The South African Rugby Union (founded 1966) was a non-racial governing body for rugby union in South Africa that aligned itself with the anti-apartheid movement. Previously known as the South African Coloured Rugby Football Board, SARU was a founder member of the South African Council on Sport and so strongly opposed the inter-racial structures of the South African Rugby Board (SARB). After the end of apartheid SARU combined with SARB in 1992 to form the South African Rugby Football Union, now known as the

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 ...

. SARU's predecessor was the South African Coloured Rugby Football Board, founded in 1897 during South Africa's British colonial period as a national rugby governing body for players of colour. The SACRFB emerged from a meeting of all clubs and unions called to Kimberley by the Griqualand West Colonial Rugby Football Union. Black administrators like Bud Mbelle

had earlier persuaded

Cecil John Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded ...

to provide a trophy like the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

to "'all the coloured Sporting People if South Africa'". The SACRFB then organized a domestic rugby competition for the Rhodes Cup, which started in 1898 and was first won by Western Province. After the South African Rugby Football Federation broke away from the Coloured Rugby Football Board to ally themselves with the white South African Rugby Board in 1966, the remaining members changed the name to the South African Rugby Union (not to be confused with the current body of that name). In 1973 SARU became a founding member of the anti-apartheid South African Council on Sports, whose slogan argued that there could be no normal sport in an abnormal society. SARU's predominantly coloured composition changed when they were joined by the mostly black Kwazakhele Rugby Union (Kwaru), itself a breakaway from the Port Elizabeth African Rugby Board. Kweru had initially wanted to affiliate with the black South African African Rugby Board but were rebuffed. Other black sporting bodies then followed Kwaru's lead.

References

{{reflist Rugby Rugby union and apartheid

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

Sports organizations established in 1966

See also

References