The Springboks’ bench named to face the Wallabies in Perth on Sunday night is largely defined by its ability to change a game at will.
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bench → name → will
It has eight world-class players who have the potential to dominate fatigued opponents with both speed and strength.
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who → have → speed
Those players also tell the story of the modern South Africa they represent.
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they → tell → Africa
Back-rower Jasper Wiese grew up on a remote Northern Cape farm, his junior school too small to field a rugby team.
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school → grow → team
Prop Ox Nche was born in the Free State town of Thaba ’Nchu, where organised sport was a luxury few could access.
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few → bear → Nchu
Playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was born in Cape Town to Nick Feinberg, the son of a white anti-apartheid campaigner, and Makhosazana Mngomezulu, a lawyer of Zulu descent.
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Mngomezulu → bear → descent
Every player who represents the Springboks carries the legacy of the 1995 World Cup final win.
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who → represent → win
That victory gave a glimpse into what was possible for South Africa as a society, but also highlighted the huge amount of work still to do in a country that had recently emerged from the horrors of apartheid.
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that → give → apartheid
Morne Du Plessis is one of South African rugby’s greatest captains, leading the Springboks to 13 wins in 15 Tests from 1975 to 1980.
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Plessis → lead → 1980
He was able to see both sides of South African rugby – the one that was closed to the majority of the country and the one that started to open up.
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that → see → country
“Before ’95, we were deeply divided [as a country]; a minority of people would support the Springboks in those years that I played, and let’s be frank about that,” Du Plessis said.
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Plessis → divide → that
“And the World Cup win of ’95, I’d like to believe, was a catalyst for change.
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I → like → change
Mandela, himself agreeing to continue with the Springbok emblem and the Springbok jersey, was pivotal as well.
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himself → agree → emblem
“Mandela had the foresight that rugby, being what it was and where it came from, could be a catalyst in pulling people together.”
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it → have → people
The South Africa side that beat New Zealand in the 1995 final contained only one non-white player: the late Chester Williams, who started on the left wing.
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who → beat → wing
Du Plessis knew more work needed to be done before the Springboks would be embraced by the entire nation.
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Springboks → know → nation
He has watched as the momentum lost after 1995 was regained with the emergence of coach Rassie Erasmus, his captain Siya Kolisi and an all-conquering team.
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momentum → watch → Erasmus
“I played in the apartheid days, and I was the manager in ’95
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I → play → 95
, so I saw both sides.
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I → see → sides
I was privileged to see the new dawn, as it were,” Du Plessis said.
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Plessis → see → dawn
“From then on, it lost a little bit of momentum because there weren’t standout opportunities again like that.
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it → lose → that
But then came Rassie and Siya, and they’ve taken that unifying ability of rugby to another level.
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they → come → level
Erasmus grew up in the working-class Eastern Cape town of Despatch, completing his compulsory military service in 1991.
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Erasmus → grow → 1991
That same year, Kolisi was born in the Port Elizabeth township of Zwide.
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Kolisi → bear → Zwide
They came from entirely different worlds, but in 2018 Erasmus named Kolisi as the first black captain of the Springboks, a move that helped the team attract widespread support.
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team → come → support
Many black players selected in the Test after 1995 were unfairly scrutinised, in some cases being made to feel unwelcome.
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players → select → cases
But the appointment of Kolisi as captain by Erasmus, a former Afrikaner Springbok, carried huge weight and opened the eyes of many non-white South Africans to possibilities in the game they hadn’t previously imagined.
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they → carry → game
“For many years, transformation – meaning giving everybody a fair chance of coming through the system and making it to the top – was seen by many people, whether they’d admit it or not, as a sort of punishment, a payback, something we have to go through for a while,” rugby commentator John Robbie said.
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Robbie → mean → while
“There was this dreadful phrase of ‘quota players’, where you had guys who many from the white community [in South Africa] said were not good enough and the [non-white] players themselves would say, ‘no one takes us seriously.’
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one → be → us
“That doesn’t happen any more ...
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That → happen → ?
what Rassie has done is seen beyond that prism of biases.
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done → do → biases
He’s seen this massive number of people, the potential in a community that never got the chance before.
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that → see → chance
And the answer is what we see on the field.
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we → see → field
If you drive through South Africa, you get an idea of the power of the Springboks and how the whole country embraces them as a team.
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country → drive → team
Winning two World Cups in a row, of course, helps, but representation helps the support to endure.
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support → win → course
In the townships, the suburbs, the city centres and throughout farmland, you see Springbok jerseys.
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you → see → jerseys
Bob Skinstad played 42 times for South Africa and was part of the 2007 World Cup-winning squad.
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Skinstad → play → squad
He made his Test debut in 1997 and competed directly with Erasmus as a player, before watching him take the team to World Cup wins in 2019 and 2023.
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him → make → 2019
Skinstad sees the impact of Kolisi’s leadership of the Springboks within his own family; the back-rower has become a hero to the nation.
“
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rower → see → nation
My young 12-year-old son doesn’t want to be Bob Skinstad, he wants to be Siya Kolisi and many years ago that wouldn’t have been true, because there would have been a racial divide between what children wanted to be,” Skinstad said.
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Skinstad → want → what
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
