The Pioneers - Black and Coloured Rugby Players in South Africa (1983 - 1993) 

I met Errol Tobias - and, in fact, every member of the touring team - when the Springboks visited New Zealand on that tumultuous tour of 1981. That was the best Springbok team I have ever seen in my lifetime, and better than the team that I saw last year in Auckland, even though that fine team won the World Cup. If not for the endless protests, I think that the 1981 Springbok team would have beaten us at home. For context, the All Blacks had an outstanding team in 1981. That third test at Eden Park was unforgettable, a tale of two halves, with a Cessna dropping flour bombs on the field throughout. Obviously, Errol was never going to play in the 1981 test series as Naas Botha was the man with a mortgage on the number 10 shirt, and Naas was easily the best player in the world in his position at that time. I also saw Errol play for the President's XV against England at Twickenham in 1984. He was in superb form. The Springbok players in that team were in their pomp, none more so than Danie Gerber, the best center I ever saw play rugby. Errol played well when Danie was alongside him. Great to see some footage of that match on here. My brother and I met Rob Louw in the Twickenham carpark after the match. My brother regularly corresponded with Rob in those days after Rob gave him a Springbok jersey on the 1981 tour. One can only wonder how untouchable the Springboks would have been had they allowed players who were not white to play for them throughout their history. Scary thought!

It's a pity we didn't have the video technology in the 60's to the 80's that we have today. You would've seen the brilliant SARU rugby players of that era play. The '76 All Blacks went to watch the WP Saru team at the time and Sid Going said Cassiem Jabaar, WP and SARU scrumhalf was World Class. Too many of that era's SARU players' talent was overlooked by the mainstream media, which is a pity. Even today, we haven't even levelled the playing field yet (economically) and look at the talent that has been unearthed. Back to back world cup champs! We should be dominating World Rugby!! We have the numbers, rugby in SA is alsmost classless, we have alsmost no overseas imports (Unlike European national teams, who are invaded by all nations, including Saffas, who dominate as well. During Apartheid there were so many Rugby Unions and Sub-Unions - on a Saturday morning we had hundreds of games being played from Junior at 09h00 to 1st team at 17h00. In WP we had WPRU, WPRB, Tygerberg, City and Suburban, Somerset-West and Boland! Each sub union had about 20 - 30 clubs with juniors and seniors! Then you add schools rugby Coloured, Indian and Black schools had hundreds of rugby players playing every week!! When unification took place everything disappeared!!The new SARB could not control or were unable to control such a big organisation. Thousands of talented rugby talent just disappeared. WORLD RUGBY DOMINATION !!

Thanks for the names! Too young too have seen these players, now I can go look them up.

With all due respect. The real heroes are those SARU players who boycotted the system and refused to be used as window dressing. Because of them our players today have opportunity. Sport was used as a serious form of boycott and the above players that was not affiliated to SaRU were not allowed to play for their colored schools back then.

Strange that black players who accepted the old rugby board names get mentioned .while others suffered.eg. salie lippe ,cassiem jabaar,napoleon ,majola etc ..

Thank you for this vid. Another excellent showing.

Avril williams the uncle of chester .christie noble spoed se baas jp pietersen uncle.damn we got robbed of not seeing the likes of peter jooste and gary bosshoff in their pump.tjankyou goodness we seeing cheslin kolbe and lukhanyo am nowadays

Thank you so much for this. I have heard of some of these names but have never seen them play. This is so cool to see.

I was coached by Wilfred cupido, what a gentleman

Some great players 👏... Tobias was a genius

Hennie Shields lives in Strand, one of my moms good friends. He is still a giant

brings great memories from the Time of WP , tinus linee Solly geduld , hennie shields wilfred cupido pompies jerome paarwater

Was one very gifted fly half

Who knew about Errol Tobias.....

China Bell👌

What about all the true rugby heroes under the banner of SARU SACOS?

Norman Mbiko? Mxolisi Mekuto?

Great memories ...

No comments??????

Dolly Ntaka?

I feel for you, Real rugby. Try to do something nice and got political backlash and greviences. No good deed go's unpunished. Errol Tobias was a pioneer.

They must bring that yellow Springbok jersey back

These are all great players but not the pioneers of black and colloured rugby. They will tell you themselves. There were even greater players that played for the non racial teams.

A similar article about the white and Indian and coulerd soccer players in the same time period would be interesting, I am sure top Soccer is reserved for blacks for practical purposes. Bottom line: Culture is likely more significant than political reasons.

'Coloured'?! 🤔

Sorry this is not the true reflection of rugby in our country . Too many Sacos legends that were better than them . Normal sport in an abnormal society

I thought Coloureds, Indians and Africans were black?