This episode of The Ruck's Rugby's Greatest Rivals series centres on South Africa's readmission to international rugby and the chain of events that led to Ellis Park in June 1995. Joel Stransky and Chester Williams recall a squad that was laser-focused on the rugby — "one team, one country" was a motto they lived, Stransky says, "because we wanted to, but mainly because we were told to" — while historian Jamie Wall makes the case that the iconic Mandela-Pienaar trophy handover only carries the weight it does because the opponent was the All Blacks, with Lomu in the side. The episode also gives Sean Fitzpatrick space to reflect on what it meant to captain the All Blacks into that atmosphere: "To see Mandela wearing the Springbok jersey — the jersey of the oppressor — my God, what a statement he made."
Albert Grundlingh's framing of the Ellis Park crowd's defiance in August 1992 — waving the old flag and singing Die Stem in defiance of ANC conditions — as "the last convulsions of a dying order" is one of the sharper analytical moments in the episode, and Laurie Mains' long-held suspicion about the food-poisoning incident gets another airing, with the private-detective trail leading to a waitress named Suzie who vanished after the final. If you want the full political and emotional arc of the Boks' return from isolation to world champions, this is worth your time.