"The Springboks: Year Zero" - a book I am considering writing

**Tooting Carmen** · 06-22-2018, 10:08 PM

The South African rugby team's shock loss to Japan in the 2015 Rugby World Cup - considered the greatest upset ever in the history of rugby - and its also deeply surprising loss to Italy in the 2016 Autumn Internationals have alerted the world to the serious decline of South African rugby. Why does this matter? Well (1) it shows how political interference is usually disastrous for sport and (2) it genuinely threatens the global viability and competitiveness of rugby, given how New Zealand will no longer have a serious challenger to its dominance.

In the book, I shall trace South African rugby's problems all the way back to the 70's and 80's, when the country was hindered by international isolation and sanctions due to Apartheid. (In hindsight, it was actually very hypocritical and one-eyed, given the horrendous atrocities perpetrated by numerous Black African dictatorships at the time and the relative lack of condemnation of countries like the USA and Australia for their own racist policies).

I shall then look at the more contemporary root causes of the country's decline: racial quotas, which effectively mean that good White players are overlooked in favour of bad Black ones; economic decline, which has resulted in an estimated 300 South African pro rugby players now being based in Europe and Japan; the grossly abused three-year residency rule, where someone who moves to another country and plays there for three years can be selected for their new country's national team; and the creeping "footballisation" of rugby, where the growing wealth of clubs in England and France in particular has brought in players from around the world and could threaten the viability of the international game.

Can anything be done to arrest or even reverse this decline? Find out in my forthcoming book.

**Tacitus** · 06-22-2018, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen

Can anything be done to arrest or even reverse this decline?

Winning the summer series over England seems like a good start lol.

Seriously though, it's an interesting idea, but I think you could cover all of this in a longform piece for a website instead. Either way, good luck.

**Tooting Carmen** · 06-22-2018, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by Tacitus

Winning the summer series over England seems like a good start lol.

That's as much to do with England themselves being shit as South Africa being on the road to recovery imo. Ironically like Gatland for Wales, it seems that Eddie Jones is increasingly showing himself to be not the Messiah and instead a very naughty boy.