Imposing Springbok forward part of memorable World Cup-winning team
When he collected his winner’s medal, Strydom, 6ft 6in, his hulking frame a match for any opponent, appeared to tower over the president, who was far from a small man.
Hannes Strydom rugby player b July 13, 1965 d November 19, 2023
Invictus, John Carlin's account of South Africa’s triumph in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, details their forwardlooking captain, Francois Pienaar, hitting upon a means of improving the team’s performance. Appreciating the psychology of the game and the need to aid Nelson Mandela's attempt to unify the country, he focused on the singing of the new national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.
“I made up my mind it could give us something special going into a game,” Pienaar said. He was particularly struck when three commanding Afrikaners, Hannes Strydom, Balie Swart and Kobus Wiese, asked to sing it again after being taught the Xhosa lyrics. As they did so, tunefully rising to a crescendo, the other players could only gawp in admiration. “This song had the power of an epiphany,” said Pienaar.
Strydom’s importance to the team was no less significant on the field, for he and Wiese formed a formidable pair of locks.
The Springboks beat the All Blacks 15-12 in a final memorable for Mandela, who had been president for a year, attending in a Springbok jersey and cap. Invictus was turned into a film by Clint Eastwood and the players were feted by black and white South Africans alike.
When he collected his winner’s medal, Strydom, 6ft 6in, his hulking frame a match for any opponent or, as he was to demonstrate in retirement, a gang of muggers, appeared to tower over the president, who was far from a small man. He, along with his victorious team-mates, came to symbolise the so-called Rainbow Nation, even though only one of them was black. Strydom, who died in a car crash on November 19 at the age of 58, did not make his debut for South Africa until 1993, the year after the nation was readmitted to world rugby, by which point he was nearly 28. He was to play in 21 Tests, touring Australia and Argentina later in 1993 and playing in all the Tests on those tours. He made only one appearance in 1994 but continued representing his country in 1996 and in 1997, when he played against the British and Irish Lions. His final match, in 1997, resulted in a 61-22 victory over Australia.
Johannes Jacobus “Hannes” Strydom was born in Welkom, Orange Free State, and was educated at Pearson High School in Port Elizabeth, which was to name its rugby ground in his honour. He represented Eastern Province Schools at the Craven Week tournaments in 1983 and 1984 before making his debut for Eastern Province in 1986. He was to represent Northern Transvaal and then Transvaal, which became the Golden Lions. Although Strydom was not quite in the class of the most formidable locks his country later nurtured, Bakkies Botha, Eben Etzebeth and Victor Matfield, he formed a formidable combination with Wiese at international level and for Transvaal. Their XV in 1993 was rated one of the best provincial “dream teams” in South Africa in living memory. He also represented Gauteng Lions and, through the South African franchise system in 1998, the Cats.
In retirement, Strydom was a commentator for SuperSport. His strength and size were such that muggers took him on at some risk to themselves: in 2014 he suffered a fractured skull and stab wounds fighting off six attackers who had thrown a brick at his car. He told the police that after the thieves had fled with his car keys he had walked to his house to collect the spare set and driven himself to hospital.
Strydom was a qualified pharmacist with a chain of outlets in Pretoria. In October he was embroiled in a scandal over the theft and illicit sale of £2 million worth of codeine-based drugs from his business. Investigations by a newspaper and television programme linked him to the sale of bottles of addictive codeine cough syrup, with hundreds of sales recorded in a single day from his pharmacies in Pretoria. In July, one brand of the syrup, which is strictly regulated, accounted for a third of total turnover at one shop. Responding to the allegations, Strydom said he had been set up as a crook by a gang of former employees.
He is survived by his wife, Nikolie, and their three children: Annalie, a doctor; Hannes Jr, a pharmacist intern; and Lucy, who recently graduated as a pharmacology student.
Strydom was the fifth member of the 1995 World Cup-winning team to have died at a relatively young age, after the deaths of Ruben Kruger, James Small, Joost van der Westhuizen and Chester Williams. “Hannes was an exceptionally kind person,” said Edward Griffiths, the former chief executive of South Africa’s Rugby Union. “In professional sport, much is done for players and, more often than not, they barely say thank you. He always said thank you, always appreciated any favour and always found time. Exceptionally brave on the field, he was invariably smiling off the field.”