SPRINGBOK RUGBY COACH ISSUED 5-WORDS ON HIS QUITEMENT AS SPRINGBOK RUGBY COACH.

Director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said the Springboks would lean towards SA Rugby’s own anti-racism campaign amid questions from British and Irish press about whether the Springboks would take a knee during the Lions series.

Erasmus faced overseas press during a virtual media briefing on Friday where he was asked about the thorny issue that arose when Black Lives Matter awareness engulfed the globe following George Floyd’s murder at the hands of American police last year.

British and Irish Lions star players such as Maro Itoje, who will tour South Africa for the much-anticipated Lions series in July, have been in favour of taking a knee before rugby matches.

However, the practice hasn’t always gone done well in South African sports, with the Proteas also opting against the symbol during a home Test series against Sri Lanka last summer, going instead with a raised power fist after national anthems were sung.

South Africa’s UK-based contingent, including the infamous “Sale Eight”, also opted against taking a knee in August last year at the height of the Black Lives Matter conversation.

Erasmus said the Springboks would gravitate towards the Rugby Against Discrimination and Racism (Radar) campaign founded in 2019 – a collaboration with the South African Human Rights Commission.

“In South Africa, we have long been dealing with stuff like that and we have our own programme called Radar since 2019, which is against racism, our own programme, which we initiated long before the other debates started in the world. So, we are very comfortable [with that],” said Erasmus, as quoted by Rugby Pass.

“We will still follow that specific programme, which was well documented well before all the other things started happening. We are happy with the route we are going and how our team is experiencing it, how we are aligned and where we are trying to get with it, so we will stick with our programme on that.”

The 2019 World Cup-winning Springboks were the picture of diversity in Japan, where they were led to an historic third Webb Ellis trophy by Siya Kolisi, the first black African Springbok captain.