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Parwine Patel

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Parwine Patel is a PhD student and an assistant lecturer at the University of Reunion Island. She holds a teaching degree for secondary schools as well.

Abstract

Rainbow World Champions? Questioning the impact of the Springboks’ victory at Rugby World Cup 2019 on the South African society.

In the wake of the Springboks’ World Cup win over England in November 2019, the mainstream media have foreseen a bright future for South African rugby and a revival of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ as once dreamt by the iconic South African statesman, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Yet, this analysis fails to examine the real impact of this victory at a community level as it avoids the issue of “fractured fandom” (Grundlingh, 2019) and the persistent bitterness felt by former ‘non-white’ rugby organisations which are still active to denounce the ‘insincere’ reunification process in the 1990s. For them, South Africa is, as before, an ‘abnormal society’ and therefore their struggle continues.
Furthermore, if the #strongertogether campaign has been unquestionably adopted as a replacement to the ‘one team, one country’ motto of Rugby World Cup 1995; the influence of the transformation policies on creating a multicultural team has largely been put aside after the winning moment.
This article thus seeks to outline the meaning of the rugby world champions title for South Africans on both the small and large scale while looking at the rich history of the oval ball and its inextricable link with politics at the southern tip of Africa.

 

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