‘Chester would be happiest in the crowd’
Today’s game can be a fitting tribute to an icon who died this month, writes Charlie Morgan ‘Chester never bragged about his role’
When the Springboks take to the field to face New Zealand today, in a fascinating pool fixture that represents a repeat of the 1995 World Cup final, their shirt numbers will be embedded with a collage of faces.
Among them, including those of current players and fans, will be one that became synonymous with that seminal tournament 24 years ago. It belongs to Chester Williams, the wing who died suddenly after a heart attack on Sept 6.
He was just 49 and had organised a trip to watch the Springboks in Japan. Just a week previously, he had launched a brand of beers and pledged some of the proceeds towards his charitable foundation.
Rassie Erasmus, the head coach poised to pit his wits against Steve Hansen, played alongside Paarlborn Williams. Earlier this week, he suggested that his former team-mate would be happiest as part of a crowd.
“Chester didn’t like being centre of attention,” Erasmus said. “He never bragged about his role or expected anything of it. But he would have enjoyed being part of a Springboks-all Blacks Test match once more.”
Edward Griffiths, then chief executive of South African Rugby Union, coined the One Team, One Country slogan that first appeared under the hosts’ official photograph in 1995, after the end of Apartheid.
Meanwhile, Williams’s image was famously emblazoned across South African Airways planes. The third-ever black Springbok and the only one in Kitch Christie’s squad, Williams was used to promote unity and hope.
“Chester was sort of thrust into the limelight as the poster boy of the tournament,” Griffiths says. “Not specifically by us at South African Rugby – more by the sponsors. He wasn’t quite comfortable being that. He just wanted to play rugby.
“The complexities of the politics meant it was never easy. Then we had the hamstring injury early in the tournament, which meant he was withdrawn from the squad before the tournament started.
“That was a disaster, because we had one non-white player in the squad and it seemed like he wasn’t going to compete. However, it felt like everything surrounding that tournament carried an element of destiny about it.”
The story – good enough, eventually, for the 2010 film Invictus starring Matt Damon – continued with a bad-tempered pool match against Canada.
A mass brawl broke out and two Springboks, wing Pieter Hendriks and hooker James Dalton, were sent off and banned. It was possible for Williams to be drafted in. He scored four tries in the quarter-final win over Samoa and the rest is history.
Nelson Mandela wore a green and gold jersey, with Francois Pienaar’s No6 on its back, and was able to hand over the trophy to South Africa’s captain after the All Blacks, and superstar Jonah Lomu, were beaten 15-12 in the final at Ellis Park. Then things began to unravel. Griffiths explains. “There was a part of the SA Rugby board at the time that felt like rugby was one area of white South African life that, crudely, in their view, blacks wouldn’t take over.
“So, rather than seeing this as part of the new country, they almost regarded it as part of the old country which they felt they could defend, as the last area of life that they felt they could insulate from the changes taking place in the country.
“The facts are that of the four people most closely associated with the team – me as chief executive, Francois Pienaar as captain, Kitch Christie as the coach and Morne du Plessis as a team manager – not one of us were still in our positions 14 months after the tournament. It evaporated quickly, but, since then, a lot has happened and rugby has regained a lot of that ground. Certainly, the team in Japan is a team where no one is talking about transformation or quotas.”