From the moment the first SAA plane flew over Ellis Park ahead of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final between these two great rivals, South Africans have been entranced by jet fuel kicking off epic rugby matches.
On Saturday, there were not one, but two jets — one black and the other green — that came in low over Table Mountain, and for a moment the whole DHL Stadium bowl tipped its head back as one. Then the roof, drawn back to a bronze sky, seemed to lift again — this time on noise alone.
Cape Town cleared its lungs as it sought redemption for the chagrin of last week in Johannesburg. They had come in their thousands. From Sasolburg to Swellendam, and Potchefstroom to Paarl, they only wanted one result: to see their great hero Pieter-Steph du Toit celebrate his 100th Test with a victory over the mighty All Blacks.
No Springbok centurion had achieved it before. Percy Montgomery was the first to taste defeat after reaching a century at Newlands, followed by former captain John Smit suffering heartbreak before 90,000 fans at FNB Stadium, Jean de Villiers in Wellington, and Damian de Allende last week at Ellis Park.
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The moment Du Toit walked out of the tunnel not alone, but flanked by his wife, Willemien, and their three children gathered around him — one of them, fittingly, a small boy who carries his father’s name in full, Pieter Stephanus du Toit — the emotions went into overdrive.
Stellenberg High School led the flag procession before former Idols winner Sasha-Lee Davids’ voice carried the national anthem into the open roof until, by all accounts, half the crowd had lost their own. South Africa’s Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos, who was holding the flag, could not hold back the tears.
It was as if everyone understood PSDT’s journey up to this seminal point. Two torn ACLs in his early twenties threatened to end things before they had properly begun, and in 2015 it was his own father, Pieter, who donated the tendon that rebuilt his son’s knee. Then, in February 2020, a routine-looking Super Rugby collision opened into something far more serious — a vascular injury and acute compartment syndrome that put his left leg, and by some accounts his rugby career altogether, in genuine doubt. He was told by doctors he might never run again. Sixteen months later, he was back in a Springbok jersey.
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Between the two ACLs and the leg, a World Cup winner’s medal from 2019 sits on one side of those darkest years, followed by a second one in 2023, a British & Irish Lions series win in 2021, and two World Rugby Player of the Year awards bookending it all.
When referee Angus Gardner finally blew the opening whistle, the rugby matched the build-up drama, with Bok centre Jesse Kriel barging over close to the posts within the first two minutes to set the tone for the match.
The teams traded punches with a couple of tries, but the decibel levels were raised to the next level when Springbok captain Siya Kolisi crossed the whitewash before rallying the crowd to get behind his team even more.
But it’s not called the Greatest Rivalry for no reason. The All Blacks absorbed the punches, kept getting up off the floor to land uppercuts of their own, with captain Ardie Savea’s touchdown putting them within one score of levelling the game in the dying minutes.
The Boks were not going to be denied on this night in Cape Town, though, and it was fitting that it was a son of the Mother City’s soil, Cheslin Kolbe, that delivered a performance the size of Du Toit to ensure the centurion’s curse was finally broken.
