South Africa’s rugby administrators are facing increased criticism for their failure to shed its white image. The tone of the debate is different this time, amid growing protests against inequality.
Regardless of the World Cup final result, rugby union is dwarfed by the three other major football codes in Australia’s competitive football landscape.
Which team you support in sport can depend on many things. But who should you barrack for in this packed weekend of sport if none of your favoured teams are in any of the games?
The psyche of defeat is linked to various things: the team’s maturity, captaincy, level of preparedness, confidence in coaching staff and personality characteristics of individual team members.
Research shows that family has an important role in getting children to play sport and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the Rugby World Cup.
Rugby is often seen as the clash of the giants and this year’s Rugby World Cup includes some mighty players. But there’s more to winning a game than just brute force.
Many nations contesting the Rugby World Cup are fielding ‘ring-ins’ from other countries. The rules allowing this reflect the difficulty of balancing national team integrity and development.
When South Africa won the Rugby World Cup in 1995 the country felt invincible and united. Twenty years later it is going through a tumultuous time which is even affecting its attitude to the Springboks.