Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

'Rugby is continuing to succeed in the transformation process,' insists Jurie Roux

By Online Editors
Siya Kolisi, the first non-white captain of the South Africa Springboks (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

SA Rugby was one of only eight of 19 South African sporting federations that achieved their transformation targets in 2017/18, according to the sixth report of the Eminent Persons’ Group on Transformation in Sport (EPG) in Pretoria.

ADVERTISEMENT

SA Rugby achieved 60 per cent of the targets agreed with the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). The EPG sets a minimum target of 50 per cent achievement as the measure of successful compliance.

The other federations achieving the target were: table tennis, football, gymnastics, tennis, cricket, netball and basketball.

“Rugby is continuing to succeed in the transformation process and we’re pleased with the outcomes of the EPG report,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.

“We maintained a 60 per cent achievement from the previous year against the background of rising targets. We are now in the final year of our original Strategic Transformation Plan (STP), and we have made considerable strides in the past four years. We expect that progress to continue in 2019.”

SA Rugby was praised in the report back for dedicating resources to the monitoring and evaluation of transformation data, which was noted as being of a “very high standard”.

Roux added that SA Rugby was in the process of putting the finishing touches to a successor transformation development plan to take the organisation to the end of 2030. “We have felt the benefits as a sport and a business of prioritising transformation,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

“A few years ago we were barred from bidding for mega-events because of our transformation performance but those days are long behind us. The sentiment around the Springboks and rugby has undergone its own transformation in recent years.”

South Africa’s national rugby teams have most recently been captained by Shakes Soyizwapi (Springbok Sevens), Phendulani Buthelezi (U20s co-captain), Zintle Mpupha (Springbok Women’s Sevens), Siya Kolisi (Springboks) and Sindi Booi (Springbok Women).

Sports minister, Tokozile Xasa, noted that the report indicated that sports had made “positive and meaningful progress” since the introduction of the EPG. 

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 9 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”?

35 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING England No8 Sarah Beckett banned after leg-breaking croc roll tackle England No8 Sarah Beckett banned after leg-breaking croc roll tackle
Search