, and even to fail, as some form of protest against rugby and what they perceive to be our transformation record.
Many opinions have been aired over recent weeks and I have listened to them with growing frustration.
I have been frustrated because the good story we have been telling has been falling on deaf ears; and we do have a good news story to tell.
Let us get one thing absolutely clear: Our sport is massively transformed from where it was in 1992.
The idea of an “exclusive”, “white-dominated” game is frankly laughable. What we are is a successful, high performance sport in a competitive global environment; we are a responsible South African corporate citizen and we are a business. We fully realise that to stay relevant and vibrant in our country we need to evolve.
So, no one needs to lecture us about the importance of transformation – we got there long ago.
For instance, where were the critics almost three years ago when we became the first sport in SA to hold a national transformation indaba (in November 2012)? We invited the MECs for sport of all nine provinces as well as the sports minister and SASCOC leadership to the occasion as we began to map the way forward. We even set out our intentions in a Transformation Declaration.
We audited our game and we workshopped and wrangled and we fine-tuned our planning for two years and our General Council of 14 provinces ratified the plan in December 2014.
Two months later we presented it publicly; published it on our website; printed a 60-page handbook for all our provinces and in May we signed an MOU with SASCOC and the Department of Sports & Recreation to deliver on that plan.
We did that not because anyone was burning jerseys or taking us to court but because we could clearly see the way forward and knew exactly what needed doing. And it wasn’t just about numbers in the Springbok squad.
Our Strategic Transformation Plan has six dimensions (demographics, access, social responsibility, performance, corporate governance and capacity building); it has 71 measurable key performance indicators; it has targets for every aspect for every year to 2019 – we have nailed our colours to the mast.
So in the week that we were first lambasted for being an elite, white sport we opened our 32nd mobile gym for black schools and clubs in Pacaltsdorp; we inaugurated our fifth ‘Boks for Books’ library in an under-privileged school in Stellenbosch and we were named sports federation of the year in awards for women’s sport. Did that rate a mention? Was any of that weighed in the scales of criticism of ‘evil’ SARU?
All anyone was interested in was the fact that there were eight black players in a squad of 31 when 84% of the under-18 population is black African. It makes no sense does it?
Well here’s some more statistics for you. In our most populace province of KZN, 97% of schoolboys NEVER play rugby. And the proportion is the same in Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga – four of our biggest provinces where only 3% of boys have access to rugby at school.
It’s hardly any better in Gauteng, Free State, the Northern Cape and even the Eastern Cape where around 85% of boys NEVER have access to rugby at school. And if you don’t start at school you will never become a Springbok.
Only in the Western Cape – where 46% of schools play rugby – can the game really be called a ‘national sport’.
Only about 10% of schoolboys ever see a rugby ball at primary school and by the time we get to high school that rugby playing population has dwindled to a fraction at the 1st XV level. It is from that tiny subset of potential players that Springboks emerge.
But we are not down hearted because rugby is very good at identifying talent and we now we can achieve our targets. Our game thirsts for outstanding players and whether one emerges in a township school or from a traditional rugby school you can be sure the system will find him and nurture him.
And we now have a thoroughly worked out five-year plan on which we can be judged and with which we are aligned with our government. The transformation train has left the station and it is the critics that have been left on the platform. Rugby is definitely on track.
Let us turn now to that aeroplane and those young men and their management who will do duty against Japan in Brighton on 19 September with the sole intention of bringing joy to this country.
I would urge all supporters to demonstrate their true feelings towards the team, in the way that the team shows its loyalty to our country – by wearing their Springbok jerseys to the shop, the office, the factory, the mine or on the farm on Friday.
The team leaves that evening carrying our hopes with them; join me in showing them that they have our unqualified support.
Mr Oregan Hoskins
President: South African Rugby Union
I am not a fan of the man, Oregan Hoskins, not by a long shot!
But I have to applaud this letter, wholeheartedly, it is a very good letter by Hoskins!
A passionate letter to the people…..but…. most of what he says is that Saru have a plan…. It’s good to have a plan, however implementing the plan is the real starting place of moving ahead with transformation. Then Oregan Hoskinds brings up stats that kind of flummox me, such as 85% of boys in the Eastern Cape have no access to Rugby in schools. I would’ve have thought that is SARU’s problem, yet it is put up as an excuse. Where is the plan to change these statistics
@ Te Rangatira:
Nail. Head. Hit.
