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The three winning captains of the South African Rugby World Cup have recalled what it was like for them to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.
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Francois Pienaar (1995), John Smit (2007) and Siya Kolisi (2019) They are three South Africans among an elite group of eight men who have experienced the joy of lifting the final rugby prize on behalf of their teammates.
In interviews with World rugby, the trio recalled the respective heroic moments.
For Pienaar, whose Boks beat the All Blacks 15-12 in the 1995 final at Ellis Park, the primary memory of picking up the trophy for South African President Nelson Mandela was one of relief.
“You know the stakes are high. The tension was unique because you ended that week as a world champion or not.”
“Lasting memory is a sense of absolute relief. In a Rugby World Cup final, you don’t care how you do it or who does it, you don’t care about the margin, you just want to be ahead on the scoreboard after 80 minutes .
“When you look up and see that, and you know that nobody can take that away from you, it is the most wonderful feeling. It was crazy, incredible … Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the impact it would have in our country,” he concluded. Pienaar.
Smit, whose charges beat England 15-6 in the final in Paris in 2007, credited a team effort.
“We had a responsibility to carry the hopes of a nation on our shoulders … dreams come true.
“It’s hard to let it sink. I’m proud of each of the guys. There will be a lot of stories told as we get older, but no one can take it away from this group.”
Kolisi, who led the Boks to a final 32-12 victory over England in Yokohama last year, expressed how much winning the tournament meant for his country as a whole.
“I am grateful for everything the team has gone through, we have faced many challenges. But the people of South Africa have supported us and we are very grateful to them.”
“We have a lot of problems in our country, but with a team like this, we come from different backgrounds and different races, we come together with one goal.”
“I really hope we have done that for South Africa, to demonstrate that we can come together if we want to and achieve something. Since I have been alive, I have never seen South Africa like this.”
– Compiled by Sport24 staff
