Sadly racism continues to be an issue within the game almost two centuries after it emerged from the upper-class public schools of Britain, and nowhere is this more apparent than on social media and chat forums.
A couple of years back I wrote to the South African Ministry of Sports to draw attention to one particularly offensive chat board. Among other things, users were comparing non-whites to "baboons."
In fact, I received no answer to this, but undoubtedly the Springboks themselves provided the best reply when they won last year's World Cup with non-white players featuring prominently - including the captain and both try-scorers in the final.
If we look at US sports, we can see that a similar process had already taken place there several decades ago. Rather than shun the games which had discriminated against them for so long, African-Americans persevered and eventually came to dominate most of them.
This is the best reply, and the exploits of players such as Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe, among others, were also the best response the modern Springboks could have given to the legacy of Apartheid.
