THE SIDELINES : White and Multiracial S. Africa Rugby Organizations to Merge
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The white-dominated South African Rugby Board took a major step today toward a possible return to international competition by agreeing in principle to a merger with a rival multiracial organization.
Anti-apartheid activists who support the sports boycott of South Africa have for years demanded that the rugby board merge with the South African Rugby Union as a precondition for a possible re-entry into world rugby.
Leaders of the two organizations met today and announced later that they would form a single non-racial controlling body to oversee the sport in South Africa.
Rugby is by far the most popular team sport among South Africa’s 5 million whites and is played in many mixed-race communities and in a few black areas.
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