Thursday 2 August 2018 10:18, UK
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, South Africa's record try-scorer, Bryan Habana, revealed that he may never have picked up a rugby ball if it wasn't for Nelson Mandela.
The 34-year-old, who helped South Africa win the 2007 World Cup, announced in April that he was hanging up his boots at the end of the French Top 14 season where he had been playing with Toulon.
With 124 Springbok caps he is second in the all-time list only to Victor Matfield but holds his country's record of 67 Test tries, the first coming against England at Twickenham in November 2004.
However he may never have graced a rugby field if it was not for the summer of 1995.
Bryan Gary Habana was born in Johannesburg and was actually named after Manchester United footballers Bryan Robson and Gary Bailey. His upbringing, alongside older brother Bradley and younger sister Alicia, was not one centred or even interested in the oval ball, but more so the round one.
"I grew up in a Manchester United-loving family and to be brutally honest, rugby was probably the furthest thing from my mind for the first 12 years of my life," Habana told Sky Sports.
"It was only really that 1995 Rugby World Cup experience in South Africa that literally changed the course of my life.
"To be able to have been inspired by that group of 22 men, by Nelson Mandela walking out onto Ellis Park with that No 6 Springbok jersey and a Springbok cap on his head, handing Francois Pienaar that cup called Bill and uniting a nation. I was one of the fortunate few to have been among the 63,000 at Ellis Park that day.
"To have experienced that specific moment in time, which has gone down as one of the most iconic moments in sporting history, instilled and brought a dream inside of me to one day do the same.
"So having never played the game before then, to have experienced that unity, that inspiration and that coming together of a fairly new South Africa, in an environment where our history probably veered against what was happening at that time, is something I'm forever grateful for.
"Sitting in that stand as a 13-year-old youngster, to then start dreaming about taking up this beautiful game called rugby, it was a watershed moment in my life.
"Without it, I wouldn't be in the position I am today."
