That was really the plan, to try and project this team as a team that was trying to represent the whole country. “The director said a choir had pre-recorded a shortened composite anthem, a few verses of each song, and there was nothing you can do. “Where the 1995 World Cup still has a role is it is a moment you can’t take away for South Africans black and white as a nation who realised what the country could achieve together. Morne du Plessis, the team manager, organised for a friend of his, professor Anne Munnik, to come in and teach the squad the Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. If you have any updates on any of these players, please let us know – admin@sapeople.com: MARK ANDREWS (LOCK/NO 8) Andrews retired from international rugby in 2002 and played for the Newcastle Falcons in England until 2004. South Africa was a society where the alternative view wasn’t tolerated and it wasn’t very popular generally either.”. More of that legacy later. “It was strange having this rugby tournament happening at the time when there was so much fluidity in the way people were thinking about the country and looking at the country. “If I stayed in England I would have been on the M1 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon with a lot of traffic in the way and it quite difficult to get anywhere. The world was coming to visit after years of boycott and sporting isolation due to apartheid and rather than have an old-style administrator front of the house, rugby president Louis Luyt reckoned it was time to put on a more compelling Springboks show with a fresher face in Griffiths. Kitch Christie (Coach): After coaching the Springboks to a then record of 14 consecutive wins, inclusive of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Christie left his post as Springbok … Thirty days later, it all culminated in Joel Stransky’s title-clinching drop goal in extra time at Ellis Park. BREAKING: Nelson Mandela has been posthumously inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame: http://t.co/98mZKcJ4ixhttps://t.co/n7rCnxRLi8, — World Rugby (@WorldRugby) October 3, 2015, “So we dragged 40 members of the choir out of their hotel in Cape Town down to re-record the full version of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and the full version of Die Stem at about 11 o’clock at night to lay down the track. It created an image of a united country winning on the international stage and that is why that profile of Mandela, the trophy, that image is still emotionally significant for tens of millions of South Africans because it was a moment when the united country was shown. Planning key for Bok Women as RWC dates are announced. RugbyPass is the premier destination for rugby fans across the globe, with all the best rugby news, analysis, shows, highlights, podcasts, documentaries, live match statistics, fixtures & results, and much more! Los Springboks no usan un estadio nacional como su sede, sino que juegan en diversos lugares de Sudáfrica. World Cup 1995 favourites Kobus Wiese and Hennie le … This was the squad that won the RWC1995 and the hearts of a nation. The Rugby … Indeed, though we mourn, our hearts are filled with joy for the great privilege of having known this legend. This was the country that had been very largely isolated, a pariah state for 20, 30 years. SPRINGBOK rugby coach Carel du Plessis has made six changes to this season’s South African international Test side. Griffiths was ousted the following February, and some years later Mandela was a witness in court as SA Rugby tried to stare down the Government. They all got back to bed at about half-past midnight and that is how the next day we actually did play the full version of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and the full version of Die Stem and the players sang both anthems perfectly.”. The final was played at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and refereed by Ed Morrisonof England. Listen and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.. “His face was everywhere, on every billboard. I thought if we are going to keep on winning I would have to continue holding a coat hanger and stand in the players’ tunnel. “He was involved not in a day to day running but in all the major decisions of the union at the time and he saw me as somebody who had skills in communications and media, somebody who could put a better face on South African rugby, a better public face on South African rugby. Of course, that culminated in a final where the crowd started chanting ‘Nelson, Nelson, Nelson’. There was an opportunity to truly transform South African rugby and to give it an incredible role within the country and sadly that opportunity was largely wasted because the South African rugby board at that time just didn’t have the will, the desire to make the changes that were required. First, though, a spin through a multitude of vivid tournament anecdotes, starting with the left-field Griffiths idea that played a major part in getting Mandela on board supporting the Springboks, the team of the white oppressor during the dark days of the divided South African society in the decades prior. A country rejoiced as one. Rugby needs investment, but it should be careful whose money it takes. There would have been a significant number of people within South African rugby who just considered that black people were disinterested in rugby, not really involved in rugby and frankly didn’t care whether they were involved or not. “In fact, there was another