Let’s see if the rest of the people believing the fork tongued Hoskins can make a sentence using those three words.
SARU don’t practice what they preach.
END OF STORY.
@ Scrumdown:
hehe SD I don’t thing I have ever seen someone with such a grudge against an entity before.
I think provincial unions are also at fault, the sharks for example rarely look past the coastal superschools for age group teams. The only really development that takes place is bursaries for the odd black kid from the platteland. I can only assume the other provinces do the same.
Soccer will always beat rugby especially in rural areas, as the rules are simple and self officiating, early development is more likely.
However I do not like Oregons’ attitude that they are doing enough, while they can always do more.
Te Rangatira wrote:
Most of those boys are simply fighting for survival, the big challenge is getting them to school, getting them to school safely and giving them an education… that can’t be SARU’s responsibility.
I think a big problem in rugby is the scrums, you need proper coaching there, and if you get murdered in the scrums everygame, rarely will players in the backline get scouted, hell who would want to play at all?
4 @ MacroPolo:
My dislike of “Mr President” is based on the only 2 times I’ve met him.
Both were in meetings to dicsuss development at grass root level and how it can / should impact “transformation”.
Both times he made promises to the group that he clearly had no intention of keeping.
IE: He lied to me and the group. He may not see it so, but I do.
I therefore have no time for him.
As for SARU, as long as they continue with the type of shenanigans we see with Jurie Roux, IMO they have zip credibility.
He is under investigation for fraud, and yet all he gets is a contract extension.
“Jobs for the boys” methinks.
HOWEVER, I totally agree with you regarding the Provincial Unions. The Lions can’t see past the “Rugby” schools, and are just not interested in investing in development in “previously disadvantaged areas”.
In their defence though, they did get a “devlopment” league going a few years ago (I think it was called the Inganyama league), but had to abandon it (I think) when they were financially in the deep sticky stuff and retrenched most of the development department.
The big question is though, when will the Provincial Unions see past the short term and invest in putting the opportunities into the poor areas?
MacroPolo wrote:
Exactly why I refused to let my stepson start playing when we returned to SA from Swaziland and the school immediately saw a lad who would slot straight into any age group team as a lock.
My words to the coach were, “If you can show me that you have a scrum coach with at least a level 2 coaching qualifiaction, then he can play. Otherwise forget it.”
The lad has never been on a Rugby field.
Of course the coach didn’t know my background in the sport, so it was maybe an unfair conversation.
6 @ Scrumdown:
Yes that is what I can’t understand, SURELY development is an investment, not only for players of colour, but to anyone that can not afford the high school fees.
Fair comments on SARU.
7 @ Scrumdown:
What I would consider at school level, is to give a team that has been awarded a scrum with the option to take a free kick.
The lack of competent officiating at scrum time (because the laws are so complicated), is making the game less and less attractive, it is stunting growth, and at school level very dangerous.
9 @ MacroPolo:
Perhaps the NZ was of playing weight group instaed of age group is the way to go at schools level?
Tardy transformation in sport (in this case rugby) is not just attributable to SARU, but also to the Ministeries of Education and Sport, which of course are run by the government of the day, and not by SARU. But these Ministeries do next to varkall for rugby transformation, yet showboat & grandstand ad nauseam to a largely disinterested (in rugby) electorate …
Grassroots rugby development is the key to rugby transformation (more widespread school participation, provision of facilities & coaching, & a fostering of winning track record & aspirational rugby culture).
Until SARU & the Ministeries of Sport & Education get their collective, genuine act together there is no prospect of true rugby transformation (which should be based on the pillars of better facilities, coaching & opportunities for all (interested parties), broader participation in the sport by ALL stakeholders (PLAYERS, SPECTATORS, SUPPORTERS, SCHOOLS & ADMINISTRATORS), always bearing in mind that nobody can be forced to play and/or like a particular sport. The ideal should be freedom of choice in an environment of equal opportunity. That implies that once equal opportunity is provided, racial transformation does not imply that a particular team should necessarily be representative of South Africa’s overall demographics, but rather that a particular team should be more or less representative of the demographics of those that freely and voluntarily choose to play rugby; in a society that is not overly fixated with racial re-engineering this demographic representation of participation will over time occur naturally through a system based on equal opportunity and merit selection.
