Remembering the 1995 Rugby World Cup final: Part Three

It's been 28 years since the All Blacks and Springboks last met in a Rugby World Cup final. The match, won 15-12 by the Boks at Ellis Park, may well be the most famous ever played and was set against a backdrop of drama, intrigue and politics. The following is part three of a three-part extract taken from Jamie Wall's 2021 book The Hundred Years' War: All Blacks v Springboks. Read Part One and Part Two.

It came after an All Black mistake. Stransky sent a bomb up into the sky, which came down into the arms of Zinzan Brooke. The ball cannoned off his forearms and went forward, Morrison was quick on the whistle and ordered a scrum to pack down on the All Black 22. There was no doubt about what would happen next, as Stransky took his place behind the pack, 30 metres away and to the right of the posts. The exhausted packs toiled away, first disintegrating the scrum and then wheeling it around for Morrison to order them to reset.

Finally, van der Westhuizen got it where he wanted it, a nice clean hook that sat at Rudolph Strauli's feet. He set for the pass and ripped it back. Graeme Bachop dived and just missed knocking van der Westhuizen's arm off course, instead the ball landed cleanly in Stransky's hands. He let it go, the ball hit the ground and his boot connected. It never looked like missing, passing through the middle of the posts at their highest point and tumbling into an eruption of emotion among the Ellis Park crowd. The jumbo jet was loud, but this was a symphony of joy at the highest decibel level, rocking the stands to their foundations and reverberating around the whole country.

The Springboks had done it, they had defied the odds and slain the All Black giant. The team dropped to their knees and formed a circle around the inspirational Pienaar, thanking the heavens above for what had transpired. The All Blacks, shellshocked, wandered about in a daze before beating a retreat under the stands. The frustration was apparent, Walter Little swatted a camera out of the way as he and Richard Loe trudged up the tunnel, the team desperate to get away from the reflected attention that the Springboks now bathed in. They knew their time was done; this moment belonged to the new nation of South Africa.

Mandela triumphantly came down to the pitch. He handed Pienaar the World Cup, giving the IRB probably the greatest promotional tool for the game (alongside Lomu), that it would have ever dreamed of. Whether the IRB liked it or not, the game was now about to turn pro, with the first rounds of the battle of just who would control it already starting. The image of black and white South Africa shaking hands and achieving victory together signaled another turning point - rugby had gone from being the bastion of apartheid and one of the only things legitimising the regime to being the centre piece of what the new nation represented.

The All Blacks had lost, New Zealand was despondent, but for the greater good the Springboks had made history. Things were going to get better from now on.

Well, yes and no.

Of course, simply holding up a trophy wasn't going to fix the centuries of racial division in South Africa. The hopeful view was to think it would only be up from there, though, with rugby now being a game for all colours with paths to inclusion to help the Springboks tap into the vast player and supporter base that had cried tears of joy at the World Cup win. What actually happened in the following years couldn't have been much worse. But there was another big ruction that had to take place before the All Blacks and Springboks would meet on the rugby field again, and their captains would be right in the thick of it.

Sean Fitzpatrick and Francois Pienaar were key players in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup and rugby's lightspeed transition to having players paid and acquiring bigger broadcasting deals. Both had pinned their colours to the mast of Kerry Packer's rebel organisation that sought to break away from the IRB and national unions, which is what Packer had done with cricket in the 1970s until the governing bodies eventually agreed to be co-opted into the fold. The Springboks were presented with contracts for Packer's World Rugby Championship however, then were persuaded by Louis Luyt to think twice before turning their backs on the jersey that just won the World Cup. It then turned out that Pienaar had been employed by the WRC to recruit his fellow players, with the promise of a lucrative payout if he could reel them all in. Luyt went on the offensive and accused him of selling out his country.

Fitzpatrick and Wallaby captain Phil Kearns also were in on the action, corralling players to sign with the WRC. In the end, the national bodies won out. In New Zealand it was due in no small part to Jeff Wilson and Josh Kronfeld signing with the NZRU first, which allowed them to go public and put pressure on the rest of the All Blacks to follow suit. Sky Television in New Zealand purchased the broadcasting rights to the new Super 12 and Tri-Nations series to be held in 1996, meaning that for the first time fans would have to pay to watch the All Blacks play. After all, the money that they had been promised as employees had to come from somewhere.

While off the field, things looked an awful lot different, on it there weren't too many discernible changes - at least not yet. The jerseys and the pitches were still heavy, the pre-match entertainment quaint and the referees were even still decked out in their national jerseys. The World Cup final had been an epic, global occasion, but now it was back to fighting the long war between the two nations on the ground that it was more accustomed to.

Kitch Christie had stepped down from the Springboks' coaching position. The leukemia that had dogged him for a decade and a half had come back during the World Cup campaign, worsening to the point that he was unable to travel long distances. His replacement was Andre Markgraaf, a 40-year-old who had sat on the bench for the Springboks against the Cavaliers in 1986. He was an intense, mustachioed Afrikaaner from Kimberley who had spent the previous eight years as coach and then president of the Griqualand West union on the northern cape.

Jonah Lomu didn't quite pick up where he left off. After starring for the new Auckland Blues side that won the inaugural Super 12 tournament, he had been hit by an injury that was affecting the big winger's fitness. It turned out it was a case of the kidney disease that would eventually end his life* at 40, in 2015. In hindsight, it's a miracle he even played again at all, but by now he was the face of the game worldwide. He had an endorsement deal with McDonalds, a Playstation game and the ability to draw crowds to provincial games 10 times what they would usually be. But he was destined to spend most of the season watching the All Blacks, just like everyone else.

Laurie Mains had bowed out at the end of 1995, carried off Parc des Princes in Paris after his side had thrashed France. With the money and professionalism came John Hart, long earmarked as being Mains' successor after an outstanding tenure in charge of Auckland and stint as All Blacks co-coach in 1991. He wasn't universally popular, especially in the South Island, but even the most illogical Cantabrian could see that he was the best man for the job at the time. Hart had forged a career at Fletcher Challenge, rising to the position of director and was used to success. His reign started with four straight wins. They were big ones, too, scoring 192 points so far including 43 in one game against the Wallabies.

But on July 20, 1996, the All Blacks met the now world champion Springboks for the first time since the final, this time at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. It was the 300th time the All Blacks had played test rugby. Regular transmission resumed with a crunch.

* While their 58-year-old coach Kitch Christie was known to have a terminal illness that took his life in 1998, four of his World Cup winning Springbok side have since died as well. Ruben Kruger's brain cancer took him at only 39, while Joost van der Westhuizen battled Motor Neurone Disease for the better part of a decade before dying aged 45 in 2017. James Small suffered a fatal heart attack in 2019 aged 50, while Chester Williams succumbed to one as well aged 49 only a few months later.