World Champions, 2nd Edition

World Champions 2nd edition continues the story of South African rugby in a new chapter that includes coverage of the momentous 2023 Rugby World Cup win by South Africa’s Springboks. South Africa won the 2023 Rugby World Cup by defeating New Zealand 12-11 in front of more than 80 000 spectators at the Stade de France. As this 2nd edition shows, in winning the Webb Ellis Cup for the fourth time, the Springboks became the competition’s most successful team. Back-to-back victories in Yokohama in 2019 and Paris in 2023 inspired a renewed appreciation of the skills that have always existed across South Africa’s racial spectrum. In its telling of this story, World Champions 2nd Edition again offers readers insights that go beyond the media-led rendition of South African rugby. Further additions to this 2nd edition include a revised Introduction, expanded Index, updates to the history of South Africa’s first steps toward playing international rugby in the late nineteenth century, as well as additional content about, inter alia institutions such as the national governing bodies, and the winning teams in 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023. In this way, the 2nd edition continues to provide both the most-relevant and most-current history of South African rugby and the many organisations and individuals that have contributed to its evolution.

Introduction:
For more than 60 years, a rivalry between New Zealand and South Africa served as the mythical world
championship. With the advent of the World Cup in 1987, they could no longer value the rivalry above all else.
The World Cup alone gave legitimacy to the honour of being world champions.

Chapter 1: Springboks win record fourth Rugby World Cup
There was a strong belief that 2023 was the year of the northern hemisphere. The Springboks won all three
knockout stages by a single point. Pollard’s high-pressure marksmanship was crucial to the success with
victory in the final reflecting the team’s major strengths: defence and commitment.

Chapter 2: The Origins of Rugby at the Cape
Various versions of football are recorded from the early 1860s. A uniform code of laws was published in 1873. Rugby was accepted in 1879; the Cape Times’ editor recognising its value as a force for the ‘Englishness’ he advanced. William Milton, an England rugby international, championed the cause.

Chapter 3: Rugby, Soccer and Segregation at the Cape in the Nineteenth Century
Rugby spread in the 1880s with the establishment of black, coloured and white clubs. Soccer struggled in ‘years of irregular competition on bad grounds’. Separate white and coloured Western Province rugby unions were formed, several years before the government introduced segregation.

Chapter 4: First Steps towards International Sport Unsuccessful attempts were made in 1886 and 1889 to arrange overseas rugby tours, while a British side was prevented from playing when it arrived at the Cape in 1888. Rowland Hill, secretary of the RFU, proved a stumbling block until Cecil John Rhodes agreed to guarantee the official 1891 tour.

Chapter 5: ‘A Progressive of Progressives’
The title refers to Robert Grendon the first president of the non-racial SA Coloured RFB in 1897 – an
intellectual, poet, politician, teacher, writer and accomplished sportsman. Bud M’belle, the secretary,
approached Rhodes to obtain a cup for an inter-provincial tournament that was played until 1969.

Chapter 6: From Healdtown and Lovedale to the ‘Amadoda’ of Orlando
Numerous African players migrated from the eastern Cape to the northern mines in Kimberley and
Johannesburg. Transvaal rugby in particular was strengthened, with schools in Orlando benefitting from the arrival of staff and pupils who had learnt to play the game at mission schools and Fort Hare.

Chapter 7: Establishing a South African Rugby Identity
By 1903, South Africa decided on green jerseys and a springbok emblem. The qualifying period for selection became five years to keep out Rhodesia’s Freddie Brooks. He scored the equalising try against the Springboks at Twickenham. The controversy over James Peters is questioned in detail.

Chapter 8: ‘Most Unfortunate Match Ever Played’
After the Maori match against the Springboks in 1921, a report by a journalist accompanying the South African team was intercepted. A major scandal erupted over the racist content, and continued until at least 1937. This chapter uses newly-researched evidence to dispute the New Zealand stance.

Chapter 9: Rhodes, Rugby and the Road to Springboxford, 1903-1953
South Africa’s ‘Rhodes Scholars’ had a major impact on Oxford University and British rugby. The university’s rugby side became known as Springboxford, with Dudley Wood, later secretary of the RFU, complaining ‘so many of them … they would speak in Afrikaans and I felt totally left out of it’.

Chapter 10: ‘Men Worthy of Springbok Chance’
The impact of Jesse Owens in a period of resurgent coloured radicalism led to renewed determination to
compete internationally. A national coloured rugby team received blazers with Springbok badges and toured
internally but the overseas venture was cancelled because of the Second World War.

Chapter 11: The IRB and Interchangeable National Identities
The southern hemisphere countries were refused seats on the IRB until 1948. The Scots declared they ‘must always be second in importance to home football’. The SA Coloured Rugby Football Board explored the possibility of a rival world body, beginning with the sole associate member, France.

Chapter 12: The Quest for World Rugby Supremacy
South Africa and New Zealand contested ‘rugby’s unofficial ‘world championship’, drawing 1-1 in 1921 and 2-2 in 1928. The Springboks secured the ‘world crown’ by winning the deciding Test in 1937. Beating New Zealand 4-0 in 1949 and a third ‘grand slam’ confirmed their ‘champion’ status.