thing where someone gave me a blazer that I had to give to someone just before the opening game against Australia. “I never sat down in any game in the finals,” he said. His hunch was perfectly on the money. ADVERTISEMENT SA Rugby confirmed that Williams passed away from a heart attack in Cape Town, where he lived and worked as a … Source: SA Rugby magazine For your easy reference, these are in alphabetical order by surname. The men came together when Pienaar captained South Africa to victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Here we are – I was 32 and he was in his late 20s – and we would probably never have a better day than this in our life. Chester Williams in a … South Africa first played Test rugby in 1891, against a British Isles touring team. But for now, he happily settled for a rollicking half-hour recall of the ride of his life, an eleventh-month rollercoaster as chief executive of the South African rugby union. “I thought half an hour before the game I had to do something about this and get this flag taken down. After the Springboks, Griffiths went on to help transform Saracens from a model of inconsistency into a powerhouse of the English club game in a seven-year stint through to March 2015, a different kind of project he suggested he could talk for hours about. Within five years I was sports editor.”, South African fans watch Francois Pienaar lift the trophy (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images), It wasn’t all plain sailing. “That started off with this ‘One Team, One Country’ mantra which was launched before the tournament. It’s a sort of when they shot Kennedy moment, most South Africans will be able to remember what they were doing on the day of the final at Ellis Park.”. The executive committee, many of them didn’t want to follow that agenda and their influence weighed more heavily on Louis Luyt than mine and that is why I got fired. Cue bedlam… and the sobering realisation from Griffiths that this probably was as good as life would ever get for a special Springboks squad who are still connected all these years later on a busy WhatsApp group where they hope to create some anniversary events to raise funds for people affected by Covid-19. I walked around the ground through the crowd, made my way through the terrace which was packed and got right up to the guy who was waving this flag. The celebrations that followed for weeks and months live vibrantly on in Griffiths’ memory. RugbyPass takes a trek through South African rugby in Jim Hamilton’s Rugby Explorer, Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Live on RugbyPass! “The other important thing was about two weeks before the tournament, we announced there was an under-19 team going to tour Romania. It did turn sour. He said, ‘What do you mean, it’s a free country?’ I said, ‘It is a free country but the symbol of the free country is that flag over there, not the flag you’re waving’. So too the name of Williams, the only non-white player on the Springboks who nearly missed out thorough a pre-finals hamstring injury. The world was coming to visit after years of boycott and sporting isolation due to apartheid and rather than have an old-style administrator front of the house, rugby president Louis Luyt reckoned it was time to put on a more compelling Springboks show with a fresher face in Griffiths. Fu una manifestazione che ebbe un grande impatto culturale e contribuì a scrivere un importante capitolo … “I covered the last Formula 1 Grand Prix at Kyalami two weeks after arriving straight out of university and within a year and a half, I was chief rugby writer and cricket writer on the Sunday Times, the largest newspaper in the country at the time. “Hennie Le Roux, the centre who was quite proficient in some African languages, helped with that process so the team learned it. En 1995, les Springboks participent à leur première Coupe du monde depuis leur retour dans le concert des nations de l'ovalie après plus d'une décennie d'isolement. The fairy tale success memorably went on to become the stuff of Hollywood legend, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon respectively playing the roles of inspirational South African president Nelson Mandela and team skipper Francois Pienaar. There was still too many people there who felt that rugby was a white man’s game and should be kept as such. He was sadly right. He got a call the night before the game because his friend’s father was not feeling well and couldn’t go to the game, so John got a ticket for the 1995 final as a schoolboy the night before, came down to the game and watched it. Ce match du 15 juin 1995 au Ellis Park Stadium aura été une démonstration pour les Springboks. “That was the challenge, but for him to throw his weight behind rugby he needed to see from rugby – unprompted – that the sport was prepared to do things which had not been considered before. “I saw it as a massive opportunity. What we did during the tournament did that but that opportunity was unfortunately not taken.”