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I did it not only for me but for others who came after me who would get the opportunity to play for the Springboks. “I refused those opportunities in France and Wales because I had something to fight for at home.
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Off the field, he finally sensed that he could make history and wear a full Springbok jersey, his club performances were just too good to ignore anymore. He was living in a country where he was unable to visit the same beaches and bathrooms as potential white team-mates, yet he resolved to stay and fight for his place on the Springboks.Īs a player, Tobias idolised Mike Gibson and was always on his toes looking for the opportunity to slice through a tiny gap, regardless of the risk. Shortly before making his full debut for South Africa, Tobias was telephoned by representatives in France and Wales who offered him lucrative three-year contracts to play club rugby. Gibson stayed at home and kept his job, while Robbie resigned, travelled and this year said that his decision to tour is “a stain that will never leave me”. Scrumhalf John Robbie and Number 8 Michael Gibson were refused leave to tour by their employer Guinness. Players Tony Ward, Donal Spring, Moss Keane and Hugo MacNeill refused to tour South Africa, not wishing to endorse the apartheid regime through international sporting competition. In a nationwide poll commissioned by The Irish Times, only 32 per cent of the public were in favour of the tour. Members of the Irish clergy, trade unions and eventually, the taoiseach Charlie Haughey strongly urged the IRFU not to travel to South Africa on moral grounds.
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A series of protests against the tour was organised in Dublin by the leader of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, Kader Asmal, who would later return to South Africa and become a key minister in Mandela’s government. Tobias was facing enough resistance in South Africa that he was completely unaware of the pressure that his Irish opponents had faced before the tour. I wanted to prove to the world that South Africa had talented coloured players.” “I needed to play to show white people that not only am I good enough, but that other people of colour are good enough and maybe even better than you are at this game if you give them a proper chance. I knew this, but if I didn’t play, and take this opportunity that I had been given, the Boks would stay a white 15, maybe for a long time to come. Then, there were also people of colour who didn’t want me to play. There were, of course, racists who didn’t want a man of colour wearing the jersey. “There were many people who were unhappy about me playing for the Springboks. Just two months before his Springboks debut, South Africa’s elite schools’ rugby tournament Craven Week was mired in controversy after nine out of 23 white schools refused to play against black opponents. I refused those opportunities in France and Wales because I had something to fight for at home Tobias worked as a builder and had worked on enough white-owned mansions to understand the stark inequalities that the apartheid system had created between races in South Africa. They didn’t want the fleet-footed flyhalf to wear the green and gold jersey so beloved by their oppressors. Tobias’s journey to full international recognition for the Springboks brought pressure not only from some racist white fans but also from black South Africans. I remember a friend said that the white jersey is perfect Errol, you will stick out, and you will show the Afrikaners just how good you are.” “We were wearing white for once, as Ireland were wearing our normal green. “I tell you, I just couldn’t wait to get that jersey onto my body,” Tobias said. Before kick-off, Tobias sat in the old changing rooms of Newlands Stadium in Cape Town and gazed down at the rare white jersey in his hands. On the May 30th, 1981, Errol Tobias became the first black man to play for the Springboks, debuting at the age of 31 against Ireland.