- Andre Joubert’s cool temperament and experience were vital factors in the Bok’s 1995 World Cup glory.
- He and Scotland’s Gavin Hastings were arguably the biggest names at fullback, entering the tournament.
- Joubert is famous for banishing the debilitating effects of a broken hand for fulsome roles in the semi and final.
South Africa’s deeply poignant, first-time Rugby World Cup (RWC) conquest on own soil in 1995 was genuinely a triumph of the collective.
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The Springbok team of the time, I suggest, was not especially renowned for a vast sum of proven individual superstars in the ranks.
In that respect, the 1995 group may well fall short of both subsequent RWC-winning Bok squads (2007 and 2019) for depth of already-obvious, universally familiar “pin-up” material.
Remember this, too: South Africa had missed both of the prior World Cup tournaments during ongoing, apartheid-caused isolation.
Although there had been sporadic doses of earlier Test matches, some against dubious-value World XVs, the Boks only really returned to full international acceptance in 1992.
It means that Francois Pienaar’s class of ’95 had not yet completed a single, full four-year “World Cup cycle” of activity between the 1991 RWC in the UK and France (the last one without them) and the immortal next tournament.
They were still, to a certain extent, mystery factors to much of the rugby planet and many of their better players had not been that widely travelled for Test purposes.
For collective volume of prior caps, they were at a strong disadvantage to many major foes at RWC 1995: their most capped player ahead of it was fiery outside back James Small (19), and only five others in the extended squad could boast a double-figure tally.
Perhaps their best ally was that the kernel of the side was made up of quite seasoned, domestic Transvaal Currie Cup (and then-infant Super 10) stars, boosted also by the astute, composed leadership of Pienaar and coach Kitch Christie’s high fitness-demanding, all-hands-to-the-pump approach and limited tolerance of any possible prima donnas.
So that’s the backdrop to answering this, hypothetical question: if you had to name just one specific Springbok for possessing the biggest international aura immediately before RWC ’95 and then underlining his pedigree during it, who would it be?
My vote goes to Andre Joubert, the Sharks-based ex-Free State star at No 15, renowned to this day for his distinguished mantle in this part of the world and perhaps more broadly as the “Rolls-Royce of fullbacks”.
First selected for the Boks against a World XV in 1989, he was in roughly his prime aged 31 and with 11 caps to his name, at the outset of the SA-hosted World Cup.
The left-footed athlete – certainly with an assertive, educated boot – had given the rest of the rugby world a good look at his class throughout the lead-up year of 1994, when he started eight times for the Boks.
In RWC ’95 itself, as undisputed first choice in the last line of defence, he began all the really key games for the national team: against Australia in the Newlands opener, and then the knockout tussles against Western Samoa (quarter-final), France (semi-final) and the unforgettable 24 June showpiece against New Zealand.
His much-publicised injury setback against the Samoans only demonstrated the multipronged value he was felt to possess to the cause: Joubert fractured a hand in a freak collision with the swinging, closed rival hand of aptly-named George Harder.
But with urgent surgery following hours after the Ellis Park tussle and then multiple, hours-long sessions in a decompression chamber to speed up recovery, a heavily-strapped Joubert was bravely pitched into both subsequent major dates as well.
Always characterised by his elegance, positional mastery and gliding runs almost without breaking any form of sweat, it seemed, it is history now that his full retention of personal standards in the semi-final and then final played a far from insignificant role in the Webb Ellis Cup triumph.
Joubert’s local knowledge and unflappable nature came especially forcefully into play in the monsoon-like conditions for the nail-biting France tussle at the Kings Park venue, where he was so idolised.
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The ball would often “stop dead” in pronounced puddles of water, but an enduring image for me is of Joubert playing a big role in the difficult tidying-up duties for the Boks, if you like, when heavily under the territorial cosh.
Interestingly enough, there were few other massively experienced, specialist No 15s at RWC 1995 – a notable exception being Scotland’s 33-year-old, gentlemanly captain and 57-cap (entering it) Gavin Hastings.
The other fullbacks for top-tier countries included France’s Jean-Luc Sadourny (28, and with as many caps beforehand), Australia’s then 22-year-old Matt Burke (only six prior appearances), England’s famously “Lomu-trampled” Mike Catt (also six caps as fullback starter) and the All Blacks’ slippery Glen Osborne – he was 23 and had played a solitary Test in the berth against Canada before the World Cup got under way.
That 1995 tournament served as the effective launch pad to rugby superstardom for emerging teammates like Os du Randt, Mark Andrews, Joost van der Westhuizen and Chester Williams.
But I’m sticking with my choice of Andre Johan Joubert, now 56, as premier “gravitas guy” among the Bok troops of the time…
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
