Saturday, October 20, was South Africa’s biggest sporting day of the year. The venue was the Stade de France in Paris and the outcome was the right to call the Webb Ellis trophy ours for the next four years. The Springboks beat England 15‑6 in a tense final. The match kept fans on the edge of their seats for the entire 80‑minute game.
Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery kicked his team to victory after converting four penalties on the night. Montgomery, who did not miss a kick in the semifinal either, finished the tournament as the highest point scorer and Springbok winger Bryan Habana finished top of the try-scoring table.
But it was Danie Rossouw’s desperate tackling of Mark Cueto, which saw the Englishman’s foot nudge the touchline at a crucial moment and thus cause his try to be disallowed, that — more than any single event on the field that night — changed the flow of the game.
The Springbok team, which played in the final with a combined 668 caps to their credit, were the most experienced South African rugby team ever to take to the field.
The Springboks joined Australia as the only second-time winners of the Rugby World Cup. To crown a glorious year for South African rugby, the team were voted the IRB team of the year and Habana international rugby player of the year.
The signs of a good year for local rugby came earlier in the year. South African teams dominated the southern hemisphere provincial tournament, the Super 14, for the first time, resulting in a final between two South African teams. And the Bulls’ win was as much a credit to South African rugby as it was to the Pretoria side’s consistency throughout the season.
Here again it was Habana who made the difference with a last-minute try, making the score 20-19 in favour of the visitors and breaking the hearts of the Sharks fans.
No wonder football fans were wishing they had a Habana in their team. This was the year the South African football team dropped to their lowest ranking in 13 years, coming in at number 83 in the world rankings. Matters improved slightly towards the end of the year — the team rose to number 77 — but their 17th position in Africa remains unchanged. This for a country that was ranked 19th in the world in 1996.
Such was the parlous state of affairs that even President Thabo Mbeki wondered whether the name Bafana Bafana was not the cause of the players’ poor performances.
Not all poor sporting performances could be blamed on the team having a bad name, however. Team South Africa, which went to the Osaka games in Japan in September, performed disappointingly; our athletes failed to bag a single medal at the championships.
The highest finish by a South African came in the men’s long jump event. Khotso Mokoena claimed fifth place with a distance of 8,19m. He reached the final with a best jump of 8,28m in the qualifiers.
The country’s biggest medal hopeful, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, ranked number one in the world in the 800m event, struggled in the final race and finished seventh.
But young athletes made the country proud with their performances. Sprinter Nombulelo Mkenku (18), javelin thrower Robert Oosthuizen (20) and Mokoena (22) performed well, even though they did not win medals.
Another team of which a lot was expected were the Proteas, which took part in the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year.
The tournament ended in another disappointment for local fans when Graeme Smith’s side lost to Australia (the eventual champions) in the semifinals. But this was cold comfort to the side, which lost to a young Bangladesh team in the tournament that will be remembered more for the mysterious death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer than for cricket.