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Article: Politics and plots enter musty world
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In those dim days when rugby men, players as well as
administrators, told us sport and politics should not mix, they
said it as a specific way around the perennial South African
problem. Of course, sport and politics always did mix, in South
Africa more than anywhere.
No one upheld this dubious, deluded credo more vehemently than
the Rugby Football Union, not least when it sent an England team to
South Africa in 1984 without too much opposition from those
annoyingly persistent moralisers who suggested rugby might - just -
have a wider responsibility than to itself alone.
I mention this as a scene-setter for the political drama which,
while English Rugby was frozen solid over the weekend, was ...