Rugby World Cup 1995: How Os Du Randt went from unknown to cornerstone of the Springboks' triumph

A year out from the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Os du Randt was a 21-year-old diesel mechanic. He did not have the faintest clue that months later he would be wearing a World Cup-winners medal.

How did he go from rugby unknown to anchor of the Springboks’ World Cup-winning scrum? Let’s look at the making of a Bok legend.

Pieter du Randt was a farm boy from remote Elliot in the Eastern Cape, the same rural town that produced Mark Andrews, Du Randt’s tight-five teammate in the ’95 team.

Natural strength ran in the Du Randt family. It was developed by tough, physical labour on the land the family has farmed for generations. Handling livestock and hauling bags of mealies around was part of a day’s work. That was the young Os’ “gym” workout.

He has said that his family didn’t have a television until he was 13 and PlayStation-type games were banned by parents who preferred a more old-fashioned way of life. Instead, Os amused himself outdoors with his brothers— fishing, hunting, and climbing trees was their life.

In his autobiography Os, he tells of taking apart electrical appliances to see what they looked like inside and trying to successfully put them together again. He once created his own motorbike from the scraps of broken ones. The steering didn’t work too well and he sometimes crashed into the ditches of farm roads.

The absence of a TV in his younger days meant he didn’t get to watch much sport and while he enjoyed rugby at school, he didn’t have a burning passion to become a rugby star. He says he had no sporting heroes.

Os recalls that rugby grew on him as he continued to grow into, well, an ox. He hadn’t been overly big at primary school, but at high school, he had a growth spurt that earned him his nickname.

The story goes that a bunch of senior bullies tried to initiate him and that would include pinning him down and shaving his nether regions.

They discovered that it was easier said than done because Du Randt did an impersonation of Bruce Banner and transformed into The Hulk.

“They could not pin me down,” Du Randt smiled. “They called me an ‘Os’ and that has been my name ever since.”

Os was at school at Adelaide Gimnasium and in 1990 played SA Schools but, curiously, fell off the rugby radar when he was called up for army national service in Bloemfontein.

Du Randt’s love of things mechanical was fostered at the School of Armour and after national service, he remained in Bloem and worked as an apprentice at Barlows Caterpillar, a company specialising in earth-moving equipment.

It was when he was playing for the Free State under-20s that his career suddenly took off like a runaway train.

He was called up to the senior Free State side when Ollie le Roux was picked for the Boks in June 1994.

Os had played just nine Currie Cup games before he himself was picked for the Boks later that year when Argentina toured. He then also played on the Boks’ end-of-year tour to the UK.

In the space of a season, he went from the Free State Under-20s to the Cheetahs and the Boks, leapfrogging Le Roux in the latter two teams.

Almost overnight, Os became a fixture in the Bok front row under Kitch Christie, who had taken over as coach in 1994 from Ian McIntosh.

Kitch had listened wisely when the influential Transvaal and Bok hooker Uli Schmidt told him that he had played against this kid called Os and wanted him alongside him in the Bok front row.

Schmidt didn’t make it to the ’95 World Cup but he was right about Os.

He was just 22 when he came of age in the semi-final against France when the front row of Os, Chris Rossouw and Balie Swart held out against the fearsome French during a frantic finale of set scrums.

The Bok front row did not budge, the French were kept at bay, and passage to the final against New Zealand was secured.

Likewise, in the final, the unsung heroes against the All Blacks were the front row, who denied the Kiwis the solid platform that would have given the likes of Jonah Lomu dangerous front-foot ball.

It is apt that Andrews, the lock who pushed behind Os in so many scrums, best sums up one of the greats of the game:

“The fact that he is larger than most other props is not the extraordinary thing about Os. At six foot three and 128kgs he was able to tackle like Henry Honiball on steroids and run and pass like a loose forward. That gave him an almost unfair advantage over his opponents.

“What makes any Test player special is his ability to do what his position requires of him, yet is consistently able to do what is not expected of him with the same ease. For me, that sums up Os.”

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