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JOHANNESBURG. — A virtually unknown South African political party has made an urgent court bid to try and block the Springboks from flying to England next month for the Rugby World Cup, arguing the squad has too many white players. The Agency for a New Agenda (ANA), which says it broke away from the ruling ANC party in 2013, lodged the application last Friday a few hours before coach Heyneke Meyer named a record nine black players in the 31-man World Cup squad.

The team was “built on racially-exclusionary and racially-biased criteria”, which was unconstitutional, said party leader Edward Mokhoanatse. “So we are asking the court to stop them from going (to England) and order them to surrender their passports,” Mokhoanatse said.

The case, which cites Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and the country’s rugby union SARU as respondents, is due to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria tomorrow. Traditionally a white Afrikaner sport, rugby became a symbol of national reconciliation when the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela famously donned a Springbok jersey when presenting captain Francois Pieenar with the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

But the racial composition of the Springboks has remained an emotive public issue, with calls for racial quotas raising fears among some white fans that the selection of players on anything other than merit would weaken the national team. — AFP.