Before flying to Paris, Mbeki said comments by skipper John Smit on the team's role in forging national reconciliation were only a start.
"We would be greatly mistaken if we took this immensely positive development as signifying that the rugby administrators, the players and the nation have accomplished the shared goal of building rugby as a non-racial sport at all levels, on a sustainable basis," he wrote in his weekly newsletter.
Coach Jake White, who is set to step down, said the prospect of renewed political pressure had been "a huge unspoken motivation for [his players] -- to show that they deserve to keep their team."
Nick Mallett, a former Springboks coach who is taking charge of the Italy team, said the best way to encourage more blacks to take up the game was by having a successful national side rather than forcing the process.
"The more people who see a successful team, the more people from all cultures will want to play rugby," Mallett said.
Helen Zille, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, said government should limit itself to a "facilitative role."
"Instead of imposing race quotas in rugby, government should be nurturing young black talent by creating opportunities through bursaries, talent-scouting and better training and facilities," she said.
The few rugby clubs in black townships often lack the kit and equipment that counterparts in wealthy white suburbs take for granted. But with all eyes on raising standards in soccer ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, rugby is not a priority.
"They [politicians] stand on their soapboxes and whinge because rugby is an easy target," wrote Clinton Van der Berg in the Sunday Times.
"But they don't develop fields in townships, underwrite coaching classes or supply the nutrition needed to turn 75kg weaklings into 115kg tighthead props," Van der Berg wrote.
However, writing in the liberal Mail and Guardian weekly, Chris Waldberger said rugby had been too focused on sidestepping transformation.
"The thinking seems to be that as long as the Springboks are successful, politics can be kept on the periphery as an awkward sideshow. But this only goes to show that the intent and heart of transformation has been lost," he wrote.
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