Introduction

I will argue that the 1992 re-entry of the Springboks into international rugby involved a reinvention of the South African rugby ethos that is worthy of study. The Springboks have been seminally implicated in how ubuntu was re-spun as a moral system that justified reconciliation and forgiveness in the 1990s transition to democratic rule. Yet, in my humble opinion, the ongoing transformation of the Springboks remains one of the most remarkable projects of moral reconstruction that the world has failed to understand fully. I will seek to add a dimension to this understanding by considering rugby as a postcolonial, post-apartheid sport that reveals nuanced complexities and possibilities for weaving a desirable fabric of inclusive sociality that transcends damaged and limiting notions of colonial honour.