. “He came to visit the team before the match against Australia and was constantly on the phone through the tournament, and then there was his historic appearance at the final. This country has actually got a future as a united, democratic nation’. To this point, New Zealand … I felt that by going to South Africa I would have an opportunity to write at a higher level much more quickly. May 25 marks the 25th anniversary of how their swaggering gallop to greatness initially began, defending champions Australia beaten in the tournament opener in Cape Town. South Africa defeated Western Samoa in the quarter-finals, and then France in the semi-finals to reach the final; New Zealand defeated Scotland in the quarter-finals, and England in the semi-finals, a game in which Jonah Lomu famously scored four tries for the All Blacks. Casting his thoughts back to the seismic Springboks breakthrough 25 years ago, Griffiths told RugbyPass: “I was saying afterwards to Hennie Le Roux it was an incredibly happy day but it was also a sad day. Springbok Women’s coach Stanley Raubenheimer and SA Rugby’s High Performance Manager for Women’s rugby, Lynne Cantwell, emphasised the importance of effective planning following the announcement on Tuesday evening that the Rugby World Cup will run from 8 October to 12 November 2022. He completely got the opportunity for South African rugby that certainly not everyone within the game did see. It was 1995. The eyes of the world were on South Africa. If the black population were able to get behind the Springboks then that would bring the country together in that sense. By Mick Cleary 06 December 2013 • … Excuses still not tolerated all these years later https://t.co/bMWFGtGDGt. As a show of unity, the Springboks had practised singing the full length of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, a song banned during apartheid, to go with Die Stem as their pre-game anthem, but Griffiths discovered to his horror on a stadium visit the night before the opening match that a choir had only recorded a shortened composite version. Nathi Mthethwa (@NathiMthethwaSA) September 14, 2019. Springboks: In this June 10, 1995, file photo, South Africa’s Chester Williams cuts across the open field during Rugby World Cup action against Western Samoa in Johannesburg. “I was finished because I wanted that World Cup to change the game and I pushed through more affirmative action policies at Craven Week which were unpopular. 'It's just not acceptable': Waratahs boss calls for cultural overhaul following record loss to... 'People can't say that northern hemisphere rugby is s***… it will be good for South Africa to go north', British and Irish Lions vs Tokyo Olympics: Springboks star Cheslin Kolbe makes decision for next year, 'I tried to kill him': Why Springboks star went 'psycho' at All Blacks, it was a moment when the united country was shown. News. Stransky is the guest in the fifth episode of the SA Rugby Podcast in what is the first installment looking back at what happened in 1995. The pressure was massive on him and it may have taken some toll. A number of the 1995 squad will tweet memories during the game. “Mandela would have seen that rugby was an opportunity to bring the country together. Depuis près de cent ans les Sud-Africains sont fiers des performances de leur équipe de rugby à XV, les Springboks sont connus dans le monde entier, même par des non spécialistes du rugby. “People actually looked at this and thought, ‘Wow, this can actually work. Starts 14 May, 'Beginner's luck': O'Flaherty's sensational try, Premium feature exclusive to TheXV.Rugby - Free Trial, Alex Dombrandt has hit every marker required to showcase his sumptuous talents at the highest level, Tadhg Beirne can help the Lions combat the Springboks' brilliant back-row Pieter-Steph du Toit. That idea that a primarily white crowd could be chanting the name of Nelson Mandela was unthinkable the year before.”, Watch: Legendary South African Musician, PJ Powers lifts our spirits with her iconic song 'Jabulani' dedicated to our fallen hero, Chester Williams. Les choses sérieuses vont enfin pouvoir commencer par la suite avec la demi-finale face au XV de France. I put it to Louis Luyt, not to the full executive, that we should have a quota of black or coloured players in that squad to demonstrate that if selectors weren’t prepared to find black or coloured talent that we would effectively force them to find it. “There was a group of 28 players and they would have bought into the message to varying degrees. Griffiths had his own superstitions surrounding the Springboks. “Basically, I went to university and decided I wanted to be a sports reporter. Williams was the only nonwhite on the Springboks when it won the 1995 World Cup and was embraced by Nelson Mandela in a message of reconciliation. He went on to represent the Boks at the 1999 and 2003 World Cups before retiring as the then most capped Springbok. It was probably all downhill from here’. Come 1995, though, the prevailing mood was that South African rugby needed to put its best foot forward. “That legacy was largely wasted. “The reality is that within three years South African rugby was putting Nelson Mandela in the dock because the Government wanted to appoint a commission of enquiry into rugby and SA Rugby fought that commission in the court and Nelson Mandela was literally standing in the dock taking questions as a witness. South Arican President Nelson Mandela, left, cheers as Springbok Rugby captain Francois Pienaar holds the trophy high after winning the World Cup … “The pressure he felt running up to the tournament was huge,” recalled Griffiths. Whilst every attempt is made to keep the data in this database correct, there are however errors. Gallo Images Kitch Christie 1940-1998 I thought that was a great job. Jun 24 • General News, International, Rugby World Cup News, Springboks • 31826 Views • No Comments on The Full Springbok 1995 World Cup Squad #1995reunited. At that point I remember saying to Morne du Plessis, every stroke of fate seemed to be a stroke on our side.”