LAST CHANCE TO SEE?
Boks v All Blacks Twickenham clash marks possible end of an era – including playing in traditional jerseys
There are a few potential ‘lasts’ in Friday’s clash between the Springboks and All Blacks at Twickenham.
It’s definitely the last match for both sides before the start of Rugby World Cup 2023 (RWC 2023) in France on 8 September.
It could be the last time Jacques Nienaber coaches against the All Blacks, because there is no guarantee the old foes will meet at RWC 2023, although they could.
Similarly, it could be the last time All Blacks coach Ian Foster matches his wits against the Boks since he is moving on after the World Cup, regardless of whether New Zealand wins or not.
It could be the last time a great player such as Duane Vermeulen, who is almost certain to retire after RWC 2023, plays against the men in black.
And perhaps most significantly for most rugby followers it could be the last time the Springboks and the All Blacks meet in their traditional colours.
Colour-blind policy
If they clash at RWC 2023, which is a possibility in the quarterfinal stage, or even in the final, one team will be required to wear an alternative strip.
That’s because World Rugby, issued a decree in April this year, which Daily Maverick revealed, that in future all of their sanctioned tournaments will accommodate people with colour blindness.
World Rugby has made it policy to accommodate people who suffer from colour vision deficiency (CVD), more commonly known as colour blindness.
According to research published by World Rugby, about 8% of males and 0.5% of females suffer from red/green colour-blindness – the most common manifestation of the condition.
“The risk of being colour blind varies with ethnicity and red/green types of colour blindness are more common in people of North American and European descent,” the World Rugby document on colour-blindness noted.
“The reasons for this are not yet fully understood. Scandinavian men have the highest chance of being colour blind (more than one in 10), while people from sub-Saharan Africa and indigenous populations have the lowest chance.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: Injuries dent critical Springbok squad RWC armour as Am, Pollard and De Jager miss out
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) was unhappy about the policy at the time and remains uncomfortable with it, but at RWC 2023 it will have no choice but to toe the line.
Although the All Blacks and Springboks are set to meet in the Rugby Championship in 2024, which does not qualify as a World Rugby event, and therefore not subject to this ruling, there is a feeling that they will be pressured to adhere to the guidelines.
The old rivals have managed to compete against each other in their traditional kits without issue for a century, while a poll Daily Maverick ran after the initial story was telling.
Out of 582 respondents, 554 believed the policy to be unnecessary. Anecdotally, many people claiming to have CVD, opposed the policy.
The World Rugby study quoted in its documentation to support the policy change appears to have come from a study of white people only. The prevalence of CVD among races that aren’t white is lower, and among the black population it’s only about 1.4%, according to one study.
Perhaps players who suffer from CVD struggle with red/green colour blindness during a game or training, which former Scottish international Chris Paterson explained in official World Rugby correspondence. But it’s a small sample for what is actually a big issue for rugby unions.
Siya Kolisi during the Rugby World Cup 2023 warm-up match against Wales at Principality Stadium in Cardiff on 19 August 2023. (Photo: Steve Haag / Gallo Images)
In practical terms for Saru and New Zealand Rugby, and all teams, it has a major impact on tradition, on marketing and on fan experience.
International rugby still remains the pinnacle of the sport and team colours and kit designs are central to rugby’s identity. Being forced to change colours for a tiny percentage of the population and an even tinier percentage of rugby followers within that group, many of whom have said on various platforms that it’s unnecessary, is strange.
Rugby match
Against this backdrop there is a rugby match taking place at Twickenham with many subplots at play.
And as South African rugby entrenches itself in the northern hemisphere through club commitments in the United Rugby Championship, the Boks playing at Twickenham could become a more regular occurrence if entry into the Six Nations happens. And it might, as soon as 2025.
While the Twickenham clash between two southern hemisphere rivals is unusual, it might become less so in future.
Growing the game is essential (traditional kits might help in this regard) and taking big fixtures to great arenas around the world could become part of the future landscape.
Bok skipper Siya Kolisi recognises the potential of fixtures like this.
“It’s something that could be done more regularly in future because yes, we want to keep doing what we do well and reward our longtime fans, but we also want to grow the game,” Kolisi said.
“We want to go to places where people don’t get to see us live. A game of this nature is important. It’s great, particularly in a city like London where you know there are a lot of South Africans. How do they get to see us most of the time other than on TV?
Read more in Daily Maverick: Springboks’ and All Blacks’ new kit designs create a dazzling stir — just as intended
“An opportunity like this is huge. It works for us and for them. Hopefully, it’s something worth exploring, gaining new fans that will have a bigger interest in the South African game in general.
