The South African Rugby Football Federation was an association formed by the majority of "

Coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

" 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 African Rugby Board The South African Rugby Board was the rugby union governing body of white South Africans between 1889 and 1992. The governing of white and coloured rugby union was handled separately during South Africa under Apartheid. On the 23 March 1992 the no ...

(SARB). The SACRFB was founded in 1896. The split with the SACRFB was driven by a number of factors and people, including

personality clashes A personality clash occurs when two (or more) people find themselves in conflict not over a particular issue or incident, but due to a fundamental incompatibility in their personalities, their approaches to things, or their style of life. A person ...

between SACRFB rugby officials Cuthbert Loriston and Abdullah Abbass. Since the 1950s black,

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

and Indian sporting codes had come under increased pressure to pursue three divergent paths: form non-racial organisations, affiliate with white associations (where they would continue within their segregated leagues), or refuse to do either. From the 1960s the formation of organisations such as the

South African Sports Association South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

and the

South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

pressed black sports groupings to move towards non-racial amalgamation.

Danie Craven Daniël Hartman Craven (11 October 1910 – 4 January 1993) was a South African rugby union player (1931–1938), national coach, national and international rugby administrator, academic, and author. Popularly known as Danie, Doc, or Mr R ...

, then president of SARB, was one of the main driving forces behind the drive to affiliate coloured rugby under the SARB, believing that he could not desegregate rugby unilaterally while all other sporting codes followed the segregation policies set by the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government. Loriston became the first president of the newly constituted SARFF, while the remainder of the SACRFB's clubs formed the SACOS-affiliated

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...

under leadership of Abass. SARU promoted non-racial rugby instead of the racially segregated associations that existed under SARB's organisational umbrella. It should not be confused with the body founded in 1992 that presently governs rugby in South Africa.

References

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

Rugby union and apartheid {{SouthAfrica-sport-stub

See also

References