THERE were a number of unsung heroes who came to light in the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup final triumph during the fifth and final episode of the Chasing The Sun 2 documentary aired on M-Net this past Sunday.
The Boks faced an enormous task in plotting the downfall of the All Blacks, considering they had squeaked through the quarter-finals (against France) and semi-finals (England).
Their first obstacle was dealing with hooker Bongi Mbonambi’s disciplinary hearing for an alleged racial slur against England flank Tom Curry in the semi-final – the infamous “wit kant” comment.
Bok boss Rassie Erasmus said during the final episode that he trusted Mbonambi with his life, and that if the powerful No 2 had told him not to worry about the incident, then he wouldn’t – and he was proven right as he was cleared to play.
But Mbonambi sustained a knee injury after just three minutes, courtesy of a cheap-shot ruck clean-out by All Black flank Shannon Frizell – and that led to another unsung hero, flank Deon Fourie, having to play hooker for 77 minutes.
The Stormers stalwart gave it his all, and even though he wasn’t perfect in every respect, Fourie was able to “hang in there” – as Erasmus said at the time of the substitution, and was the captain when the final whistle blew.
Before that, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach displayed great maturity when he was axed for Faf de Klerk for the final despite producing a solid display in the semi-final.
Reinach was understandably upset about being left out as the Boks went with the 7-1 split, but quickly said: “I was selected to serve the team that week”, and he and Manie Libbok had to portray Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’unga in training.
Also before the game, head coach Jacques Nienaber gave an inspirational speech to the players, reminding them of how the critics had made the All Blacks the favourites.
Nienaber is often seen as Erasmus’ lieutenant, but in this instance, he led from the front.
“Just a hurdle... you’re just a fu**ing hurdle. Just something that they have to hop over. It’s just a little hop, skip and a jump over,” Nienaber said with anger visible in his eyes through his set of clear “Jurgen Klopp“ glasses.
“They actually didn’t expect you to even go past the fu**ing quarter-finals in 2019. But that’s the beauty of this team. They can script anything they want – at the end of the day, we decide what the movie will look like. And I think that fu**ing breaks them.
“You guys have the ability to go ‘Fu** you, we will write our own story. You will not fu**ing tell us what story to write’. And you know why? Because in your own personal life, you shouldn’t have sit here. You shouldn’t even have been here.
“Some of you, where you come from, shouldn’t have been here, Marvin (Orie). This was not supposed to be your movie, your story. But you know what? In your own personal life, you wrote a different story.
“You told the world, ‘Fu** you, I’ll show you’. I’ll show you I will come out on the other side... I will show you I’ll make it. I will show I will be one of the best teams in the world, on the biggest stage.
“You decided (that) in your own personal life, and now this group, Willie (le Roux), has decided we will not be scripted out of the movie because you decided that. Fu** you – we will write our own story.
“We can’t let them script our movie, boys. I’m getting emotional – sorry.”
Who wouldn’t want to run through a brick wall for your coach and team after that?
Then, apart from Handré Pollard’s ice-cool goal-kicking and Pieter-Steph du Toit’s incredible 28 tackles, there was Cheslin Kolbe agreeing to cover scrumhalf.
That’s not to forget the drama around All Black captain Sam Cane’s red card and Bok skipper Siya Kolisi’s yellow.
Kwagga Smith made a number of crucial turnovers and carries in the second half, Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try-saving tackle on Rieko Ioane was one to remember, and Jasper Wiese made THAT carry off the back of the last scrum, to secure the Webb Ellis Cup with a 12-11 victory.
The Boks have a few stand-out stars, but they were true to their motto of #StrongerTogether to become the first team to win a fourth World Cup title...