Although the wave of national pride shared by South Africans of all colours as they greeted their rugby team on its return from winning the world cup in France, the issue of race in sport, as in other aspects of life in post-apartheid South Africa, is sure to continue.
President Thabo Mbeki made it clear that he shared the rainbow nation's joy, even though only two of the team's players were non-white, both of them being Coloured, as mixed-race South Africans are known. Mr Mbeki even called for the coach, Jake White, to stay on, though reports have buzzed around that he may look for a job elsewhere when his contract expires; he is said to be fed up with political interference. Voices in the ruling African National Congress have called for a more transformative approach to team selection: that means more non-whites should be picked.
Along with cricket, rugby remains a favourite sport of most white South Africans, whereas most of their black fellow citizen prefers football. Rugby is still particularly popular among Afrikaners, white South Africans of mainly Dutch descent who were the bastion of support for the ideology of segregation and racial domination; of the 32 players in the victorious world cup squad, not just those that actually played in the final game, only four were whites of English-speaking stock, five were Coloured and just one was a black African.
Nelson Mandela's gracious support for the Springboks, as the national team is known, when they last won the cup, on home soil, in 1995, softened the hearts of white South Africa, even of the most diehard white racists. But a feeling still lingers that rugby has yet to shed its image as a mainly white sport that long symbolised apartheid at its macho worst.
Pressure on the sport's governing body and coaches to ensure that the sport better mirrors the country's racial make-up is intense. South Africa's 48 million people, about 38 million are black, 4 million plus are white, almost as many are Coloured and about 600,000 are of Asian descent. Set racial quotas in professional rugby at the top level were dropped in 2004.