We must stand together to be strong… like we did in ’95

Magical. There is no other word to describe that moment. Whether you were present at Ellis Park or watching on TV, the world was, for a moment, golden and shining with hope and joy.

Joel Stransky’s perfectly positioned and weighted drop kick sent the ball through the middle of the posts – where it hung, for what seemed a breathless eternity, in the air … before 63 000 people joined 50 million other South Africans in celebrating.

Just a year after we’d sent apartheid packing, we did the same to the All Blacks.

Nothing would stop us now. With Madiba smiling and dancing, Francois Pienaar hoisting the Webb Ellis Cup as world rugby champions and the roar of the low-flying South African Airways jumbo jet still in our ears, we felt there was nothing we couldn’t do.

It would be easy to dismiss the 1995 World Cup triumph as irrelevant today, because it was a lifetime ago. Children who were not even born then have already had children of their own. We’re in a new century. The technology we hold in our hands today is more powerful than many computers a generation ago.

Yet, sport proved then that it can be the glue to bind a nation. After the rugby win came the success in the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, when Madiba was on hand to see his country proclaimed best footballing nation on the continent.

Then, we won again in rugby – in 2007 and again last year. And in hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup we proved we were up with the best on the planet.

The 1995 Springboks will be the first to admit they were probably not the best team in the tournament. But we were behind them.

Unity is strength – let’s try to remember that in these terrible days.

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