Introduce rugby to black Africans - or lose international relevance

Basson, who is also the chairperson of CSA's transformation committee, authored the Transformation Charter which the South African Rugby Union adopted and shared with various sport stakeholders.

"More than 85% of the country's population under the age of 20 are black Africans," Basson said, adding that rugby's traditional resource pool was dwindling. "It is still largely a white sport but the white population is (declining) so we need to introduce rugby to black communities because that is the key area where the sport can be saved." Unless this is done, he said, "we might find South Africa being unable to compete internationally."

"The only provinces where coloureds and blacks traditionally play rugby in schools are the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape, where effective structures were established during the apartheid era," said Basson. Khaya Malotana, the first black Springbok, echoed Basson's sentiments and said transformation in rugby was "very slow" and needed to start at schools level, The New Age reports.

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