Lest we forget them
It was a day of celebration and remembrance. However, the victorious Springbok team of 1995 also paused to honour some fallen heroes.
South Africa on Wednesday celebrated the winning of the 1995 World Cup, when flyhalf Joel Stransky slotted the extra-time drop-goal that delivered a 15-12 triumph over the All Blacks on June 24 1995 before a Johannesburg crowd including then President Nelson Mandela.
As they gathered at the scene of their greatest triumph, an emotional former Bok captain Francois Pienaar spoke of those who could not attend the celebrations.
Coach Kitch Christie, flank Reuben Kruger and chiropractor Ron Holder have all passed on.
Also among those who attended Wednesday's event was wheelchair-bound former scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen, who is in an advanced stage of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Pienaar said he was "welling up" every time he spoke about that historic day 20 years ago, adding that he had "a cocktail of emotions" on the day of the Final.
However, it was when he spoke of those who passed that the emotions really bubbled to the surface.
"There are five people we will have a drink on for the incredible role that they fulfilled in our lives," Pienaar told a media scrum at Ellis Park on Wednesday.
"Our coach [Christie] was phenomenal – I don't think people gave him enough credit.
"He had a 100 percent success rate, 14 Test wins from 14 matches.
"He had a profound influence on me as a captain.
"Reuben Kruger was just immense," Pienaar said, then choked up, before having composed himself and continued: "As my flank partner he was just a mountain of strength.
"[Team chiropractor] Ron Holder kept us together.
"Then there was the 16th man, Madiba [the late South African President Nelson Mandela] and his magic.
"If it was not for him this country would not have been together. If it wasn't for him I would not have been able to wear this [Springbok emblazoned on a blazer].
"He saw this [Springbok badge] as a symbol of unification. We will say thank you for the Madiba magic, that was the extra bit that we needed."
And Pienaar became just as emotional when he spoke about Van der Westhuizen, who was pushed onto the Ellis Park pitch on a wheelchair.
"Doing it [the celebration] with Joost, who was so immensely powerful and to see how this illness taken him, his body," Pienaar said.
Turning to the World Cup Final 20 years ago, Pienaar spoke of the eagerness to get to the field to play, but also the fear that they would disappoint a nation.
He described the reunion as "very special".
"What happened 20 years ago made this nation stand up for the first time and we became a country for the first time.
We didn't know it was going to be that big. We had a sense it is something that was going to be extraordinary, but in our wildest dreams we couldn't imagine what happened 20 years ago."
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
