Mandela the secret weapon in 1995 World Cup Rugby final
WELLINGTON, Dec 7, 2013: For South Africans, winning the 1995 Rugby
World Cup final marked the emergence of the “Rainbow Nation” - for New
Zealanders, it was the day Nelson Mandela single-handedly outpsyched the
mighty All Blacks.
The Jonah Lomu-inspired New Zealanders were red-hot favourites going
into the decider, breezing through the group stages and humiliating
England in the semi-finals.
In contrast, the Springboks scraped through on the back of an
unconvincing 19-15 semi-final win over France, raising fears they would
be blown away in the final at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park.
Then Mandela, in one of the most audacious political gambles of his
career, appeared before the mostly white crowd of 62,000 wearing a
Springbok jersey to shake the players’ hands before kick-off.The-then
All Blacks coach Laurie Mains said the entire stadium was electrified at
the sight of South Africa’s first black president sporting a garment
that was indelibly associated with the apartheid regime.“We had no idea
it was going to happen,” Mains told AFP, just months before Mandela died
aged 95 after a long illness.“When Nelson Mandela appeared from under
the grandstand with a Springbok jersey on, the crowd literally erupted.
“It was the most awesome experience I’ve had at a rugby stadium.
Clearly it was a huge boost, not just to the crowd but to the Springbok
team.” Lomu, who was named player of the tournament, said it was
intimidating to meet Mandela decked out in his opponents’ colours.“It
felt like the pressure was all on us because they had Nelson Mandela on
their side,” he recalled ahead of the 2007 World Cup.
“They had all their country finally united after years of fighting
... that one day they all came together.” At the time, Mandela had been
president for barely a year and many whites still regarded him as a
terrorist over his support for armed struggle against apartheid.
He also risked alienating black supporters, for whom rugby union, and
the Springbok jersey in particular, had long been a hated symbol of
white supremacy. But on June 24, 1995, the gamble paid off and the chant
of “Nelson, Nelson” reverberated around the stands while millions more
watched television screens transfixed.
It was around that moment - immortalised in the 2009 movie
“Invictus”, starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela - that Mains began to
believe his team was not taking part in just a simple rugby game.
“It was very much more than that,” he said.“It was incredibly
intense. The All Blacks may well have felt like they were taking on the
whole world.
“The atmosphere in that ground could not possibly be repeated, ever,
because you’d never again get such a great moment in history and such a
great man creating that moment.” To their credit, the All Blacks
maintained their composure to keep the scores level after 80 minutes but
succumbed to a Joel Stransky drop-goal deep into extra-time.Mandela then
took to the field again, this time to present the William Webb Ellis
trophy to Springbok skipper Francois Pienaar.
The defeat spelled the end of Mains’ international coaching career,
but he says he still feels proud to have been on the sidelines as
history was being made.“Put the rugby aside, put the result aside for
the moment - I feel deeply honoured and humbled that I was part of such
a great occasion in world sport,” he said.
Nor does he bear any ill will to Mandela, the Springboks’ secret
weapon on the day, whom he subsequently met when he returned to
Johannesburg to coach Super rugby in 2000-2001.“The balance and
compassion that that man showed after what he had been through is an
example for all leaders in the world,” he said.
“My everlasting impression of Nelson Mandela is that if we could have
a few more of him, then the world would be a much better place to live
in.”
Mandela gave new meaning to Sports
During the many years I spent in Southern Africa, in Zambia in
particular, Sports was a leveller at all levels. The then President of
Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, for whom I had the privilege of serving,
would reschedule a cabinet meeting to be able to watch a golf tournament
or a soccer game of his choice. Many heads of State in Africa would give
Soccer pride of place in their priorities. But Nelson Mandela took this
affinity to an entirely new level.
The passing of Nelson Mandela brings to mind ‘Invictus’, the 2009
film produced by Clint Eastwood, where the epic story of Nelson Mandela
and the Rugby World Cup is enacted. This was a watershed film of a true
story. Here Mandela, having been imprisoned for 27 years for his fight
against apartheid, is released. On becoming President of South Africa,
he turns to the Rugby World Cup event that his new administration hosted
and uses the game and its message to reject revenge, forgives his
oppressors and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place - the
rugby field!
Morgan Freeman, who was an Oscar nominee for portraying Mandela, and
Matt Damon (nominee for best supporting actor) bring to life the ethos
of the Mandela message that inspired the underdog South African Team to
win the World Cup in the wake of protests by the black community that
Rugby was a white man’s preserve.
Through the intervention of Mandela, the universal language of sports
was translated elegantly to bring new meaning to the fighting spirit of
rugby.
M.V. Muhsin
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