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Diamond dismisses Sale race row over South African players not taking the knee

By Chris Jones
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Sale boss Steve Diamond has described the controversy over his South African players’ refusal to take a knee prior to last Friday’s Gallagher Premiership restart match versus Harlequins as a “storm in a teacup”.    

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Sale’s preparations for next Friday’s visit to the AJ Bell by league leaders Exeter Chiefs have been sidetracked by rancour in South Africa over what Diamond’s SA players did prior to last weekend’s game at The Stoop.  

Nathi Mthethwa, the South African Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, had sparked a racism row over how Sale’s South African contingent did not take the knee before the Gallagher Premiership match to signal support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Mthethwa has asked South African Rugby to explain the sport’s position but did acknowledge South African players in the Premiership had worn t-shirts supporting the fight against racism.

The Sale players who did not kneel before last Friday’s Premiership match at Harlequins were Springbok World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager‚ twins Jean-Luc and Daniel du Preez‚ their older brother Robert‚ Akker van der Merwe‚ Coenie Oosthuizen and club captain Jono Ross. England’s Manu Tuilagi, Scotland wing Byron McGuigan and Wales prop WillGriff John also stood.

Gloucester’s Ruan Ackermann also stood before Gloucester’s game with Worcester the following day on a weekend where Premiership clubs had all agreed on various ways to signal their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Some clubs, for example, formed a circle on the pitch.

Diamond addressed the unwanted row at his weekly media conference on Tuesday. “Four of our players took the knee and that is their entitlement and the rest didn’t,” he said. “It will be a storm in a teacup and we all wore the Rugby Against Racism t-shirts which we thought was important. I don’t think it is too much to worry about if I am honest.”

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Former Harlequins, England and British and Irish Lions wing Ugo Monye was involved in a players’ working group containing a representative from each of the twelve Premiership clubs to deal with the BLM issue before the season started.

Last week he explained that players may take the knee or stand wearing a slogan on a t-shirt, saying: “It might look a little bit more like Formula 1, but I don’t want people to jump to conclusions and assumptions that by people not taking the knee that means they are racist.”

The Rugby Players’ Association, the players’ union in England, had explained the Premiership’s approach before the season restarted last Friday after its five-month stoppage for the coronavirus. 

“How each of our members choose to act in relation to this moment is a matter of their personal choice. We respect and defend their individual right to make that decision.”

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The Sale players all wore the ‘Rugby Against Racism’ t-shirts, as did Ackermann, but this has not stopped Mthethwa asking for an explanation. “We do not want to jump the gun on the specific matter of the South African players in England who didn’t kneel in support of the BLM movement but we did say we want to understand what is happening and what is the position of SA Rugby in this whole thing‚” Mthethwa told South African media.

“The first thing we noted is that they were wearing the t-shirts which support [the] BLM movement but they did not kneel. Upon seeing this‚ I interacted with SA Rugby through its president (Mark Alexander) and I asked him to explain what is happening so that we are on the same wavelength.

“You must remember we were together at the World Cup in Japan as a country with some of the players and one thing which cannot be tolerated is when somebody is displaying racist behaviour and showing racist attitude. The president of SA Rugby did say that they are going to be having their own meeting and they will make their views known.”

“The first thing we noted is that they were wearing the t-shirts which support [the] BLM movement but they did not kneel. Upon seeing this‚ I interacted with SA Rugby through its president (Mark Alexander) and I asked him to explain what’s happening so that we are on the same wavelength.

“You must remember we were together at the World Cup in Japan as a country with some of the players and one thing which cannot be tolerated is when somebody is displaying racist behaviour and showing racist attitude. The president of SA Rugby did say that they are going to be having their own meeting and they will make their views known.”

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Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

36 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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