Amid Brexit’s divisions, rugby has a powerful political message – Christine Jardine

As Nelson Mandela and the Springboks demonstrated, rugby can be a powerful, unifying force in society, writes Christine Jardine.

Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springboks shirt, presents the William Web Ellis trophy to Francois Pienaar (Picture: Dave Rogers/Allsport/Getty)

For the next few weeks I will be spending some valuable time on something I think has he potential to begin to repair the schisms that are currently threatening to tear our country apart.

I shall be watching the Rugby World Cup. And not just Scotland.

Of course having been at Murrayfield to see them off in their final match against Georgia, with a lump in my throat, I feel a personal link this time as well as a patriotic one.

But there is more this time.

Every time one of the home nations takes to the field, I shall be cheering loudly and not just because of the bonds I feel. On the whole sport is a unifying force.

Rugby, perhaps more than any other because of the way it demands respect for your opponents on, and off the pitch.

Our politics could learn so much from them. At the end of every match, the players applaud each other off the field, pat each other on the back.

At Murrayfield, I have witnessed teams who have been fierce opponents less than an hour earlier sitting eating together, laughing and joking. It’s the same for the supporters.

Fans are never separated in the stands, they tend to drink together in the same pubs before and after the match, and the team banter and camaraderie barely ever spills over into threatening or violent behaviour towards the opposing side.

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Perhaps that was never more evident than in South Africa’s victory on home soil. A country horribly divided on the worst of grounds but brought together in support of a common goal.

It was a drama depicted so brilliantly for us all in the movie ‘Invictus’. Who could ever forget those wonderful pictures on the day of the final of Nelson Mandela wearing a Springbok shirt.

The fantastic scenes of all South Africans supporting what had once been seen as the biggest representation of apartheid in sport.

After the victory, black rugby pioneer Dan Qeqe said that “The Springboks play for all of us”.

When William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran down that pitch at Rugby School, he could have had no inclination of the impact.

So when the 2019 Rugby World Cup kicked off in Japan over the weekend, I saw it as an opportunity for our, let’s say somewhat divided country, to pull together as a family of nations.

This could be a chance to unite our country again. It may sound a tad mushy, but who could deny that’s just what we need right now?

While on a radio panel last week, we were asked whether any family or friend relationships had been strained or even lost as a result of our stances on the two referendums.

All three of us agreed that we cherished these relationships more than anything, and how important it is to make sure they are protected from political differences.

But there cannot surely be anyone in Scotland who has not struggled to maintain at least one friendship or family connection amidst the tension of the two votes. At times it has been unbearable. Sometimes we have all said things we now regret.

Even though the independence referendum is behind us the wounds are still there. Over Brexit they are still being created.

Unionists vs separatists, leavers vs remainers, urban vs rural, old against young, for years we’ve been pitted against each other in a whole load of different ways. At each other’s throats, endlessly squabbling and being nicknamed in some foreign newspapers as the ‘Disunited Kingdom’.

So as the Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland squads gear up for their fight for glory in Japan, let’s cheer each other on, and hope that one of the home nations brings back that trophy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I want that team to be Scotland.

I want my next visit to Murrayfield to be to welcome the William Webb Ellis trophy, not just to Scotland, but to Edinburgh West.

But I’ll also be cheering on my English, Welsh and Irish neighbours because I firmly believe that we are a family, and that their victory is our victory.