South African plaintiffs have dropped a legal attempt to stop the Springboks from playing in the Rugby World Cup in a dispute over a lack of black players in the squad.

More than 20 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s fraught race relations have been highlighted by anger over just nine black players being named in the 31-man squad for the tournament.

A little-known group, the Agency for a New Agenda (ANA), brought the urgent court application to try to prevent the side flying out to the World Cup in England, which starts on September 18.

The case, which was never thought likely to succeed, cited Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and the country’s rugby union SARU as respondents.

After a day of legal negotiations, Judge Ntendeya Mavundla said the ANA had agreed to drop its application for the Springbok players to be forced to surrender their passports.

“In terms of the… players who are supposed to go abroad, my understanding is that action is no longer sought,” Mavundla said at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital.

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Mavundla nevertheless criticised the country’s slow pace of racial reform since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

“It cannot be that, 21 years down the line, transformation is at a snail’s pace in all sectors,” he added.

South Africa’s rugby administrators have set a target of 50 per cent black players in the national side by 2019, but many critics say the sport has failed to recruit and develop young black players.

“We’re not going to wait any longer,” ANA president Edward Mokhoanatse said, describing the court proceedings as a “victory”. “This will ensure there is a kind of supervisory role of the courts to ensure there is transformation.”