True Transformation = Dedicated Administration + Broadening Participation + Facilities + Coaching + Equal Opportunity + Freedom of Choice + Merit Selection
11 @ Angostura:
Hat’s off to you Sir.
At least some people can see the wood through the trees. (Or complicated English words to that effect!)
Scrumdown wrote:
I think the problem is that in developing schools there is a small player base to begin with, there are sometimes only 2 or 3 teams in the school and even then it is hard to fill the teams. I came from a school with 1000 pupils, and we sometimes played 2 to 3 games in one day just to fill up the other teams, because there is simply not enough interest. There was no such thing as tactical substitutions 😆 and we had many facilities available to us. I cant imagine how tough it will be to fill a team from a rural area, unless they combine a few school… and few unions has the time or even resources for that.
@ Angostura:
What a brilliant comment. And the last line – Applicable for everything in South Africa. Especially the economy.
Well done – great comment.
and there is little faith in administration to be able to do that.
Good argument and some good initiatives. But more must be done, and SARU needs to work with Dept of Education and Dept Sports to bring more development to rugby. They also need to get the buy in from the various unions and sub unions. There are hundreds of schools where rugby is played, but do not get the recognition and additional coaching they deserve.
The MAIN problem, as I see it, to kick-start true Transformation at grass-roots level in Rugby in SA (and for it to work it’s magic upwards in the age-groups) is the NON-AVAILABILITY of rugby facilities, ie. Rugby Fields, kit, coaches, competition structures ect.
Of all these Schools & Percentages that Oregan Hoskings cite, which have no exposure to rugby at all, almost all of them (if not indeed all of them) are GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
Over 4 000 schools (and that was the statistic in 2005 already), do not have ANY SPORTING FACILITIES on their school grounds, whatsoever!!
Now surely THAT is not SARU’s fault or responsibility to create these sporting facilities at these Government Establishments, it is the domain of the Government and the Education Department and the Ministry of Sport & Recreation.
However, in these unfortunate downtrodden communities where the lack of facilities exist, SARU can do way more to set up collective Junior Rugby Club structures at some of the local Communal / Municipal sports clubs or available sports grounds, to alleviate the huge, huge rugby absense of facilities at schools… but they would need the support and absolute buy-in from Local Government and Government in general to be able to achieve it and they will most definately need funding from Government to achieve this.
Rugby alone does not have the monetary capacity or budget to achieve this without massive funding… as well as Government participation in these projects.
Pilot projects need to be launched by SARU, a sustainable model for the roll-out of these structures need to be developed and blue-printed and a massive Project Proposal (per Province and per District and Nationally) needs to be launched and given to the right hands in Government, then pushed through and then executed… properly.
I doubt SARU has the collective intellectual capital to develop these models and proposals and to negotiate successfully with Goverment in achieving this.
One simply cannot transform rugby from the BOTTOM up (which is the only wise way to do it), only through luring in players of colour into former “White Model C Schools”!! One would have to harnass and harvest the general population out there, by giving those specific communities the means to do so.
Everything else, including critisism against not enough transformation OR countering by saying transformation is on track, is pure lip-service and no more than that!
There is nothing small or simple about transforming rugby or any other sport, it is a massive undertaking… and facilities to do so lies at the very heart of the problem and would be a vital 1st step… otherwise we’ll be discussing, debating and lamenting THIS exact point again in 20 years… and 30 years… and 50 years.
It’s simple mathematics of the “Haves and Have-nots”… those who do not have facilties, will continue to get no exposure to rugby, develop no love for the game… and will not come through the rugby systems in droves.
In contradition to that, the little toddlers who get given a rugby ball or cricket bat and ball at age 3, a little Province or Blue Bulls shirt at age 4, who has the opportunity to play something like Bulletjie Rugby at age 6 or Bakers Mini Cricket at age 6, who gets taken to a Loftus or Newlands Stadium from an ealy age… they will love the sport, continue with it… and their cream will rise to the top, naturally!
