Rugby World Cup 1995: Remembering the Springboks' fallen heroes

It is a tragic postscript to the monumental achievements of the 1995 Springboks that, 30 years later, there are just 10 survivors of the team that started the final against the All Blacks.

The New Zealanders have also suffered a loss, with Player of the Tournament Jonah Lomu passing away in Auckland in 2015 because of kidney failure. He was 40.

The list of Springboks who have died makes for a sad reading because they were household names that contributed enormously to the rich history of the game in South Africa

James Small, Joost van der Westhuizen, Chester Williams, Ruben Kruger, and Hannes Strydom were hugely popular public figures and their deaths at relatively young ages remains keenly felt.

The first member of the tightly-knit squad to die was Kitch Christie, the coach who engineered an “ambulance job” by taking over the team only months before the World Cup. He succumbed to leukemia in Pretoria in 1998. He was 58.

The latest squad member to perish was lock Strydom. He was in a tragic car accident two years ago. He was also 58.

Strydom, a pharmacist, formed a formidable second row partnership with Transvaal teammate Kobus Wiese.

The first ’95 hero to pass on was the warrior flank Ruben Kruger. The tough Blue Bull scored a crucial try in the semi-final against France in monsoon conditions in Durban and to this day his teammates swear he scored in the final. Kruger seemed to have got over the line but referee Ed Morrison was unsighted and did not award it. If there had been a TMO, Kruger would have scored.

Kruger blacked out during a game in 2000 and tests revealed he had a brain tumor. Surgeons removed the tumour but it resurfaced. After fighting the disease for a decade, Kruger died in January 2010 aged 39.

Kruger’s long-time Bulls teammate Joost van der Westhuizen died from motor neurone disease in 2017. He was 45. Van der Westhuizen’s fighting spirit epitomised what the Springboks were all about. He played the final with two broken ribs (he had pain-killing injections).

Early in the in the final, the much-feared Lomu took off on a run but the brave Van der Westhuizen flung himself at the boots of the behemoth, bringing “it” crashing to earth. That gave the Boks the belief that Lomu could be stopped.

The determined scrumhalf played 89 tests between 1993 and 2003, and scored a staggering 38 tries.

The cavalier James Small was a much-loved “bad boy” of South African rugby and the first Springbok to be sent off in a match (against Australia in 1993). On the field he had no fear and he manned up to the task of marking his opposite number in the final, Lomu.

His fiery temperament meant no rugby game was dull when he was participating.

Small died of a heart attack in a restaurant in 2019 at the age of 50. Only days before he had celebrated his birthday. He played 47 tests between 1992 and 1997, and scored 20 tries.

Just two months later, the Springboks lost their other wing from the final, Chester Williams. Like Small he died suddenly of cardiac arrest. He was a year younger than Small when he died in Cape Town, aged 49.

Williams was the only black player in the 1995 Springbok squad. He came into the tournament as a replacement for the suspended Pieter Hendriks and dramatically announced his arrival by scoring four tries against Western Samoa in the quarter-finals.

A series of knee injuries hindered Williams’ career and he retired in 2000. Williams had an impressive strike rate and scored 14 tries in 27 appearances for the Springboks.

He later coached the South African sevens team.