. When South Africa was chosen to host the 1995 World Cup, the Springboks, South Africa's rugby team, had the duty to transform their identity in order to fit in with the new order in South Africa. “He saw a gap,” explained Griffiths, taking up the story about how he was parachuted in as SA Rugby CEO that March, just two months before the start of the World Cup after he had served as Springboks team media liaison officer on the European tour the previous November. I was holding a plastic coat hanger in the players’ tunnel at Newlands and that became a superstition. “Then, of course, we had the suspensions of Pieter Hendriks and James Dalton against Canada and we were able to bring Chester back into the squad as a result for the quarter-final when he scored four tries against Western Samoa. The 1995 World Cup is a year away and is set to be hosted by South Africa. “My responsibility was overseeing the preparations of the Springboks and more importantly the profile of the Springboks team,” explained Griffiths. For the white South Africans, the Springboks rugby team was one of the few things that provided hope and joy to a group that lived in a divided nation. Kitch Christie, was a South African rugby union coach best known for coaching the country's national team, the Springboks, to victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Griffiths’ ambitions were nearly derailed before a ball was kicked. For instance, he remembered turning up at a match in Bloemfontein and not being allowed in due to some slight taken about his style of reporting. That winning feeling at the final whistle in Ellis Park (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Allsport), “I did a book about the country a year afterwards and spoke to a lot of people about their experience of the final day. A number of the 1995 squad will tweet memories during the game. There is no way we can get the players to relearn an anthem on the morning of the game’. Nelson Mandela's decision to don the Springboks jersey during the 1995 Rugby World Cup was a resonant moment, the ultimate example of power dressing. As a member of the Springbok class of 1995, Chester was not only well-known in the rugby fraternity, but he was a much-loved South African … It managed to catch on and become a byword for the team. In South Africa: Sports and recreation. I couldn’t believe it was a job where you could write about sport and get the best seat in the house, get to tell everyone what you thought of the game and get paid for it. #RIPChesterWilliams pic.twitter.com/RA5lOWCaJT, — Min. “I knew most of the team pretty well and I certainly knew Francois Pienaar well who as captain was enlightened and saw the opportunity. Suddenly they came back and won a World Cup. Avec un jeu léché et efficace, l’Afrique du Sud terrasse la pauvre équipe des Samoa avec au final un score très lourd de 45-12. “Looking back on it, the anthem seemed like a natural and obvious thing to do but at the time it didn’t seem an obvious thing. The Springboks made their Rugby World Cup debut in 1995, when the newly democratic South Africa hosted the tournament and the team, under the captaincy of Francois Pienaar, defeated the All Blacks in the final (15-12), a moment which is remembered as one of the greatest in South Africa's sporting history. He briefly coached at both Northern Transvaal (The Bulls) in Super Rugby and the Falcons as a consultant in the Currie Cup. Kitch Christie (Coach): After coaching the Springboks to a then record of 14 consecutive wins, inclusive of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Christie left his post as Springbok coach. 1995 SA Rugby CEO Edward Griffiths wound up working at Saracens with Springboks midfielder Brendan Venter (Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images). JOHANNESBURG - Laurie Kay, a South African pilot best known for flying a Boeing 747 passenger jet low over a Johannesburg stadium before the final of the 1995 Rugby … That significance will always endure but the specific rugby significance, the opportunity was largely wasted.”. “It was very important that the team did not mumble through Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. An ancient history student at Newcastle who wanted a start in journalism, he figured emigrating to South Africa in 1985 would be a career accelerator rather than slowly building a portfolio at home in the UK. IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Legendary 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok wing Chester Williams had passed on Friday at the age of 49. The Springboks' 15-12 victory over the New Zealand in the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup at Ellis Park reverberated around the globe as far as … I said, ‘This isn’t helpful’. The Springboks used every avenue available to dispel traditional ideas that rugby in the country was a segregated sport. El Ellis Park Stadium en Johannesburgo, para 60.000 espectadores, fue el principal estadio para la Copa Mundial de Rugby de 1995, [7] donde los Springboks derrotaron a los All I was standing next to Mark in the players’ tunnel and when the drop goal went over it just felt there was something guiding this campaign to end the way everybody wanted it to end.”