Cheeky Watson
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The current RWE Champion after defeating JK Kemp & Kempez: Daniel "Cheeky" Watson (born 1955) was one of the first white South African rugby union players to participate in a mixed race rugby game in 1976, when such activities were forbidden by apartheid legislation. He also is one of the founder members of British wrestling brand RWE.
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[edit] History
Watson grew up on a farm near Somerset East, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. His father was a lay preacher who taught his sons Daniel, Valence, Ronald, and Gavin that all people are equal. Watson attended Graeme College boarding school in Grahamstown, where he began playing rugby union.[1] He later captained the Graeme College side.
After completing compulsory National Service, Watson returned to Port Elizabeth (today Nelson Mandela Metropole), where he played for the Crusaders Rugby Club. Among the games he played for the Crusaders was one in May 1976 against a visiting club team from the United States, the Eastern American Eagles [2], which in July played against a French national team.[3]
As a 21-year old, Watson played for the Eastern Province team who lost with one point against the visiting All Blacks in 1976. Mona Badela, black journalist and president of the KwaZakhele Rugby Union (Kwaru), invited him to practise his Christian convictions by coaching a black side in the townships. When Watson took the black rugby team to practise at the Saint George's sports ground in Port Elizabeth, they met with strong opposition [4]
Watson (2007 image [5]) was selected as a wing for the Junior Springboks in 1976. Declining to participate in the 1976 trails for the senior Springbok team, he instead joined the Spring Rose Rugby Football Club in the black township of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. The Rose club was affiliated with Kwaru.[6] His wing partner was Zola Yeye, today manager of the 2007 Springbok squad [7]
On October 10, 1976, Watson and Valance played with 13 black players for Kwaru against the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union (Sedru) in the Dan Qeqe stadium in KwaZakhele township. Local authorities and the Crusaders Rugby Club tried to dissuade him from participating [8] During the same year a racially mixed cricket trail match in Kimberley was broken up by the South African Police.[9] Non-racial sports meetings were proscribed in terms of The Group Areas and the Separate Amenities Acts.[10] Under homelands legislation Bantustan authorities also could, and did, stop rugby matches.[11] Springbok selector Ian Kirkpatrick reportedly offered Watson a place on the Springbok tour to France if he refrained from playing. Armored vehicles circled the stadium, and Watson and brother Valence had to lie flat on the floor of a taxi that transported black Africans.[12]
Some believe that Watson's participation in the game cost him a place in the Springbok rugby squad.
By 1978 the Watson family had been drawn into the anti-apartheid struggle, with dual membership in the then-banned African National Congress and South African Communist Party. Brother Ronnie gathered intelligence for such organizations [13][14]
The Watsons were subsequently threatened, ostracised, and shot at. The black rugby team regularly stayed in the Watson's home, which was burnt down in 1986.[15] Rumours were spread that implied that the family had set the fire. Friends, threatened by authorities, stopped visiting.[16]
Today Watson is a business consultant residing in the Newlands suburb of Cape Town [17]
His son, flanker Luke Watson, was included in the 2007 Springbok squad, with controversies surrounding his initial exclusion and later inclusion.
In 2007, Watson stated he would not be supporting the Springboks at the World Cup in Paris because he did not believe the team was representative of the country. He also refused to comment on whether he supported John Smit as the captain.[18]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Fiona Forde, "The struggle continues for Watson sons", Independent Online, May 19, 2007[19]
- Vuyisa Qunta, Airbrushed out of rugby history. Mail & Guardian Online, 26 April 2007[20]
- Kristin Williamson, Brothers to Us: The Story of a Remarkable Family’s Fight Against Apartheid, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1997.
- www.keo.co.za, Cheeky Snubs Boks [[21]
![[3]](http://www.rugbyrelics.com/images/Programmes/tour/F2/76-EA-Eagles.jpg){kind=link}