Rugby World Cup 1995 I Kobus Wiese said: ‘You can go up, down, left or right, but you will NOT go back’ — Balie Swart recalls the semi-final defeat of France

Thirty years ago this week, the Springboks beat France in a World Cup semi-final amid unbearable tension. One of the heroes of the day was Balie Swart, who anchored the scrum despite having sustained damaged ribs.

Independent Media asked Swart for his recollections of the drama in drenched Durban. This is the tighthead prop’s story of that epic 1995 win, in his words.

“On the morning of the game, we looked out of the window of our beachfront hotel, and there was this huge barrier of dark clouds over the Indian Ocean. We looked at each other with big eyes, and I said: ‘What the hell is going on here? That is not normal rain out there.’

"When we got to the stadium, usually you walk out onto the pitch to get a feel of the ground, but we couldn’t go past the end of the tunnel — the field was a lake and none of us wanted to get our shoes and pants wet!

"This was the game where Andre Joubert had that special rubber glove over the hand he had broken against Samoa in the quarter-final. In the change room, I was sitting opposite him. The glove had a fin running along it and it looked just like a fish. I said to my mate Kobus (Wiese) sitting next to me: ‘He will be all right out there with his fin.’ That broke some of the tension.

"Halfway through the warm-up, Morne (du Plessis, the manager) came in and said the kick-off was delayed. So there we were, lying in the change room, listening to the thunder, wondering if our World Cup was over. The tension was almost intolerable. Nobody knew what to say or do, so we just parked off, lost in our thoughts.

"There was another kick-off delay after we had just finished warming up. In the end, we warmed up four times! That must be some kind of a record.

"At last, we splashed out onto the field, and immediately we were boosted by the sea of colour in the stands. It was an unforgettable sight... so many South African flags swirling in the rain and the crowd roaring louder than the thunder.

"It was a heck of a tough game to be a forward because most of the time we were chasing kicks — it was always going to be that kind of a game because trying to handle the ball would have been madness. We were exhausted pretty quickly. That was also because the ground was so heavy, and we were sodden.

"Early in the second half, I was trapped in a ruck and (Abdelatif) Benazzi (the formidable French No 8) came crashing in with his knees and I felt my ribs go. Later, I found out two of them had been cracked.

"I played on, but towards the end of the game, the pain was excruciating. When we got to those famous last scrums in that corner near our try-line, with the French pushing for the win (the Boks led 19-15), I said to myself: ‘This is stupid... If I can’t give 100 percent, I must be replaced by someone who can.’

"I stayed on for the first scrum (there would be four of them), it collapsed, and when I got up in agony, I told Kobus I was finished, I was in too much pain. Well, he looked at me with an expression of disgust and said: ‘You are going nowhere, softy.’

"Then he looked at me and said in a very serious tone: 'Listen carefully: you can go up, you can go down, you can go left or right, but you will NOT go back!'

"How did we hold them off to win? There was vasbyt, adrenaline... stupidity! But probably what carried the day was the crowd support in that corner — the screaming of “Bokke! Bokke!”I don’t think people understand how much that lifts a player, how important it is.

"After the final whistle, we three front-row guys came together (Balie, Chris Rossouw and Os du Randt) in our own little huddle. We stood there for quite a while, crying with relief as steam rose from us. 

"When you go through a couple of minutes of incredible intensity together, with a lot of inspirational words spoken to each other to get through it... Well, you cry with relief. We had held it together. Honestly, at that time, we knew we were holding on for something much bigger than ourselves.”

Swart ended his story quite presciently. That “something much bigger” came seven days later when Swart and his teammates had to do it all again in the final, albeit on a bone-dry field of the Highveld and the crisp, rarefied air of Ellis Park.

Swart’s cracked ribs were never going to heal in a week and he, Mark Andrews and Joost van der Westhuizen (they also had rib injuries) had pain-killing injections before the final kicked off and again at half-time.

Once more, the Boks were lifted by the support of South Africa. Swart shared his recollection of the pre-game atmosphere at an electric Ellis Park. This time he had no concern about getting his shoes and trousers wet...

“When we walked out of the tunnel to the edge of the field for a look around, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had goosebumps all over. There was an energy crackling around the ground. There is no question that there was an external influence at the ground that would sweep us along. I felt an overwhelming sense of destiny.”

Mike Greenaway is the author of the best-selling books The Fireside Springbok and Bok to Bok.