It’s 30 years since the All Blacks last played a test in South Africa – and only 56 years since Māori and Pacific players were first allowed to tour there.
Articles on Springboks
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Almost half of those surveyed couldn’t name a single national symbol. They are used to forge a national identity in many countries.
A conflict resolution expert – and rugby fan – explains how the game can restore spectacle and avoid farcical and dangerous mismatches due to players being sent off.
Rugby players risk serious injury due to the game’s sheer physicality. Sports scientists have worked with international rugby bodies to improve safety.
The use of a video to challenge rugby decisions is uncommon. But analysis is useful to make the game safe and fair.
That none of his collections were published in apartheid South Africa testifies to the police state’s censorship.
Mandela left at the right time in 1999, when the country still seemed in a healthy state, after which he consolidated his international reputation.
Unity for the wrong reasons reduces social cooperation to whatever happens to benefit a particular person or group, making it a zero-sum game.
The springbok emblem was introduced under white rule in South Africa and by retaining it, it remains a burden for many South Africans who followed the Rugby World Cup.
How sports coaches can inspire their team to defy the odds and win.
Many South Africans hold onto the hope that a win in the World Cup translates into another defining moment for the country.
Today in South Sudan’s political climate, footballing success may wield more symbolic importance than anything else.
Race still plays a big part in South African society. Sport is no exception.
South Africans supporting visiting New Zealand rugby teams took root in a tumultuous time as an expression of defiance against apartheid.
While many South African police officers, who were born into poverty, grew to appreciate the job, they want more for their children - careers requiring degrees - and work to provide them.
South African rugby superstar Joost van der Westhuizen, who has died aged 45, transcended not only the game of rugby but also life itself.
The psyche of defeat is linked to various things: the team’s maturity, captaincy, level of preparedness, confidence in coaching staff and personality characteristics of individual team members.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor Sport History, Stellenbosch University
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Research fellow, University of the Free State
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Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Limpopo
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Professor of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
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Clive Thompson is a Friend of The Conversation.
Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University
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Vasti Roodt is Associate Professor and Head of PROSPER (Promoting Social and Political Ethics Research) in the Department of Philosophy, Stellenbosch University
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Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of London
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Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, University of Winchester
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Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela University
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Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape
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Senior Lecturer Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences , University of Cape Town
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Professor & Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods, Rhodes University
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Professor in Indigenous and International Development, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
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Associate Professor of History, University of Washington
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Associate Professor in Māori Sport, Physical Education and Oranga, School of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury