Richard Loe: Blights on Bok future

Whether last night's test match was a win or a loss for the All Blacks, it is hard to see how South African rugby is going to start winning consistently.

Eleven changes to an All Black team will have provoked an almighty response from the Springboks but the Boks have a bleak future unless they can get away from the blight hampering their game.

That should be "blights", really, as they have a problem with skill levels, where they cannot match the All Blacks. Their game has not moved past the old, pre-professional days when it was enough to have their huge forwards banging it up the middle. The game has moved on - but the Boks haven't.

That issue pales into insignificance when you compare it to the quota system.

This requirement that the Springbok coach include players of colour so the team is more representative of the ethnic make-up of the country is baloney. Graham Henry can select who he likes, when he likes, in what position he likes.

Imagine the difference in the All Blacks if he had to include half a dozen players of this colour, or from a certain province, or if he had to live up to a quota of Maori, Samoan or Caucasian origins. It's ridiculous - but it's what coach Jake White and the Springboks have to do.

When they were here for the last test in the Tri Nations, the Boks brought Solly Tyibilika as a flanker. The guy was not a bad player - but not up to test standard. White cannot choose the best; he has to select the best he is allowed.

It's a ludicrously politically correct warping of sport. Sure, there have been, are and will be good black players - Breyton Paulse and the current winger Bryan Habana come to mind. Both are class players, deserving of their spot. That's fine - select on merit.

But there have been many instances now where black or coloured players have been chosen and white players, better players, have been left out. Let me be crystal clear here - I am not making a case for white players. Let them be selected on merit. Let all the Boks be selected on merit.

They will not win much of anything unless they select on merit. Professional sport is all about winning - and that's hard enough, even without carrying a political system on your back.

Win - and the kids will come to the game over time. Lose . . . and I think we all know what will happen. I reckon it may take a generation to get through this.

It is going to take time, leadership, and working on the problem at both ends - with kids and from the top down. If they don't, the Boks will not win consistently - and even leaving Sanzar and to play in Europe will not fix the problem. They might get a few more results go their way, but they won't be addressing the root cause.