“Anything that can bring people in is worthwhile and we’ve seen it with the interest for this game alone. Maybe in future we can have a game day with four teams playing at one stadium. I don’t know.”
Key battles
Obviously the most important is winning and losing. It’s the Springboks against the All Blacks, and that always matters. The match is happening on the eve of the World Cup, and whether teams like it or not, it’s a chance to build momentum.
The Boks also haven’t won a really big match in a long time. They lost to France and Ireland on tour last November and lost 35-20 to the All Blacks in Auckland last month.
Despite recent big wins over Australia and Wales, and two less-convincing victories over Argentina, the Boks need to take a big scalp with RWC 2023 Pool matches against Scotland and Ireland looming.
The elusive All Black wing Will Jordan will be a major threat when the sides clash at Twickenham. He scored a try against the Boks at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland in July. (Photo: Phil Walter / Getty Images)
Outside of the result, there are questions over tactics and players. Will Manie Libbok produce an 80% goal-kicking performance and can Canan Moodie hold his own at outside centre?
In the 55 Tests Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus have presided over since 2018, Lukhanyo Am and Jess Kriel have started 53 between them. Damian de Allende started at outside centre in the other two.
It’s the key backline defensive organising position, which places another huge responsibility on the 20-year-old Moodie. But it’s also understandable why Nienaber has done this now.
First, he needs to protect Kriel as the only fit centre in the squad, and second, with Am still injured and not in the World Cup squad currently, he needs to find a back-up.
“This fixture is always intense, physical, and the magnitude is huge. People want to come and experience it at the stadium,” Kolisi said.
“This is not a friendly. In fact, we’ve never had a friendly against them. It’s going to be a big physical battle, and we are excited about it.
“We’re not going to hold back; we’re going to go all-out for the game. I mean, 82,000 people have paid to come see us. It’s no time to hold back. I don’t want to disappoint people who’ve paid a lot of money to come watch this game.” DM
Teams:
South Africa
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Reserves: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Jean Kleyn, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Willie le Roux
New Zealand
15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Telea, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Luke Jacobson, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ethan de Groot
Reserves: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Tupou Va’ai, 21 Dalton Papali’i, 22 Cam Roigard, 23 Anton Lienert-Brown
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Kick-off: 8.30pm (South African time)
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I don’t know why great international rugby countries even associate with the stupidity of a body like World Rugby. They’re a cluster of nitwits who place no value on what we want. It’s their way or the highway. And SA Rugby says “Yessir. As you say sir”. Grow a spine SA Rugby!!!
While I’d agree with you totally and utterly on the shirt nonsense (FFS the Boks have freaking white shorts, and green and black came up with a huge contrast even in the old black-and-white TV days that I remember from being a really old pom!) I have to give WR lots of credit for seeing justice done in the Mallía (vs Grant Williams) and Farrell (vs Basham – what an appropriate name) cases (pity they allowed Steward to get away after Jaco Peyper sent him off in the England vs Wales game last season) which would have been disgracefully allowed to lapse if they hadn’t.
More woke nonsense.
And another stupid word that means stuffall, and sounds so stupid Even GodZille wrote a book about it.
100% Just another stupid term to shut down proper debate.
Next step compulsory quota of trans women for each national team?
We have to be diverse and inclusive , most of the trans ladies compete against the regular ladies . 🙂 If it got me in their locker room , I could identify as female 🙂
That said , have met real ladies , I would not mess with 🙂 Am 1.8m 80 kgs 🙂
So some strong lady ‘ identifies ‘ as being male , not many around , just blurs the genders .
Was a great game! All Blacks got a well-deserved drubbing. Was it a good strategy to play a weaker team before the RWC? The red card they collected was correct.
What a match! Well done our boys!!!
Siya you are a legend captain and a credit to all South Africans.
This decision is like Mercedes Benz or Coca-Cola trashing their trademarks.
A stupid decision that flies in the face of every marketing principle.
Playing in your traditional colours carries pride and many years of history.
Now that World Rugby has decided to change the kit, when will their National flags have to be changed?
imagine saying that disabled parking isn’t necessary because only a tiny percentage of the population needs it.
to all those complaining about accessibility issues… take a long, hard look at yourselves and ask whether you want south africa to be known as a country that refuses to make a small change that will help a section of the population enjoy this wonderful game that craig is apparently trying to take to new audiences.
there is no reason why accessibility can’t be marketed as part of the springbok / all black identity. maybe if he struggled to see colour differences he would sing a different tune.
not all people with CVD don’t have problems with the kit colours. some CVD individuals genuinely struggle with the AB/springbok jerseys and if we ever play wales then it will be absolutely necessity to change kit – few can argue that that tie isn’t a huge issue for CVD individuals.
away teams use away kit all the time when the colours are not easily differentiated. if we change a jersey when france play italy, we can surely change a jersey to help CVD individuals.
