In response to Thabile Mange’s letter titled No political will to transform rugby, I would like to point out a factor nobody seems to talk about. How hungry is the player in sport? It is not colour that matters, but how bad the players want to achieve the highest position in sport.
I have played rugby and participated in boxing and won many amateur boxing titles and even won the South African Light Middleweight Boxing title as a professional boxer in 1982. I was the first white fighter to have a black manager and trainer in 1976. But this is not all. I played rugby for over 40 years – from the age of eight until 48.
I was good, but not good enough to play provincial rugby. But I was good enough for first team and this is what all races should be looking at; not the colour of they players, but how good the players are. Soccer is a sport played predominantly by blacks in South Africa. The same can be said about rugby with whites playing the game for as long as anyone can remember. I have seen good white players not making provincial teams because they were not good enough. This may not be fair, but let’s put an all-black team against an all-white rugby team – the white team will win. The same can be said about soccer – the black team will win.
At the end of the day it is about the player and how hungry he or she is. Where you come from does not determine your ability. You should get out there, but remember life is not always fair. Take it from an ex-rugby player and boxer that was a contender but did not make it.
