Cheeky Watson

Daniel "Cheeky" Watson (born 1954) was one of the first white South African rugby union players to participate in a mixed race rugby game, during the period when mixed-race activities were forbidden by apartheid legislation.

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. He later captained the Graeme College side.

After completing compulsory National Service, Watson returned to Port Elizabeth, where he played for the Crusaders Rugby Club.

As a 21-year-old, Watson played for the Eastern Province team which lost by 28 points to 13 to 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.

Watson (2007 image) was selected as a wing for the Junior Springboks in 1976. However he declined an invitation to participate in the trails for the 1976 senior Springbok team. He joined the Spring Rose Rugby Football Club in the black township of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, which was affiliated with Kwaru. His wing partner was Zola Yeye, later manager of the 2007 Springbok squad

On 10 October 1976, Watson and Valence 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 Inter-racial sports meetings were at that time prohibited in terms of the apartheid-era Group Areas Act and the Separate Amenities Act. Armored vehicles circled the stadium, and Watson and brother Valence had to lie flat on the floor of a taxi that transported black Africans. The black rugby team regularly stayed in the Watson's home.

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