OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sydney | Wednesday 10.30am.
CATS’ coach Laurie Mains has added a second black player to his team for Saturday’s Super 12 match against New South Wales but denied the move was made to appease the South African Rugby Union.
Mains, a former New Zealand coach, promoted black centre Mac Masina to his starting lineup for Saturday’s match against the Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Mains was criticised for including just one non-white player, Chester Williams, in his team’s previous two matches despite urgings from Sarfu for each of South Africa’s four Super 12 teams to include at least two black players for each match.
“Mac Masina was chosen because Japie Mulder is injured and he is the next best inside centre we’ve got,” Mains said.
“There’s nothing more to it. There was no pressure to pick him for any other reason.”
Williams, who played a starring role in the Springbok team that won the 1995 World Cup, said he still had some reservations about the “quota” system.
The flying winger said he supported moves to increase the number of Coloured and black players at the lower levels of South African rugby but was concerned about the pitfalls of elevating players too quickly.
“I think they must take it step by step,” Williams said.
“They musn’t be there because they have to be there. They should be there on merit.”
Meanwhile, the Waratahs recalled Australian World Cup centre Nathan Grey, who after missed the opening two matches because of a broken thumb.
The tough-tackling midfielder was named in the starting lineup in place of Christian Warner, who was demoted to the bench, in the only change to the NSW side that beat the Northern Bulls in Pretoria last weekend.
Cats:
Kobus Engelbrecht; Chester Williams, Grant Esterhuizen, Mac Masina, Thinus Delport, Louis Koen, Werner Swanepoel, Andre Vos (captain), Andre Venter, Piet Krause, Victor Matfield, Jannes Labuschagne, Willie Meyer, Leon Boshoff, Marius Mostert.
Waratahs:
Matthew Burke; Scott Staniforth, Jason Little (captain), Nathan Grey, Matt Dowling; Manuel Edmonds, Chris Whitaker; Tiaan Strauss, Phil Waugh, Stuart Pinkerton, John Welborn, Peter Besseling; Rod Moore, Brendan Cannon, Richard Harry.