Walking into the pre-launch of South African Rugby: Untold Stories from a Divided Nation felt less like attending a book event and more like stepping into a long-overdue team talk in a change room history tried to lock.
Sedick Crombie Chronicles Rugby’s Forgotten Players of the Apartheid Era
Crombie’s second book after – “My Apartheid Diary” – binds wounds, lifts voices and finally passes the ball to men who were forced to play in the shadows while the stadium lights shone elsewhere.
This is rugby written from the blindside of apartheid. Crombie peels back the green-and-gold jersey to reveal the bruises beneath the unseen tackles absorbed by 45 former non-racial rugby players who chose principle over podiums, conscience over caps.
Their careers were stalled, rerouted or outright denied, yet their love for the game never dropped the ball.
For decades, their stories were left on the touchline.
Crombie captures the stories of giants who chose the grind of playing rugby under apartheid: broken pitches, crooked goalposts and referees who never blew the whistle fairly.
His prose moves like a patient flyhalf, distributing each story with care, timing and vision, ensuring no voice is left stranded on the wing.
“There were a lot of sacrifices and a lot of trials and tribulations that these players went through, and nowhere does it reflect in our proud history of sport in this country,” Crombie explains.
“I interviewed 45 former players from across the nation. I’ve travelled far and wide, right up to the East Coast, the South Coast, and obviously here in the Western Cape, where most of the players resided.”
Those journeys are felt on every page. Each chapter is a ruck cleared with respect, a maul driven by memory.
Talent was abundant; opportunity was rationed
The players’ stories speak of changing in cramped rooms while others dressed in privilege; of talent spotted too late or never at all; of dreams kicked into touch by laws that confused skin colour with ability.
Yet this is not a book trapped in the past. Like a veteran forward reminding a young pack where the game comes from, South African Rugby: Untold Stories from a Divided Nation challenges modern South African rugby to look honestly at its own reflection.
It confronts the lingering societal schisms that still influence selection, opportunity and access and asks, pointedly, whether the game has truly learned to play as one team.
They gave everything to the game, except their dignity
Crombie’s work is both a history lesson and a moral fitness test. It reminds us that before unity was printed on jerseys, it was stitched into hearts by men who played for nothing but dignity.
If rugby is often called a religion in South Africa, then this book is a missing gospel. It’s one that deserves to be read, debated and celebrated.
Attending the launch is more than supporting a book; it’s standing in the stands for players who were never allowed on the field.
Come listen. Come learn. Come help ensure these stories are never again left on the wrong side of history’s touchline.
Book Launch Details:
Monday, 15 December 2025 at 16:00
University of the Western Cape (UWC) – Jakes Gerwel Main Hall
Hard and soft copies will be available
