CAPE TOWN - What would you say to the Springbok team ahead of the Rugby World Cup final?
Well, when Rassie Erasmus was faced with that task in Yokohama last November, he went a bit off-script – for him – which was captured in the final episode of Chasing The Sun, the five-part documentary on the Boks’ journey to the Webb Ellis Cup in Japan that was broadcast on M-Net on Sunday night.
Up to that point, the former Bok loose forward hammered home the fact that it was all about the game plan and the technical aspects of rugby and the opposition. In fact, captain Siya Kolisi said as much in the final episode of the documentary, and how the coach changed tact in the change room before the match.
“Coach didn’t like all those ‘give people hope’, all those kinds of chats. He just wanted you to play. But in the final, he saw what was going on in our country, and he started seeing and started telling us about pressure, that pressure was not what we were going through right now,” Kolisi said.
“Pressure was what was happening in our country – people losing their children, kids not having food to eat, people losing jobs.
“And we are in a place of privilege, because what we can do on Saturday is to give a smile to people who are going through the worst things in their lives.”
Erasmus went on to inspire his team by reminding them about what impact they would actually make if they were to win the World Cup.
“You are not only representing yourself today. You are fighting, Siya, for the next laaitie in Zwide to not suffer like you had to suffer. Lukhanyo, you are trying to tackle for the boy that didn’t get the opportunities that you got eventually, like Mapimpi. There are so many different things, all of you have different lifestyles and backgrounds,” he said.
“That’s why this last week, I have been pressing so hard for you guys to understand that I was the guy that never said we are doing things to give people hope. We first have to play well. But now we are playing well, and now you give hope, and our people are agreeing.
“What I am trying to say is, if you play s**t today, you don’t have the right to drop your head. It’s not about you. You must stand up, if you lose a lineout or miss a tackle or miss a high ball, and make the next tackle, clean-out.”
Before they left their Tokyo Bay hotel for International Stadium Yokohama – a trip of nearly an hour by bus – the team was addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who spoke about the hour of destiny and willed them on to “play your hearts out. Play the best game that you have ever played”.
But ahead of game-day, there was an interesting build-up in the week. Erasmus said that the very first training session was “terrible”, and the six-day turnaround time from the semi-final meant that they didn’t have much time to prepare on the pitch, while their training field was visible to people in surrounding blocks of flats anyway.
Off it, though, a special play was devised in their hotel team room – THE MOVE. That was the name given to the midfield maul play in the second half, which saw the Boks win a penalty to stretch their lead to 18-9.
One of the crucial periods in the game was the relentless attack by England around the 30-minute mark, which saw the Boks defend their tryline for about 30 phases and over four minutes – which defence guru Jacques Nienaber described in Chasing The Sun as “superior discontent – a refusal to be defeated”.
It was epic stuff, with England only ending up with three points from an Owen Farrell penalty. “They were not tackling the English there; they were tackling for South Africa. I’m not trying to make a cliché, but they are defending that line as if it is South Africa,” Erasmus said.
But at 18-12, the title was still up for grabs. Enter Makazole Mapimpi, who combined with his old mate Am to become the first Springbok to score a try in a World Cup final.
It couldn’t have been more appropriate, with the late commentator Kaunda Ntunja mentioning that the five-pointer was “scored by possibly the player that has come from the most hopeless situation in the history of Springbok rugby”.
⚡ How special was this try from @Makazole16? #StrongerTogether #ChasingTheSun pic.twitter.com/98unBtg4aJ
— Springboks (@Springboks) November 2, 2020
Erasmus broke down in tears when he was asked on Chasing The Sun about who Mapimpi was playing for that day. “Obviously he was playing for South Africa. I think if you talk to him, he… Do you know the story about the jerseys? On the back of our numbers, you had to have photos of family members. He only had photos of himself… because he didn’t have anybody else.
“And we said ‘Why are you doing this?’, and he says his brother died, his mom died, his father – he doesn’t have a photo. So, he doesn’t play for one thing. He’s got massive heart, massive heart.”
To top things off, Mapimpi’s wing partner Cheslin Kolbe left England captain Owen Farrell sprawled on the turf with a trademark sidestep and wrote his name into history as well.
The documentary plays out with images of the team celebrations in the change room, and the momentous trophy tour across South Africa.
Erasmus says experiencing the welcome at OR Tambo International Airport “totally blew my mind. It makes you feel small”, while physiotherapist Rene Naylor added that she would never forget hearing the national anthem and seeing the fans.
Kolisi said he could feel that the Boks had just won the World Cup and the airport “vibrating”.
And even though his team have just conquered the world, Erasmus is hungry for more success to expand the nation-building impact of the Boks even further.
“I think there’s a difference between hope and happiness. And I hope that we kick on, then it would be significant, because then, happiness will go into hope. For me, that’s a fairytale…”
@ashfakmohamed
IOL Sport