John Noble is a former South African

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player and one of four players of colour to be included in the first multi-racial team to play a foreign team on South African soil in 1975. Noble also represented the

South African Rugby Football Federation The South African Rugby Football Federation was an association formed by the majority of "Coloured" rugby union clubs that broke away from the South African Coloured Rugby Football Board (SACRFB) in the 1960s to affiliate with the whites-only South ...

and its representative side, the Proteas. Noble was selected by Danie Craven for the South African Invitation XV to play a touring French national side. The team, which also included Turkey Shields, Toto Tsotsobe and

Morgan Cushe Morgan Cushe (died 5 October 2013) was a black South African rugby union player from Uitenhage who played for the Leopards as a loose forward. The Leopards was the representative side of the black South African African Rugby Board, one of three ...

, beat the French on 7 June 1975 at

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

in Cape Town by 18 points to 3. Playing on the wing, Noble scored a try after following up and diving on a grubber kick by Dawie Snyman.

References

South African rugby union players Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{SouthAfrica-rugbyunion-bio-stub