RWC 1995 Relive: Planes, trains, automobiles…and Romania

Planes, trains and automobiles. Well, okay, not so much trains, but certainly the inside of planes and cars became as familiar as my home was to me during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, as it would have been most media people following the global sporting festival that gripped South Africa 25 years ago.

The opening game was all it was expected to be in terms of occasion, and for South Africans it delivered more than could have been hoped for both in terms of the on field result and the unifying messages sent out about the Rainbow Nation before kick-off. It was the entrance of Nelson Mandela onto the field of play in the build-up, and the way the crowd in unison chanted ‘Nelson, Nelson, Nelson…’ that first set up that World Cup as the nation building opportunity that it was to become.

For me that electric moment was as memorable as wing Pieter Hendriks’ fist pump as he rounded the iconic Wallaby legend David Campese for the first Springbok try. It was the moment that said this country is united and together like it had never been before.

But after the Bok win, which set local hearts soaring, and I can well remember broadcaster and fellow journalist Andy Capostagno loudly proclaiming afterwards that “This makes South Africa favourites for the World Cup” (I disagreed!), there wasn’t time to enjoy the nationalistic fervour that enveloped Newlands.

NO TIME TO ENJOY THE MOMENT

Apart from the writing that needed to be done on the game, there were also throw-ahead pieces to be written on the games that were to come. The Independent Group had let me know that they considered me their primary writer at the World Cup, which meant that I had to get to as many games as I could and cover the tournament from a global, not just a South African perspective.

And there was a game set for the next day. In Port Elizabeth to be precise. It was one I had to be at, so it wasn’t a particularly good sleep or long sleep before the early morning alarm that sent me to Cape Town International for a red eye flight to the Eastern Cape city.

The memory throws up recollections of several well known sports people being on the 737 as it bumped its way through the cumulus clouds and pointed its nose in an easterly direction. They’d all been at the game the day before, they were all heading to Port Elizabeth to watch that night’s match, which took place at the old Boet Erasmus between Canada and Romania.

GOOD THING IT WAS A LATE KICK-OFF

It was a night time kick-off, which was a good thing, for just before what should have been the descent into the Port Elizabeth airport the pilot crackled across the airwaves: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have bad news for you. Port Elizabeth is fogged in, we are going to have to divert to Durban.”

Ha ha, I love going to Durban, my old home town, but the diversion wasn’t great news. There was work to be done before going to the stadium later in the day, there were also other games that needed watching on television. Who could afford to jaunt down to Durban and back? There was a reason we’d caught the early flight.

Fortunately the pilot came back quite quickly with better news. “Okay, so we’ve looked at the passenger list and we note that there is only one passenger on this plane booked for the leg to Durban. So we will change plans. We will land in East London instead”.

Landing in the city that was around 300 kilometres away made much more sense than going to Durban, which was close to 1000 kilometres away. If the flog didn’t clear in Port Elizabeth I could always book a hired car and drive to from East London to Port Elizabeth. There wouldn’t be that opportunity from Durban.

It was a road I knew well after studying in Grahamstown for five years, and no sooner had we landed in East London than I had a car load of foreign journalists agreeing to share the cost of the hire if I did the driving and protected them from the wild animals and whatever else they feared about the host nation.

FLIGHT PATH WINS OUT AGAINST CHOICE OF ROAD ROUTES

East London to PE via Port Alfred, meaning the R72, or via Grahamstown, meaning the N3? I didn’t get to make up my mind, for the fog was already clearing at our destination and it gave us a chance to get see that part of the Eastern Cape from 31 000 feet instead. We were in Port Elizabeth by lunch time, in plenty of time to comfortably get to Boet Erasmus, just a few hundred metres up the road from the Kings Beach Holiday Inn (I can’t remember if it was still the Elizabeth Sun back then) where just about everyone seemed to be staying.

Canada were a more formidable rugby nation back then than they are now - come to think of it so were Romania - so their 34-3 win was a warning to the Boks, who they’d play at the same stadium the following week. It didn’t say much though of the Romanian chances of putting up any kind of show against the Boks, fresh from their win over Australia, in Cape Town four days later.

The Romanians wore yellow, so looked a bit like the Wallabies in that way, but that was where the comparison ended. This was going to be an easy, light hearted romp for the Boks, who after all were riding the crest of a wave.

But I remember someone somewhere at that time, in the build-up to that game, writing “What comes after the Lord Mayor’s show?” I’m not sure, for what we saw in the Boks’ second game of that World Cup, although at the same venue as their commanding opening performance, was nothing like their first.

THERE WAS A GREEN TEAM, AND A GOLD TEAM

There again, it was a different Bok team. Coach Kitch Christie had presided over a divided playing group on the end of year tour to Waes, Scotland and Ireland in 1994. Indeed, perhaps it was there that he decided not to include the Western Province captain Tiaan Strauss in his tour group, for it was noticeable to those of us who were covering that tour how the players in the so-called midweek team appeared to be sidelined and apparently less than filled with the joys of spring.

Chrisie appeared to learn his lesson. Apart from taking the controversial decision of leaving out Strauss, who although a better player than several who were selected ahead of him might not have found a place in the first choice team, Christie resolved to divide his team into a Green team and a Gold team.

Note, he did not use the first and second choice description, or refer to them as a midweek team. For him, it was vitally important that all the players in the squad got a game and were made to feel like they belonged if the harmony and unity needed to win the World Cup was to be sustained for the entire tournament.

A MIX AND MATCH SELECTION

And so it was that Northern Transvaal No 8 Adriaan Richter led the Boks against Romania, with a completely changed starting front row coming into the team in the form of Garry Pagel, who’d made his Bok debut against Australia as a reserve, hooker Chris Rossouw and Marius Hurter.

Krynauw Otto joined Kobus Wiese in the second row so that Mark Andrews could get a rest opportunity, Ruben Kruger moved from his usual No 7 (for the Boks) to No 6 so that Robby Brink could make his Bok debut on the blindside flank.

Johan Roux replaced Joost van der Westhuizen at scrumhalf, Hennie le Roux moved from inside centre to flyhalf in place of Joel Stransky, who’d been so excellent against the Wallabies, while Brendan Venter and Christiaan Scholtz played in the midfield (Japie Mulder being the other centre to drop out). The wings were the first choice wings at that point of James Small and Hendriks (Chester Williams was only to join the fray later), while Gavin Johnson came in for a game at fullback in place of Andre Joubert.

It was very much what we’d call a mix and match team, as in not quite a second string team but then also definitely not the first choice team. Not for the last time in South Africa’s World Cup history the Boks struggled against inferior opposition, and although there was always going to be only one winner, there would have been harsh words from Christie at halftime, when his team was leading just 8-0.

Indeed, the final scoreline of 21-8 was underwhelming to the extreme, particularly if you compared it to the Australian game, and to what Canada did to the same Romanians just four days previously.

*You can watch the entire Pool 1 match exactly 25 years on from when it was played on CSN, SuperSport 1 and SuperSport 5 at 6pm on Saturday as part of Relive 1995, where each game is screened on the date corresponding to when it was played a quarter of a century ago.