It may be New Zealand’s moment in the limelight, but the Springbok victories in 1995 and 2007 will be honoured as the captains and coaches of World Cup winning teams are inducted into the International Rugby Board’s Hall of Fame tonight.
The honour will be bestowed tonight at the Annual IRB awards ceremony – which will also crown the Player of the year and Coach and team of the year.
This year the IRB has decided to induct all the winning coaches and captains of the six Rugby World Cups past among a glittering aray of stars at this year’s awards.
Thus former Springbok coach Jake White and past captains John Smit and Francois Pienaar will join an illustrious group of players already in the hallowed ranks. Bok coach Kitch Christie, architect of the 1995 World Cup victory will also be inducted posthumously.
This year’s list, which also includes World Cup legends like Brian Lima, Agustin Pinochet and New Zealand Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens, will also see the most famous face of Rugby World Cups – Jonah Lomu – also join the list of legends on the roll of honour.
There will also be induction for Rugby World Cup Pioneers and founders, Dr Ian Vanderfield (Aus), Richard Littlejohn (NZ), Sir Nicholas Shehadie (Aus) and John Kendal-Carpenter (Eng).
New Rugby World Cup inductees.
A) Winning RWC captains and coaches
1987 RWC
David Edward Kirk, MBE (New Zealand) and
Sir Brian James Lochore ONZ, KNZN, OBE (New Zealand)
1991 RWC
Nicholas Campbell ‘Nick’ Farr-Jones (Australia) and
Robert “Bob” Dwyer (Australia)
1995 RWC
Jacobus Francois Pienaar (South Africa) and
George Moir ‘Kitch’ Christie (1940-1998) (South Africa)
1999 RWC
Roderick ‘Rod’ Mcqueen (Australia)
2003 RWC
Martin Osborne Johnson CBE (England) and
Sir Clive Ronald Woodward OBE (England)
2007 RWC
John William ‘Jon’ Smit (South Africa) and
Jacob Westerduin ‘Jake’ White (South Africa)
B) RWC legends
Brian Pala Lima (Samoa)
Agustin Pichot (Argentina)
Gareth Lloyd Rees (Canada)
Jonah Tali Lomu MNZM (New Zealand)
Gordon Tietjens CNZM (New Zealand)