Rainbow warrior Pienaar central to Boks success

Iconic Rugby Pictures: PART 101 Francois Pienaar leads the lap of honour after RWC triumph June 24, 1995

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful What’s happening here?

It’s June 24, 1995 and Nelson Mandela has just presented Francois Pienaar with the William Webb Ellis trophy after South Africa’s 15-12 win over New Zealand at Ellis Park. It’s time to party and besides him as he starts the a lap of honour are centre Hennie Le Roux and lock Hannes Strydom. All three were members of the very strong Transvaal/ Golden Lions team of the era.

The story behind the picture?

South African Rugby had only come out of the apartheid wilderness in 1992 and had been playing catch up ahead of the 1995 World Cup which they were staging. They had the players – South Africa always have the players – but they had been out of the loop for a long time and there were added pressures. It’s easy to forget that many pundits expected RWC1995 to be a dismal failure logistically, a disaster, possibly marred with bloodshed and riots in a country only just coming out of civil war.

It wasn’t. Against all odds it was a glorious Mandela-inspired success and historically important moment for the Rainbow Nation.

What happened next?

Politically rugby has continued to be a big driver in South Africa. In 1995 there was just Chester Williams to represent the black community; that number was doubled in the 2007 World Cup-winning team and another 12 years on the figure was up to six in Japan.

There was also a subplot off the field on this day. Rugby was poised to go professional but big Unions seemed to be dragging their heels and Pienaar had emerged as an intermediary between the top players – not just South African – and Ross Turnbull who proposed setting up a professional rugby “circus” backed by Kerry Packer who revolutionised cricket in the later 1970s. Rugby was on the brink of something very big. Even during the middle of finals week this was unfolding around Pienaar, as if he didn’t have enough to think about with the weight of a nation on his shoulders.

Why is the picture iconic?

There are loads of iconic pictures depicting South Africa’s World Cup triumph in 1995 and of course many on the day itself feature President Nelson. Occasionally however it’s nice to reflect on the pure sporting story, the remarkable rugby triumph, rather than the extraordinary Rainbow Nation politics that provided the backdrop and to an extent the inspiration.

The rugby narrative, for me, revolves around Pienaar and for that reason I have sought out a picture in which he is unambiguously the centre of attention and not playing second lead to Mandela.

So what have we got as a beaming Pienaar seems to be searching out somebody high in the stands? Unalloyed happiness and triumph with the Boks skipper, surely exhausted, nonetheless looking fresh as a daisy despite 100 minutes of lung busting rugby at altitude. This is what the adrenalin rush of success can do.

Pienaar was – is – an engaging character who epitomised the notion of right man, right place, right time. His Test career lasted just four years and encompassed 29 Test appearances, all of them as captain. A solid enough citizen at 6ft 2ins and 17 stone, Pienaar was nonetheless unexceptional in size and pace at Test level. He played openside but wore six not seven, as is the way in South Africa.

He was a very tough Transvaal lad and feared nobody. In fact that natural self-confidence was probably his greatest asset and underpinned his captaincy style. He himself would tell you that he barely comes into the conversation when picking an all-time Boks XV. Of that 1995 back row the late Ruben Kruger at blindside was the player for the ages.

Pienaar though has charisma. Outwardly he was the archetypal Afrikaaner but he was more nuanced than that. He spoke and thought fluently in English, his second language, and has that blessed ability to say the right things at the right time. Never more so than after this final.

He could see South Africa was changing and he could sense the Boks had a role to play. The backing of Mandela empowered him and he set about helping Kitch Christie whip a talented but young and extremely inexperienced Boks team into shape. Did he ever! Many argue that the Boks would never have won without the ‘Mandela influence’ but equally I maintain just as strongly that they would never have won without the exceptional captaincy of Pienaar.

Footnote: Within a week of the final 26 of the 28-strong Boks squad had signed provisional contracts with TWRC. Rupert Murdoch and his Sky empire though were not to be denied and came in with a counter offer and huge TV deal that was backed by the three SANZAR nations. That was the route the Tri Nations took. Pienaar meanwhile played only one more Test at Ellis Park – later that year against Wales – and by August 1996 had retired from international rugby.