Straeuli knew it was racism, says former Bok media man

3.00pm

CAPE TOWN - Former Springbok rugby communications manager Mark Keohane is calling on South African coach Rudolf Straeuli to resign, amid accusations that he failed to tell all he knew about the Geo Cronjé race row.

Keohane alleged that Cronjé was indeed left out of the Bok camp because of the race allegations - despite no evidence being found of racism - and that the coach knew it.

But on Friday morning Straeuli brushed aside the allegations. The whole matter was "sub judice", he said, and he would give his side of the story only to Judge Edwin King's inquiry.

Straeuli said he had no intention of resigning. And he stuck to his guns denying, again, that the racism allegations against Cronjé had cost him his place in the side. Cronjé, he insisted, had been his fourth-choice lock and he had only picked three.

'He needed to respect black people'
After a week of turmoil, Straeuli on Thursday appeared to have the unequivocal support of his skipper and entire squad - a squad which appears to have closed ranks.

In an exclusive interview with the Cape Argus on Thursday, Keohane made the dynamite allegation that Cronjé was banned from going to the World Cup by Rian Oberholzer long before he was "dropped", supposedly on purely rugby grounds.

But Keohane charged that Oberholzer had banned Cronjé for good reason: on the basis of inside information given to him by Straeuli.

"The incident and (Straeuli's) subsequent discussions with the player were discussed in great detail," Keohane said. On the basis of that "very significant conversation", Oberholzer had given his order to banish Cronjé from the squad.

Keohane, who was party to the discussion, said he had been "left in no doubt", by Straeuli's own evidence to Oberholzer, that the incident that blew up in the camp had been a racial one.

'He was culturally much too close to the incident'
Oberholzer is overseas and could not be contacted on Friday.

On Friday morning the Cape Argus asked Straeuli explicitly: Did Oberholzer order that Cronjé play no part in the World Cup?

Straeuli replied: "I had conversations with the managing director (Oberholzer), but I'm not going to respond to (Keohane's) allegations. I haven't seen his dossier. I will wait for the King Commission to begin."

Keohane alleged that when the final 30-man World Cup squad was announced on Saturday, South African Rugby Football Union officials had suggested Cronjé had been left out of the squad on rugby grounds.

Keohane alleged Straeuli had let that impression lie, instead of disclosing Cronjé had not been available to him for selection.

Keohane said Bok skipper Corné Krige, too, had last week left him in no doubt that the incident had been racial.

"The captain told me he had explained in great detail to the white player that if he wanted to survive as a South African, as much as a South African rugby player, then he needed to respect black people, needed to learn to accommodate them in a rugby set-up," Keohane said.

"If the captain was having this type of discussion with a white player on the race issue then it was clear that race was at the very heart of this issue."

This allegation by Keohane was challenged on Thursday by Krige himself. Krige said in Pretoria that the entire Cronjé/Quinton Davids saga had been a misunderstanding. He insisted there was no cover-up and that there were no "racial issues" in his team, and he questioned Keohane's motives.

Responding to the allegation that the Boks' black players had been so unhappy about the Cronjé affair that they had approached him, he said it had been he, instead, who had called a meeting with them.

In response, Keohane alleged Straeuli had not wanted Oberholzer or team manager Gideon Sam to know about the incident in the first place - "knowing" it would blow into a political storm if either heard of it.

As a result, Keohane said, he had insisted on telling Oberholzer about the incident.

Keohane was challenged on this allegation too. Sam said at no point had he received any evidence Cronjé had refused to share a room with Davids.

Keohane said Straeuli should step down for treating a racial incident like a minor transgression - fixable by a quick run up and down a koppie.

The incident had been a "test case" for all that South African rugby had sworn to do. But, faced with its first serious challenge, it had failed dismally, Keohane said.

"Straeuli asked me last Friday morning, when he accused me of leaking the story, if I felt he was a racist. I answered 'no'. But I told him he was culturally much too close to the incident and it had clouded his judgment."

- INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS (SOUTH AFRICA)