Francois not tilting at windmills

After we had won the Rugby World Cup in 1995 it was easy to forget that few had given us a chance of claiming the game’s biggest prize.

Yet that was the case when the tournament started. The rest of the world were skeptical that we could win and even we, in South Africa, were not too sure that the Springboks could go all the way.

One person, however, who possessed the conviction that the Boks could emerge triumphant was their captain Francois Pienaar who, unlike so many of the rest of us and most in the team, envisioned a prize much bigger than merely competing.

Pienaar knew his team could pull it off and that self-belief is again evident in the passionate way he has been conducting South Africa’s bid to stage the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

There is an interesting parallel in that once again he and his team are underdogs with most believing that of the three bidders South Africa and New Zealand will lose out to Japan.

It was a view I tended to share given the IRB’s twin goals for the World Cup – 1. it has to make money and; 2. it has to take the game to new regions.

These criteria seemed tailor made for the Japanese given the financial muscle of their vast corporations and the fact that they could be the gateway to rugby driving into Asia, but Pienaar and his team, with the ubiquitous Edward Griffiths playing a key intellectual role, have all along believed that South Africa has a better chance and is a better bet.

My own uncertainty, I have to admit, was swept away while attending a presentation on South Africa’s bid Pienaar gave to the Johannesburg media.

Just as in 1995 Pienaar refuses to be swayed by convention. Just as he believed his ’95 team had what it took to win the World Cup he is now positive that his country has what it takes to stage the 2011 tournament.

Pienaar, as confident and impressive a front man as there ever was, presents a compelling case; especially the masterstroke that South Africa’s rugby bid will piggy-back on soccer’s World Cup the previous year, thus preserving the infrastructure and gaining a double benefit for the personnel and from the experience that will already be in place.

Rugby World Cups are backed by international consortiums and with rugby and soccer sponsors, but for a few, not overlapping Pienaar and his team are confident that securing the financial backing will not be a problem.

South Africa has a number of key advantages, over both Japan and New Zealand, in its proposal – items such as world-class infrastructure already in place and tested by the Fifa’s World Cup, excellent stadiums, being able to fill the stadiums, a great passion for the game, outstanding playing conditions (i.e. the running game), a competitive home side, being a superb tourist destination, wonderful weather and, most importantly, being perfectly placed in the same time zone as rugby’s biggest market in Europe – but the biggest plus is its guardianship of rugby throughout the rest of the African continent.

The IRB’s quest to take rugby to new regions will certainly be better served by bringing it to Africa, where the game is already flourishing in such places as Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Cameroon, Uganda and Namibia, than to Asia where there is not as great a scope for development or such a natural aptitude for the game.

Pienaar’s initiative has already provided a new lease of life for African rugby with the establishment of the continental African Leopards, who will play a match against the SA Students as a curtain-raiser to the Nelson Mandela Challenge match at Ellis Park on July 23, and more support for the dark continent could well turn out to be one of the most enlightened decisions yet made by rugby’s ruling body.

It will be a tough fight but as Pienaar says “let’s keep this country of ours on the front pages of the world.” The IRB technical committee will be making an inspection visit in late July, at a time that the world of rugby will be in this country, ahead of reporting to the executive council in the first week of August and it will be down to all of us, especially our administrators, to show why the “biggest rugby party ever” should be staged here in 2011.

We did it in 1995 with “One team, one country,” and we can do it again as “One country, one continent.”