. The 1995 victory was particularly poignant, as the country’s first Black president, Nelson Mandela, and the captain of the predominantly white rugby team, François Pienaar, used the tournament as an opportunity to build support… It was somewhat of a joke in South Africa that the predominately white rugby audiences would sort of mumble through Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, not knowing the words, and then when Die Stem would come on would sing at full throttle and knew the words completely. La Coupe du monde de rugby à XV 1995 (troisième édition) est une compétition sportive qui s'est déroulée en Afrique du Sud du 25 mai au 24 juin 1995 . Just look at France... Nick Abendanon is a shining example of how overseas players should adapt to life in France, Kyle Sinckler's emotive interview stood out on a weekend of sparkling rugby and controversy, 'That scares me': All Blacks great Richie McCaw breaks silence on Silver Lake saga. The actors cinematically re-enacted that wonderfully symbolic moment where the jersey-wearing politician who had been incarcerated on Robben Island for so long at height of apartheid handed the glistening golden trophy over in Johannesburg to the rugby captain of the Rainbow Nation. Please send corrections, suggestions and positive criticism to SARugbyFan@hotmail.com.Submitting missing photo material of Springbok players and teams, especially of yesteryear will also be appreciated “That message of the old flag was very much supportive of the old South Africa and was the flag associated with apartheid, exactly contrary to the message we were wanting to send and it was in full view of all the TV cameras. Although it didn’t get much publicity at the time, I know that it was certainly noticed by Government and that gesture certainly played a role in Mandela’s decision to get behind the team during the tournament. This guy looked at me and said, ‘Oh sorry, Mr Griffiths’ and he put it down. That largely unreported gesture of putting in place a small racial quota on an under-19 tour to Romania just gave him an idea that if he did back rugby he wouldn’t be let down. “It wasn’t a massively multi-cultural team but they won a World Cup, a Springbok team won representing the whole country. “That was the first time there had been any kind of affirmative action in South African rugby to redress the imbalances of the past. This was the squad that won the RWC1995  and the hearts of a nation. I am happier now than I was... How a French club ruthlessly ended the career of former Scotland flanker Johnnie Beattie. Amid the hoopla, Griffiths realised there and then that the Springboks class of ’95 would never have it so good again. South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, 2007, and 2019. Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, was wearing the colors of the Springboks and 65,000 white rugby supporters were joyously shouting his name. window.scriptsToInit.push('BrightCoveEmbeddedScrollVideo.init("6008674683001");'); The passage of time wasn’t kind to some of the squad either, venerated coach Kitch Christie (leukaemia) and four star players – Ruben Kruger (brain cancer), Joost van der Westhuizen (motor neurone disease), James Small (heart attack) and Chester Williams (heart attack) – the non-white poster boy of the campaign – all tragically passing on early to their eternal rest. Sign up to our mailing list for a weekly digest from the wide world of rugby. I said, ‘We can’t compromise on this, we have got to get this right. That was all fine and then on the night before the opening game where it was going to be the first time they were going to sing the anthem and where it was so important that the team was seen to be singing the anthem, I went down to Newlands and checked with SABC, the broadcasters. The final was contested by New Zealand and hosts South Africa. “It was a bit of negative thing to say but it’s not often that you find yourself in the middle of something that is so obviously historic and significant and you just need to try and enjoy it.”. “There were times when it was not easy. The 1995 Rugby World Cup Final will be re-screened on SS1 at 3pm today. He was always going to a massive force for good in what we were trying to do. 1995 Springboks South Africa. The dizzying euphoria eventually lost some fizz, though. Born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and raised in England from 18 months old, how Griffiths came to the fore with the Springboks is quite the adventure in itself. It even had people like John Smit (the 2007 cup-winning captain), who was a schoolboy in Pretoria. There was one particular confrontation before the final pool game versus Canada in Port Elizabeth. Van der Westhuizen added a Tri-Nations and two Currie Cup titles to his honours roll in a career that lasted eight years beyond the 1995 World Cup. That was the message that we knew we had to try and get across.”. “I did the same in the final, holding the coat hanger, and I remember Mark Andrews had just come off because he was injured, Rudolf Straeuli had just gone on. “When you see the impact the tournament had on the country, on people from all communities and all backgrounds, it was astonishing because when you’re in a tournament you are in some way of a bubble with the team and you don’t necessarily see what has happened in the wider country. “I looked across from the main side of the ground to the huge terrace and there was one guy holding a massive old South African flag, the orange, white and blue. “In the opening match at Newlands I had given away tickets just before the beginning and I didn’t have a seat anywhere so I watched every game from the players’ tunnel throughout the whole tournament.