He watched the 1995 World Cup final live in Johannesburg. What do you remember about that game?
All. I was a special envoy for the newspaper A Bola and I experienced the entire World Cup intensely. I had already been to England in 1991 and it couldn’t even be compared. It was more than a game! It was the game! It was the most memorable moment of my sporting life. The impact it had and the whole experience it brought influenced me. It was an overwhelming experience to see black people embracing white people celebrating the world title, as immortalized by Clint Eastwood in the 2009 film Invictus.
What was most remarkable?
The moment Nelson Mandela presented the Webb Ellis Trophy to captain François Piennar. The atmosphere on the streets and in the Ellis Park stadium was one of celebration, pure joy. The whole week surrounding the day of the final, since it was announced that the opponent was New Zealand, with whom they had an ancestral rivalry, was worthy of a movie. Before the match we had a huge scare in the stands, surprised by a plane flying over the stadium, which only showed a banner on the second pass with the text: Good Luck Bokke – abbreviation of Springboks. Today I believe it was part of a performance, a clear political use of a sporting event and with the blessing of the media, giving rise to the slogan One team, one country (one team, one country). For me, the slogan was decisive for the team, which until then represented white power, which dictated laws for years, so that it became the team of all South Africans.
If a script were written for reality, it wouldn’t be as good as the reality from which the film emerged…
Complete. It was a gigantic epic. The country really needed the victory to unify and alleviate the radical social divisions that existed at the time due to racial segregation. Only later did I learn in detail about the role of Nelson Mandela, who intelligently used rugby to end social unrest. He did not use the Springboks as a flag against Apartheid, but as medicine for a wounded country. And it created an atmosphere of harmony around the team. It helped to have a black man, Chester Williams, on the team. Now there are quotas for black people in the national team, so things have changed. When he, Mandela, a black man, entered the field wearing jersey number 6, worn by captain Piennar, a white man, he sent a clear message that acceptance was and should be reciprocal.
And the All Blacks in all this?
It must have been the only time they weren’t in the news and there were less than dignified situations. A South African newspaper even offered a cheeky reward to the player who managed to tackle Jonah Lomu, who was the best player at the time, and this caused unrest among the All Blacks and prompted the Springboks themselves to ban the newspaper ask to end the campaign. . In the final their main concern was stopping Jonah Lomu, who had two or three people clinging to him every time he got the ball.
And the game itself…
It was a growing World Cup for both teams and South Africa won 15-12. It was the first to go into overtime and was decided by a Joel Stransky rebound. I later heard from the South African captain, Sean Fitzpatrick, that the coach had given the team a few hours off the week before the World Cup final and that about 17 or 18 New Zealand players went to eat at a restaurant, where they allegedly gastronomically sabotaged. . They lost and respected the winner with fair play and without complaints, and only later recognized that many players had an intestinal disorder in the days leading up to the final and therefore played physically limited. Witchcraft, as some still believe today.
Source: DN
