A song, a speech and the 16th man
HEN FRANCOIS Pienaar and his troops returned to their hotel after a gruelling victory against the All Blacks in the World Cup final, they had little idea of how they would celebrate.
“We actually didn’t celebrate, because we never really planned anything. That was the beauty of it,” says Pienaar.
While some of his Springbok teammates headed to the bar for a few drinks and others jumped into the hotel fountain with a bottle of champagne, Pienaar and Joel Stransky, together with their thenpartners, decided to hitch a ride to a diner nearby.
“We went to the Rattlesnake Diner. We looked for a car, but there wasn’t one, so I went and stuck out my hand and a guy stopped in a VW and I asked if he could give us a lift.
“He said fine, and asked us where we would like to go. He couldn’t believe it.”
The former Springbok captain has tears in his eyes as he reminisces about the historic day.
It’s been 20 years since the Springboks beat arch-rivals New Zealand 15-12 in a tension-filled fixture that went into extra time at Joburg’s Ellis Park stadium.
“I woke up that morning with a cocktail of emotions,” Pienaar says.
“You want to play and there is an eagerness to get to the field, but there is also a fear that you are going to disappoint on the field.”
The journey on the Springbok team bus from their hotel in Sandton to the Ellis Park Stadium was daunting.
W“There is a song that I played in the bus for the team on the way to the stadium. It is a song by Roger Whittaker called I Don’t Believe In If Anymore.
“The lyrics are very powerful and gave us a huge boost and put the team in a great frame of mind.”
The 46-year-old also reveals what he said to his teammates before they stepped on to the pitch to face the All Blacks.
“The speech was all about having no regrets. I told them not to think about anything negative like, what if we miss a tackle, what if we make a mistake? We all agreed that we would leave everything on the pitch and play to the best of our ability.”
Being labelled as the “underdogs” worked in the Springboks’ favour.
“No one had given us a chance of winning. People underestimated us, which actually suited us.”
Pienaar believes far too little credit had been given to the team.
“I was annoyed that people didn’t give us a fair shot. Critics were saying that there was no way that this team could go all the way.
“The nucleus of the Springbok team came from the Transvaal team. Thirteen of the players that came from Transvaal were successful, hugely successful.
“The team was then infused with some of the world’s greatest players, like André Joubert, Joel Stransky, Joost van der Westhuizen, James Small, Mark Andrews, and Os du Randt, so we believed that the team had a real shot at the title,” he says.
Apart from his teammates and the management of the Springboks, Pienaar says the victory in 1995 would not have been possible without Nelson Mandela.
“The 16th man on our team was Nelson Mandela.
“I remember him visiting us before the World Cup had even started to wish us good luck and to assure us that the whole nation would be behind us.
“Madiba was undoubtedly a massive part of our lives.
“He came into the changeroom on the day of the final and he had that joyous smile as he celebrated the victory with us.
“Those are the things you can never replace, the memories that live with us and inspire this country,” Pienaar says.