South Africa's rugby fraternity mourns Mandela
Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa's rugby fraternity paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela on Friday, reliving the day 18 years ago when the Springboks won the World Cup and Mandela won over the nation.
Former captain Francois Pienaar, who received the World Cup from Mandela in 1995, led the pack, describing Mandela as "the most extraordinary and incredible human being."
"I will always be profoundly grateful for the personal role Nelson Mandela has played in my life, as my President and my example."
South African Rugby Union President Oregan Hoskins said simply: "South Africa owes so much to him, so does rugby."
Inevitably thoughts turned to the historic events of 1995, when Mandela used the Springbok's World Cup win against New Zealand to unite South Africans of all colours.
Perhaps only die-hard rugby fans outside South Africa will recall the 15-12 scoreline that day.
But the sequence of events is etched on the brain of millions in the rugby-crazed nation.
Joel Stransky kicked the extra-time winning drop goal at Ellis Park and the 62,000 crowd let out a visceral roar.
After decades of international sporting isolation, South Africa had won the rugby World Cup for the first time.
But what happened next would electrify the world.
Amid clusters of celebrating Springboks and distraught All Blacks, onto the Ellis Park pitch walked then-president Nelson Mandela.
His confident stride and beaming smile belied the raw drama of the moment.
This was a joyous crowd, but it was also one that overwhelmingly represented white South Africa, spectators who feared for their way of life as the edifice of systemic white privilege fell around them.
It was barely a year after Mandela became the African nation's first black president and many in the crowd still considered him a terrorist.
This was a man who, quite aside from embodying threats against their way of life, helped orchestrate a decades-long international boycott of their beloved Springboks.
But Mandela was determined to turn rugby, once used by the ANC as a tool to bludgeon supporters of the racist government with boycotts, into a potent weapon to promote national unity and racial reconciliation.
The crowd -- and millions of black South Africans looking on -- held their breath in shock as former prisoner number 46664 took to the field clad in a Springboks green and gold shirt buttoned up to the neck.
The jersey was seen then as little more than a sartorial accompaniment to apartheid.
But the crowd and the country was wooed.
As Mandela prepared to hand the gleaming Webb Ellis Cup over to Springbok captain Pienaar, cries of "Nelson, Nelson" rang around the stadium.
"Francois, thank you for what you have done for our country," Mandela said.
"No, Mr President. Thank you for what you have done," Pienaar replied.
With many onlookers in tears, Pienaar lifted the trophy to another almighty roar.
The reaction of the crowd surprised even Mandela.
"I went around the stadium, I didn't expect such an ovation," Mandela recalled later.
If the reaction of the crowd surprised Mandela, then the reaction of the country astounded everyone.
"For the first time all the people had come together and all races and religions were hugging each other. It was just wonderful," Pienaar later remembered.
For Mandela the political gamble had paid off.
"The cumulative effect was to allay the fears of the whites and also, by the way, of the blacks," Mandela recalled.
"There were many who said, 'well this old man is selling out' and who booed me when I said 'let us now support rugby, let's regard these boys as our boys.'"
Eighteen years later racial tensions still run through Mandela's "Rainbow Nation," but widespread racial violence has been avoided.
For those who were too young to experience the day itself, events have been frozen in time thanks to hit film "Invictus".
Following Mandela's death the footage was broadcast on national television and passed in YouTube links between supporters, ensuring his victory lives on.
