The South African rugby team, commonly referred to as the Springboks, are currently ranked number one in the world rankings and are the reigning world champions. They compete annually in the Tri Nations alongside the New Zealand and Australia, as well as in other international competitions.

South Africa played no part in the first two Rugby World Cups, due to the apartheid boycott of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, but the side returned from isolation and promptly won the 1995 World Cup.

The Springboks were readmitted into world sport after apartheid was dismantled in 1992, and didn't quite find the going easy. Though there was plenty of support for the side, political and racial tensions overshadowed initial losses on the field. Racism has reared its ugly head in South Africa's sporting culture, be it rugby or cricket, with strong claims from insiders of an underlying prejudice.

A predominantly white, Afrikaners rugby squad has had its share of problems. Chester Williams, the only black player in the successful 1995 squad, published a book, A Biography of Courage, which spoke of his isolation from teammates. Critics dismissed his claims as false, but the smoke signals had been fanned. Geo Cronje's expulsion from the squad, on the grounds that he refused to share a room with a black teammate, plunged South Africa into crisis on the eve of the 2003 World Cup. Many felt Cronje perhaps held a firm belief in racial supremacy since childhood, and that he was possibly entrenched in a personal animosity from which he could not remove himself. Whatever the reasons, this incident represented South African rugby in a light from which it hadn't really tried to free itself.

South African rugby has a quota system - a requirement that a certain number of players in every team, from the minors to the national, should be black. It is one that has not been embraced by all, and continues to be problematic. Many have claimed it is the singular reason for South Africa's decline at the international level, but there are clearly other issues at hand. South Africa's domestic structure was restructured, with a regionalizing of the club system that included combining the strongest teams. It was move that did not go down well in all quarters, as many saw players scrambling for clubs with the biggest payroll.

Even the stirring image of Nelson Mandela, wearing a green and gold jersey, presenting the 1995 trophy to the Springboks has been criticized as a sham, such is the prejudice that runs deep in the country.

The Springboks have played tough, competitive rugby since the 1995 World Cup, though not always with the desired results. In 1999, they finished third, with victories over England and the All Blacks. Big defeats against England, France and Scotland preceded their 2003 World Cup campaign, and after the tournament the Springboks found themselves striving to erase the racist tag once again. It is one that they've continued to go, no matter what the results on the field have been.

On October 20, 2007 South Africa lifted the World Cup for the second time in their history, ending England's reign as world champions. In front of a packed Stade de France in Paris the Springboks turned in an exemplary game against an in-form England to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy 15-6.

In early November South Africa's sports minister, Makhenkesi Stofile, ruled out any further use of racial quotas in South African sport. Before the Rugby World Cup there was proposed legislation that at least 25% of every Springbok match-day 22 would be players of colour, but Stofile scrapped all that. The announcement was music to the ears of South African rugby fans who had feared the break-up of their World Cup-winning team in the months and years ahead.