The Green Revolution - Rugby Union in South Africa
Written by gregsmithsays, Thursday February 05 2009
The Rise of South African Rugby Seems Inevitable - For Many its been a long time coming ...
Rugby Union has two or three 'superpowers'. Depending on who you ask, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia would qualify as the sports Top Dogs but now, in 2009 a rising tide seems to be favouring South Africa more than others.
The South African rugby union squad is called the Springboks and they've for over 100 years provided top-notch performances in their familiar green and gold strip.
Again, depending on who you ask, the undisputed leaders of the game can vary. South Africa are two times World Champions (with only Australia equally this) and have legitimate claims to dominating various parts of the near 200 year history of the game.
The over-marketed New Zealand squad, called the All Blacks are another team with a legitimate claim to rugby unions Hall of Fame.
Unlike South Africa, whose development path has a variety of hurdles courtesy of a patchy revolutionary history, the New Zealanders have had an almost smooth run at the top.
Only Australia and South Africa have offered any real resistance to their top status and its South Africa who've legitimate rights to dominance through tours in 1950 - 1974.
Between then and now, South Africa very excluded from international competition and it was only in 1992 that the Springboks could make a rusty return.
This two decade return hasn't been easy and the men in green and gold have had to suffer in silence as their claims to dominance were muddied between 1992 and 2009.
2011 offers hope and should the Springboks retain their Rugby World Cup champions status, they'll put daylight between themselves and their old foes from the South Seas.
2015 also looks good and Bok fans would love to see South Africa lead the RWC trophy race with 4 Webby's versus two or none from Australia and New Zealand.
(PS - New Zealand claim one Rugby World Cup trophy -1987, but this is contentious as the tournament was a scaled down version without the then banned South Africans - arguably 1987 strongest squad)
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