17 @ grootblousmile:
When I was a t the Lions, we had a system in place where every school was almost affiliated to it’s nearest club, and the kids became junior club members.
This was aimed at specifically overcoming the lack of facilities.
The idea was that the kids would play their normal school games if the the school had the facilities, coaches and infrastructure, and once the single term school Rugby season was over, the kids would migrate to the club for the remainder of the club season.
Naturally, this gave the kids who were at schools the opportunity to also play, albeit a few months later in the season.
The thinking was that in such a program, it would give every laaitie a Rugby “home” where they could grow their game in an enviromnt condusive to Rugby, and at the same time enable the club(s) to grow a player base from the ground up.
Match days would be organised at centralised venues to assist with transport logisitics and potential shortcomings in terms of resources like referees etc.
Naturally there would also be positive financial spin offs for the club / school holding the match day.
In concept it was a great idea, but in reality difficult to implement, especially at “previously diadvantaged” clubs.
The main problem with any club (or school) in developmental / “previously disadvantaged” area is transport.
When I was involved, the Province gave an ANNUAL allowance of ZAR 15 000, which was meant to cover admin’ functions, and ground maintenance.
In addition to this, the club manager received an allowance from the GLRU based on the league the club was involved in, the number of teams fielded, and (I think) the number of Rugby grounds available at the club.
This amount was meant to cover the hours of work that every club manager needs to put in just to keep the club operating, which I can assure you is more that a few hours a week.
Now you can imagine that a club in a former “coloured” township, floundering in the GLRU 3rd division (President’s League) would have enormous “challenges” in trying to find anyone willing to invest / sponsor them for their “normal” senior Rugby activites, so the chance of getting a sponsor for something as mundane as getting 300 – 400 kids to a Rugby match every Saturday at a centralised venue is / was niegh on impossible.
Challenges there are aplenty.
POTENTIAL solutions there are also aplenty.
The question is how to implement and finance those solutions?
It’s all well and good to point the finger at the Department of Education, but in reality does any Rugby “lover” really think that our Government have either the will, or means (financially or resources) to put sporting facilities into the schools that have nothing?
As custodians of the game, it IS up to the likes of SARU, the Lions, Bulls etc AND the TRUE Rugby supporters to ensure the success and ongoing viability of the Sport within the framework of the country’s laws and shared vision (read transfomation).
I am passionate about Rugby. NOTHING gives me greater pleasure than watching a bunch of young kids throwing a Rugby ball around on a piece of “cultivated” veld in a backwater community.
For those of you who see Rugby as this sterile 80 minutes of action we see on SS 201 on a Saturday afternoon, I suggest you get off your comfortable Lazy Boy, get yourself down to your neares club, or even township club, and go and see the real world view of how 90% of Rugby “players” get to play “their” sport.
Soap box session ends. Lights dim. Everyone can go and watch Currie Cup.
18 @ Scrumdown:
Great comment Mr Kempies!
Yeah… add transport to the list of absolute essentials (facilities, kit, coaches, competition structures).
The Transformation and “Bringing the game to the masses” problem is huge… vast… the challenges are great!
No wonder the political muppits want to take the easy route out and try to Transform from Top to Bottom,in stead of from Bottom upwards as it should be done. It is simply easier for them to lay the visible blame at the Top than to come up with solutions to do it the right way around.
For these politicos it is easy to say “Look at the Springbok make-up after 21 years” but to conveniently ignore the fact that the root causes which impede more rapid Transformation and which will cause players to come through still exist and in many cases have markedly worsened.
@ Angostura:
All mostly good points although I think the most pertinent issue has been missed by everybody – paternal encouragement.
In a society where there have been generations of males playing a specific sport eg rugby, there is a certain degree of encouragement and wisdom handed down to each generation.
With the exception of the E.Cape, this does not exist amongst black kids in this country.
What will change it though, is the emerging black middle class and more of their kids going to private or, at least, former model c schools. We have seen a large number of black kids playing rugby (for the first time in their family history) over the past 20 years. As these boys become fathers, so they will encourage their sons too play rugby as well.
It will take a generation or two, but the Boks will soon be made up mostly of black players.
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