82:, with games played on the grounds where the current hospital stands. Union's first opponents were local coloured teams, but soon other black clubs were established in the city, including Orientals (founded 1894), "followed by the Morning Star, Rovers, Frontier and Spring Rose Clubs". Rovers and Union in turn had formed the Port Elizabeth Union by 1897. Inter-town contests were a fixture of black rugby before the end of the 19th century, with challenges occasionally issued via black newspapers such as the Xhosa-language
50:
players emerged before unions were established, and before that may have started in missionary schools. Black rugby received a considerable boost from the missionaries who introduced the game to their schools for indigenous peoples. A region that particularly benefitted from such intervention was the
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As the struggle for political rights intensified in South Africa, black sports bodies came under increasing pressure to strengthen links with white governing bodies, or sever them. Proponents of either position hoped to attempt to transform white governing bodies by co-operation or by opposing them.
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The first rugby governing body devoted to organizing black rugby was the South
African Bantu Rugby Board (SABRB), which broke away from the South African Coloured Rugby Football Board in 1935. Black rugby players and administrators was initially drawn primarily from the emerging black middle class,
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The decision by the
African Rugby Board and the Rugby Football Federation to join forces with the Rugby Board cost their players dearly in terms of criticism from home and abroad, and also disqualified them from national recognition in the post-apartheid era. When the South African Rugby Union
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In 1959 the Bantu Rugby Board changed its name to the South
African African Rugby Board, as "Bantu" had acquired pejorative overtones due to its use by the apartheid state to segregate blacks, reduce their access to land and economic opportunities, and remove their civil and political rights.
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The earliest attempt to establish a national rugby governing body for players of colour was the South
African Coloured Rugby Football Board (SACRFB), formed in 1897 during South Africa's British colonial period. The SACRFB emerged from a meeting of all clubs and unions called to
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who also were involved in other sports transplanted to South Africa by 19th century
British colonists. Accordingly, discussions about forming a Bantu Rugby Board began in 1935 with a committee formed for that purpose, continued during an inter-town rugby tournament at
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The Bantu Rugby Board arranged the first of its annual inter-provincial tournaments in 1936 in
Kimberley, in which Transvaal and Eastern Province shared the title after a goalless draw. Other participants included the Northern Eastern Districts from
58:
Canon Robert John
Mullins, headmaster of the Kaffir Institution from 1864, is usually credited as the first to introduce rugby to blacks, in the shape of his students. Mullins is the father of rugby international
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and
Griqualand West, but not Western Province, Border or Natal. These tournaments were sponsored by the Chamber of Mines with a trophy called the Native Recruiting Corporation Cup, commonly known as the NRC Cup.
150:
Meanwhile the
Coloured Rugby Football Board selected its first national side in 1938. In turn, the Bantu Rugby Board initiated test matches with their coloured counterparts to forge a sense of unity.
182:, players who had not been selected for the multi-racial body were excluded from this honour on the basis that they could, technically, have qualified for selection as Springboks from 1978 onwards.
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to "'all the coloured
Sporting People in South Africa'". The SACRFB then organized a domestic rugby competition for the Rhodes Cup, which started in 1898 and was first won by Western Province.
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era, and one of three segregated rugby unions operating during that time. The representative team of the African Rugby Board was known as the
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The African Rugby Board decided to affiliate with the white South African Rugby Board in 1978, just as the Rugby Football Federation did.
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63:, who played forward for the 1896 British touring team to South Africa. The Institution was initially a branch of the all-white
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170:(not to be confused with the current body of that name), and in 1973 became a founding member of the anti-apartheid
227:'s impression that Mullins was the headmaster of St Andrew's (p.55) is not borne out by the website of that school,
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rewarded black and coloured rugby players who had represented their governing bodies in national teams with
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134:. SABRB's first officers included J.M. Dippa of Port Elizabeth as president and Halley Plaatje, son of
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In 1905 black clubs formed the Eastern Province Native Rugby Union, whose president was Tobias Mvula.
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23:(later renamed the South African Rugby Association) was the body that governed black African
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Governing body of black African South African rugby union players during the apartheid era
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71:, where Mullins had been a teacher. Rugby was first played at St Andrew's in 1878.
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whose slogan argued that there could be no normal sport in an abnormal society.
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by the Griqualand West Colonial Rugby Football Union. Black administrators like
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nor by other sources, which does affirm Mullins' position as principal of the
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Buhlungu, Sakhela; Daniel, John; Southall, Roger; Lutchman, Jessica (2007).
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One source indicates that the tournament was held in Port Elizabeth.
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In 1966 the Coloured Rugby Football Board changed their name to the
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378:"Reconciliation and Rugby in Post-Apartheid South Africa"
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46:As with the game among whites, clubs for black and
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529:Defunct sports governing bodies in South Africa
338:Sport, Cultures, and Identities in South Africa
74:The earliest black rugby club probably was the
463:. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
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524:Rugby union governing bodies in South Africa
126:, and was concluded at the inter-provincial
154:Conflict and alliances in the apartheid era
459:Black, David Ross; Nauright, John (1998).
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534:Sports organizations established in 1935
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435:"Rugby in South Africa I: Early history"
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494:"Proteas Hero Leads Bok Blazer Protest"
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311:"School Profiles - St Andrew's College"
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197:South African Rugby Football Federation
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476:State of the Nation: South Africa 2007
423:Rugby in South Africa I: Early History
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42:Early black rugby and the first union
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402:"The History of South African Rugby"
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461:Rugby and the South African Nation
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207:South African Rugby Union (SACOS)
21:South African African Rugby Board
492:Rich, Gavin (25 October 2000).
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172:South African Council on Sports
498:The Independent (South Africa)
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341:. Leicester University Press.
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1:
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106:to provide a trophy like the
282:. Cape Town: David Phillip.
279:The Story of an African Game
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313:. Rugby 365.com. 8 May 2005
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539:Rugby union and apartheid
202:South African Rugby Union
168:South African Rugby Union
76:Union Rugby Football Club
276:Odendaal, André (2003).
335:Nauright, John (1997).
102:had earlier persuaded
117:Founding of the Board
78:, founded in 1887 at
376:Dunn, John (2009).
65:St Andrew's College
30:players during the
180:Springbok blazers
104:Cecil John Rhodes
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250:Institution
238:. Retrieved
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230:"SAC School"
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503:28 December
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407:27 December
386:27 December
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317:29 December
295:27 December
136:Sol Plaatje
124:East London
69:Grahamstown
28:rugby union
518:Categories
213:References
108:Currie Cup
98:Bud Mbelle
94:Kimberley
32:apartheid
225:Odendaal
186:See also
48:coloured
36:Leopards
128:cricket
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248:Kaffir
240:5 July
381:(PDF)
505:2011
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343:ISBN
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284:ISBN
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.