World Cup offered timely reminder of rugby’s values, on and off the pitch

Japan’s staging of the tournament offered a glimpse of what game might become while South Africa’s victory offered succour to its people

So in the end Jack didn’t kill the 15 giants. But still the Rugby World Cup had a different kind of fairytale finish. Siya Kolisi, South Africa’s first black captain, a kid from a township outside Port Elizabeth, led his team to a famous victory. And a team that once epitomised the apartheid regime was reborn, at last, as one offering the promise of togetherness. It wasn’t long ago that the Springboks were jeered by black South Africans. Now they’re being cheered by them. They have made good on Nelson Mandela’s words from 1995. “Sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does,” Mandela said, “Sport can create hope where once there was despair.”

We shouldn’t garnish it any more than that. If anything, this may be the moment to offer a timely reminder that we shouldn’t overreach here or strain to explain the significance of all this. South Africa’s coach, Rassie Erasmus, was absolutely clear about the limits of what his team had achieved. The World Cup final had bought his country 80 minutes of togetherness, Erasmus said, and a couple of happy hours after the match when people back home had put aside their differences. Nothing more than that. The social problems he and Kolisi spoke so openly about this week won’t be fixed by this victory. But it will give some succour and a hint, too, of what’s possible.

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