Chapter 13: ‘The Fight for the Control of Rugby’
The ‘pro-war’ and ‘anti-war’ factions created rival unions in both Western Province and Eastern Province. Influenced by the Broederbond, Willem Stork and his Helpmekaar headmaster attempted to overthrow the. Transvaal Rugby Football Union and were ultimately defeated in the Supreme Court.

Chapter 14: The Black Springboks
Coloured and ‘Bantu’ Springboks were engaged in internal Tests from 1950. The breakaway coloured SA. Rugby Football Federation formed in 1959 provided a third ‘Test’ team. The Africans played both coloured organisations but the Federation challenged the Board (later SARU) in just one Test in 1964.

Chapter 15: Veritable Tom Browns to Springboks
Britain established the Rhodesian federation as a barrier to South African expansion. But Rhodesians welcomed the rugby prowess of Afrikaners who came as tobacco farmers in the south and miners in the north. The result was a series of famous victories including the defeat of the All Blacks in 1949.

Chapter 16: Wind of Change
South Africa recorded their fourth ‘grand slam’ in 1960/61 but, said Die Burger, ‘The Britons do not like our rugby because they do not like us’. Opposition to apartheid gained momentum: the 1967 All Black tour was cancelled and demonstrations affected tours to Britain 1969/70 and Australia 1971.

Chapter 17: SARU, SACOS and Multinationalism
The 1970s featured the impossible concept of multinationalism, but progress was made in selecting mixed teams against touring sides and arranging mixed trials. Ironically, the relatively enlightened cabinet minister Piet Koornhof blocked unity between the SA Rugby Football Board and SARU.

Chapter 18: The Last British Influence
Johannesburg businessmen were inspired by the 1955 British Lions and formed an invitation club – the
Quagga – but not long afterwards Natal established the Barbarians. Eventually they merged but, to the concern of members, were hijacked by Danie Craven to combat isolation and arrange rebel tours.

Chapter 19: Tours of the 1980s: Politics, Protestors and Payments
The British Lions, Ireland and England toured, but violent demonstrations affected the visit to New Zealand in 1981. Legal action prevented an All Blacks’ tour in 1985, but rebel visits by Cavaliers and South Pacific Barbarians followed. A paid IRB World XV helped celebrate the Board’s centenary.

Chapter 20: ‘Front Runners in the Formation of the NSC’
In 1987, the United Democratic Front established an ANC-backed sports desk known as the National Sports Congress. Led primarily by rugby officials, it became the most powerful non-racial movement, replacing SACOS whose rigid approach was seen as adversely affecting progress in non-racial sport.

Chapter 21: The Unification of Rugby
Talks in 1989 between rugby bodies and the ANC in Harare resulted in agreement to one non-racial controlling body. Danie Craven rejected a moratorium, but joined Steve Tshwete and Ebrahim Patel in achieving ‘unity’ in 1992, a development that ensured South Africa’s return to international rugby.

Chapter 22: ‘Madiba Magic’
Success in the 1995 World Cup came through Joel Stransky’s extra-time drop-goal. Images of Nelson Mandela celebrating victory were matched by fleeting ecstasy for the ‘rainbow nation’. A transition to professionalism followed, with World Cup euphoria evaporating rapidly in a controversial aftermath.

Chapter 23: Balancing Transformation with a Winning Team
The Springboks achieved 17 successive Test victories in 1998 but the new century brought the highly controversial Kamp Staaldraad, and an unsuccessful 2003 World Cup. Four years later, South Africa demolished England 36-0 in the group stage and 15-6 in the final of the Rugby World Cup in Paris.

Chapter 24: ‘Role Models for the Rainbow Nation’
By 2009, the trophy cabinet included the Webb Ellis Cup, Tri-Nations trophy, IRB Team of the Year, and Unity Cup (British Lions series). The period up to 2018 would be far less rewarding, with concern over South Africa’s seventh position in World Rugby rankings and a mounting list of ‘exiles’.

Chapter 25: ‘Mission Accomplished’
The 2019 Rugby World Cup story is told primarily through the English press. While the BBC poll and pundit opinion gave the Springboks no chance in the final, a stunning 32-12 triumph was achieved over England. It inspired an appreciation of the skills that exist across South Africa’s racial spectrum.

Jonty Winch has followed rugby for many years. He represented Umtali Boys’ High; played for Varese in
Italy’s Serie B; served as a rugby administrator at Wits University, Johannesburg, and coached at schools and clubs in southern Africa and overseas. His studies – BA (Hons) Rhodesia; MA (with distinction) De Montfort, and Ph.D Stellenbosch – were balanced with career interests in photography, journalism and education.
Research into sport and politics has led to articles for accredited international academic publications and involvement in more than a dozen books, beginning with Rhodesia Rugby: A History of the National Side
1898–1979. In recent years, Jonty has played a role in recording a full history of South African cricket and placing the development of the game in a political context. He co-authored Cricket & Conquest: The History of South African Cricket Retold 1795–1914 (2016); Cricket & Society in South Africa 1910–1971: From Union to Isolation (2018); and Too Black to Wear Whites: The Remarkable Story of Krom Hendricks, a Cricket Hero who was Rejected by Cecil John Rhodes’s Empire (2020). The last-named publication was a ‘highly commended runner-up’ in the 2021 Cricket Writers’ Club book awards on the occasion of their 75th
anniversary at The Oval.