Well, South Africa wobbled.
And before the Australians get too comfortable with that statement, let’s remember something:
They are the Wobblies.
Perhaps they were simply trying very hard to live up to their name.
Or maybe they were auditioning for Wollibee, because there was certainly a lot of wobbling going on out there today. 😂
But underneath the jokes, there is something worth looking at beyond the score.
What does a wobble tell you?
A wobble doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve lost your balance.
It means something has changed.
On a rugby field, that change might be pressure from the opposition, a breakdown in discipline, poor decision-making, lost momentum or simply a team finding itself in a situation it didn’t expect.
The important thing is not only recognising that you are wobbling.
It is working out why.
Because you can’t correct something properly if you don’t understand what caused it.
And that seemed to be part of the Springbok story today.
The hole became very deep.
Eventually, the Boks found a way to respond. The comeback showed that the ability to recover was still there.
But there is a problem with leaving recovery until the final stages of a rugby match:
The clock doesn’t care how well you recover.
You can fight your way back.
You can find your rhythm.
You can put enormous pressure on the opposition.
But if you spent too much time digging the hole, you may simply run out of time to climb out of it.
And that brings us to the question I think matters most:
When we became aware that we were wobbling, did we become clear on what had caused it?
Because recognising the wobble is only the first step.
You need information.
You need to understand what has changed.
You need to understand what caused it.
And you need to know what you can do about it.
Then I started thinking beyond rugby
That is where this match became interesting to me as a DeafBlind person.
Because a wobble is actually a form of information.
It tells you that something has shifted.
But what happens if you cannot access the information you need to understand that shift?
That is where the connection becomes much bigger than rugby.
On a rugby field, players are constantly receiving information.
They see the movement of the opposition.
They hear calls from teammates.
They receive instructions from coaches.
They hear the referee’s whistle and decisions.
They can look at the scoreboard.
They can see the clock.
All of that information helps them understand what is happening and decide how to respond.
They may interpret the information differently.
They may make the wrong decision.
They may react too slowly.
But the information is there.
For a DeafBlind person, the situation can be fundamentally different.
The problem may not be that we don’t want to respond.
It may not be that we aren’t interested.
It may not even be that we haven’t noticed that something has changed.
The problem may be that the information needed to understand what has changed has not reached us in an accessible way.
And that changes everything.
The difference between not responding and not having the information
Imagine knowing that something is happening around you, but not knowing exactly what it is.
You sense that the situation has changed.
You know you need to respond.
But you don’t have enough accessible information to work out:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
What is expected of me?
What are my options?
What should I do next?
From the outside, that can look like hesitation.
It can look like withdrawal.
It can look like a lack of participation.
It can even look like a choice not to engage.
But what if it isn’t?
What if the person is simply trying to find their balance without having access to the information that would help them do it?
This is where access becomes participation
That is why accessibility cannot stop at simply making a place physically accessible or allowing someone to be present.
If information is inaccessible, participation can still be blocked.
A DeafBlind person may be in the room.
They may be registered for the programme.
They may have the right to participate.
They may even be invited to contribute.
But if the information about what is happening, what is expected, what has changed and what opportunities are available isn’t accessible, the person is still being asked to navigate a situation without the information needed to navigate it.
And that is a very different problem from simply saying someone “didn’t participate.”
Beyond the Score
Perhaps the rugby lesson is therefore bigger than the Springboks’ wobble.
Perhaps it is this:
Wobbling is information.
Something has shifted.
The next step is to understand what shifted and why.
Then you can adjust.
You can recover.
You can find your balance.
But that process depends on having access to the information that tells you what is happening.
For DeafBlind people, that is not a small detail.
It can be the difference between being present and participating.
Between withdrawing and engaging.
Between being told that we had an opportunity and actually having the information needed to use it.
So perhaps the next time we see someone wobbling, we should ask a slightly different question.
Not only:
“Why aren’t they finding their balance?”
But:
“Do they have the information they need to find it?”
Because sometimes the biggest barrier isn’t the wobble.
It’s not having access to the information that explains it.
And that is worth looking at
Beyond the Score.