The Springboks concluded their national Rugby World Cup victory tour in East London on Sunday with a sea of residents donned in green and gold lining the streets to cheer on the players and to celebrate local Springboks, Jaden Hendrickse, Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi, as well as technical analyst Lindsay Weyer.
The tour began last week Thursday in Gauteng and celebrated the success of the Springboks’ back-to-back rugby world cup victory that has seen SA become the first country to win the competition four times — a feat that pundits regarded as impossible.
Hendrickse, Am, Mapimpi and Weyer will go down in BCM history for the role they have played in furthering rugby in the region.
Legendary All Blacks fly-half, Dan Carter said that winning the competition back-to-back, which his side achieved in 2015, is a mammoth undertaking because teams must struggle against the complacency that stems from knowing they have won it four years before.
Breidbach-born scrumhalf, Hendrickse said the team’s commitment to doing the nation proud overrode any possibility of slacking off.
Hendrickse said the players trusted in each other’s capabilities and their comradery compelled them to believe that a second consecutive win was possible.
Hendrickse, whose father passed away this year, said his dad would have been proud of his achievements.
Zwelitsha’s slick and talented, Am was credited for revolutionising the centre position during the 2019 World Cup win however an untimely knee injury forced him to play a more active role behind the scenes at training grounds this year mentoring the World Cup debutants, on what to expect.
Am echoed Hendrickse’s sentiments saying that a back-to-back win did not cast complacency over the squad but invigorated all the players towards surmounting the impossible.
Am said: “Winning the first time was special and going back-to-back is even more so because its historic.
There are players in their whole career who never achieve a single World Cup victory and it just shows how competitive this group is.
“We play for a reason that’s bigger than ourselves and that reason is tied to how we as players and coaches hope to see both rugby and our country grow.
“The country was looking to us for inspiration and unity and that level of responsibility will never permit us to be complacent in our previous success.”
Selborne College old boy, Weyer said that maintaining momentum and hunger to achieve after the 2019 win came down to making the right selections for the squad and working towards a specific four year vision that aimed to strike a balance between talent and experience.
Weyer said: “During the World Cup, we started realising what we were doing for the country. We gave the country hope during 2019 and with the 2023 campaign, the people of SA restored that hope to us.
“We were overwhelmed with support and love from back home in BCM and that motivated us to go out there and do the impossible.”
The victory tour, cheered on by thousands across the city, moved through Stirling, Berea, Amalinda, Mdantsane, Duncan Village and ended at East London City Hall. Absent from the tour were a few players including Cheslin Kolbe, Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard, who began training with their international clubs this week.
Grade 9 Clarendon School for Girls pupil Iminathi Ntame could barely contain her excitement she said that Springbok captain Siya Kolisi smudged her glasses and she would never wipe them.
Former Birmingham City Ladies’ player Asanele Ngalo said that seeing Kolisi at the helm was refreshing because black players were seen as for many years as quota players however his excellence dispels this stereotype.
Sports minister Zizi Kodwa said: “The focus now must be on grassroots and school sport. We need a lot of Makazole Mapimpis who come from our areas, so school sport is our focus.”
