“They cannot represent themselves, they must be represented.” When Karl Marx penned his 1851 essay, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, he did not have rucks and mauls on his mind. But there is an interesting parallel between French coups and class struggles, and a festering imbalance in the world of rugby.
World Rugby, the game’s overlords, saw fit to grant Australia and the United States of America the right to host the next two men’s World Cups in 2027 and 2031 respectively. The latter decision is a laudable one. The US has long been portrayed as a sleeping giant and the commercial appeal is obvious. Win over hearts and minds across the Atlantic and rugby union would reach new heights. We may even get a half decent PlayStation game as a result.
But the former stinks of rugby’s oldest malaise that champions the interests of the bourgeoisie and sidelines the proletariat. And if you’re in any way connected to South African rugby, you’d be forgiven for wanting to storm World Rugby’s headquarters in Dublin and call for a revolution.
Dillyn Leyds – Le French Rugby Podcast – Episode 28
The next opportunity South Africa will get to host a tournament they have already won three times will be in 2035. That is exactly 40 years since the last time they did so. Coincidentally, 40 years separates Marx’s aforementioned essay and South Africa’s first rugby match, against the British Lions in 1891. As the German philosopher said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”
To put that gap in time in perspective, three of the 2019 World Cup winning Springboks weren’t born when Nelson Mandela handed Francois Pienaar the Webb Ellis Cup in one of the sport’s most enduring moments. As many as 26 of the 33 who triumphed in Japan were under the age of five. Schalk Brits, the most senior figure of the squad, was 14.
How many children were raised on the…