Gateway Chronicle 2021

The Gateway Chronicle
Rugby in South Africa: How a
World Cup was able to heal a
broken nation
Johannesburg 1995. Joel Stransky’s extra time drop
goal stunned a nation and made South Africa rugby
world champions for the first, but not last, time.
This was their first world cup that marked a significant
return to sport on the global stage, however,
the cultural impact of this victory on racial tensions
is one that should not be underestimated.
Below: the iconic moment when Nelson Mandela presented
Captain François Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup
For over thirty years South Africa had been expelled
from almost every major sports federation for
the segregation laws in their country. On the national
level, there was a huge schism between blacks
and whites not only in sport but in every aspect
of life. The apartheid system meant that different
races lived in different parts of town, had separate
swimming pools, schools and entrances to buildings.
Sport was a microcosm for the whole nation as the
national rugby team, the Springboks, became symbolic
of white privilege. Despite their
inclusion of token black players in the
squad, the international team suffered
a complete isolation from international
rugby between 1985 and 1991. The
consequences of this isolation meant the
Springboks could not participate in the
first two Rugby World cups in 1987 and
1991. By 1995 it was a pivotal turning
point in South Africa’s history. They
needed a unifying force to help bring the
country together under one anthem, one
flag, one ‘rainbow nation’.
This unifying force came in the form
of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. When
Nelson Mandela was freed from prison
in 1990 and later became the first president
in 1994, it was his sole aim to fix
a broken country. He rejected the ideas
of some ANC members, who believed a
black president should exploit his powers
to make the whites subservient, but instead
looked for ways to make amends for
South Africa’s past by encouraging equality.
It was this attitude that was a driving
force in the events of the Rugby World
Cup. Mandela saw this as the perfect
opportunity to reinvent South Africa and
restore the nation’s faith in the national
rugby team and, by extension, help to
create a new, racially equal country.
In addition to the racial tension surrounding
the team, the Springboks were
not performing to a high standard in the
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