What’s it got to do with disabled drivers? As I said above, the Boks have white shorts, so there’s already a distinction between the teams (and anyway what do disabled drivers do when all their parkings are full with other disabled people’s cars?). Are you trying to say colour blind people can’t differentiate even between black and white? Come on. And even if they can only grey shades, as dark green and black presumably seem to them? And what about putting white circles or squares on their shirts? As I said, as a younger man before I escaped England, we used to watch rugby in black-and-white TV without any problem and I’m certainly not colour blind.
Oh and BTW, as someone who obviously doesn’t know much about rugby, you might be interested to know that unlike soccer, the home teams normally change shirts, not the visitors.
So Jason, what is it with your meticulous use of lowercase, at the beginning of each sentence, and proper nouns (country and team names)? And yet, acronyms remain capitalized. Utterly consistent. Weird! Just asking… 🙂
You can’t tell me that people can’t see the difference between white and black shorts? I’m red-green colourblind but have no problem at all with the jerseys, except, very occasionally in a Wales-Bok Test when they take a wide angle view from a distance. Even then it’s not a problem if you’ve been watching and following which side is playing in which direction. This smacks of baby and bathwater to me.
I think changing the kit colours is a stupid idea, why not just make the shorts black or white?? then the colour blind people will know which side is which. “Easy” or am I missing something here.
Its woke madness. Rugby is a professional sporting enterprise and the jerseys are a key part of the branding. Warm up or not, last nights match had the two greatest national rivals playing against each other and it would quite simply have been a real wimp affair if either of them had to turn out in white in London! Imagine that.
How woke can you go ?
And still be useless ?
The rationale is ridiculous .
A flawed survey says 8 % of males are colour blind are they all Rugby fans ?
Was saddened that our unions lack the b…s to stand up against it .
What will they do , ban 2 of the best teams ?
Hurts the Kiwis more than us , they are a ‘Brand” !
As for the match , aweful .
Thought I was watching England or Scotland 🙂
Never seen NZ play so badly , ever .
Penalties , yellow cards , red ! Lost line outs , fumbling .
They were so bad they made the Boks look good .
Did anyone see a single back line move to the winger ? From either side .
My work in the scrum or lineout was to get the ball to the scrum half , put in straight those days .
He feeds it out to the wings , the fastest guys in your team . Gets ball at pace and crashes through for a try .
Then we have penalty kicks close to goal , not a single soul runs with the kicker to catch the rebound off the poles .
Same with kick off’s , high and deep , way too far , you want the scrum where the ball lands ! Why bother with the 10m line ?
All these kicks from behind the scrum ? Faf would get an earful . We just fought for the ball and you kicked it away and I must run after it ? Not my job , just pass the ball to the fast guys . Their job .
The coverage was poor , no stats during the game as such . % possesion , time in opponents 25 , lost balls 🙂 penalties !
If that is the future , will be bored stiff !
“They were so bad they made the Boks look good .” Oh really. The Boks were amazing, as they have been working to for a long time. You obviously haven’t moved on since the 70s when presumably you played? I remember Ian Mac talking to us Natal primary coaches in the early 80s when he told us the game was changing and the crash ball was coming, which it did. The only reason Cabous van der Westhuizen got 29 tries in a season later on was because the ball would go through 14, 15 and more phases before he scored, because this disarranged the opposition defence. The same that is happening now, except the Boks have got incredible wings and centres who can finish superbly.
But I probably shouldn’t expect you to understand that.
Yes, Mr. Gordon. The match was a yawn fest. Oh … and pigs can fly. NZ played badly because of PRESSURE. It’s the name of the game. It was an outstanding game of rugger. Methinks, with your opinion, you’ll find yourself in a paltry minority of say … one?
The Springboks have two jerseys un their cupboard, the traditional green and gold and a white alternative. Why do we now need a turquoise blocked mishmash with no heredity whatsoever?
I am severely colour blind, and I think that policy is bloody ridiculous!
The reason for this colour blindness friendly kit nonsense is because Bill Beaumont who is in charge of World Rugby is colour blind! So what he says goes.