As with the game among whites, clubs for black and coloured players emerged before unions were established, and before that may have started in missionary schools.
Canon Robert John Mullins,[1] headmaster of the Kaffir [sic] Institution from 1864, is usually credited as the first to introduce rugby to blacks, in the shape of his students.
Black administrators like Bud Mbelle[2] had earlier persuaded Cecil John Rhodes to provide a trophy like the Currie Cup to "'all the coloured Sporting People in South Africa'".
[2] The Bantu Rugby Board arranged the first of its annual inter-provincial tournaments in 1936 in Kimberley,[7] in which Transvaal and Eastern Province shared the title after a goalless draw.
Other participants included the Northern Eastern Districts from Aliwal North and Griqualand West, but not Western Province, Border or Natal.
In turn, the Bantu Rugby Board initiated test matches with their coloured counterparts to forge a sense of unity.
When the South African Rugby Union rewarded black and coloured rugby players who had represented their governing bodies in national teams with Springbok blazers, players who had not been selected for the multi-racial body were excluded from this honour on the basis that they could, technically, have qualified for selection as Springboks from 1978 onwards.