Durban - “Sometimes I could feel the bones moving but there was little pain.”
Those were the understated words of Andre Joubert after he had miraculously played a 1995 World Cup final and semi-final with three broken bones in his left hand.
Joubert’s Springbok coach, Kitch Christie, put his modest fullback’s achievement into a superman perspective. “The guy is not human. I cannot believe such bravery,” said Christie. Typically, Christie was economical when it came to lavishing praise on his players in public, so that was a telling statement.
Just seven days before the Springboks’ semi-final against France, the team had played a quarter-final against the rugged Samoans at Ellis Park. Ten minutes into the game, Joubert had run past wing George Harder. The wing had shot out a fist in frustration – straight into Joubert’s left hand.
Later the severity of the injury would be revealed but, amazingly, Joubert had the hand strapped and continued playing, only to be laid out 10 minutes later in a late tackle by Samoa fullback Mike Umaga.
This time he came off. At 11 o’clock that night Joubert had an operation to repair the shattered hand. Recovery from such an injury is usually seven weeks, but South Africa needed Joubert to play again in seven days. Joubert, at 31, was playing the best rugby of his career and was crucial to Springbok ambitions.
To give Joubert a chance of playing against France, doctors suggested that he have sessions in a decompression chamber. Wearing an oxygen mask, he would sit in the chamber for two-and-a-half-hour sessions (he had three of them that week).
Joubert’s teammate Mark Andrews spent two of the sessions with him. Andrews had suffered a rib injury against the Samoans.
“We sat in this steel cylinder for these lengthy sessions while they lowered the pressure and pumped in oxygen, which helped reduce the swelling,” Joubert recalled. “It would have been quite an ordeal if I had not had that walking encyclopedia, Mark, along to keep me entertained. He talked, and I listened.”
The treatment made a difference and when a special rubber sleeve was flown in from Ireland, Joubert was as good to go as could be expected. The reason the glove came from Ireland is that in their sport of hurling hands often get struck.
After Joubert had completed his treatment in the hyperbaric chamber, he held a press conference. The SA Rugby Football Union CEO at that time, Edward Griffiths, told this amusing story: “A smiling Joubert told reporters how he had been the equivalent of 14m below water but had seen no fish (Joubert is an avid fisherman). Two Japanese rugby writers earnestly recorded this marine observation in their notebooks.”
In the semi-final Joubert’s hand was tested repeatedly as the French hoisted the ball into the heavens. He came through unscathed and went on to be rock solid for the Boks in the final.
It was later that year at Twickenham that Joubert would be christened with his famous nickname. England were still smarting from their early World Cup exit in South Africa. But on a crisp autumn afternoon, they had no counter to a Springbok team inspired by Joubert in a class of his own.
He was elegance personified as he glided through the England defence. When the Boks had beaten their hosts, and Joubert had collected the Man of the Match award, Jack Rowell, the England coach, gave praise where it was due: “Andre Joubert is the Rolls-Royce of fullbacks.”
It may have taken an Englishman to coin a name that has stood the test of time, just like those magnificently crafted automobiles, but when it comes to South African rugby, there will always be only one Rolls-Royce.
It is almost incongruous that a Springbok would earn a name synonymous with refined class, given South African rugby’s reputation for being anything but delicate.
I like the explanation given by Andy Colquhoun. In his book, The Chosen, he said: “Joubert had a matchless elegance that was a magnet to superlatives, but it was Rowell who best captured it. At a time when Springbok sides were admired and feared for their power and their virtues of obduracy and stubbornness, Joubert was the artist who leavened the green with gold.”
In 1996, the All Blacks returned to South Africa, and they avenged their World Cup final defeat, winning a series in South Africa for the first time. Joubert struggled with a hamstring problem and it would heal only by the third Test at Ellis Park, where he scored a try in the Springboks’ win.
John Hart, the All Black coach, said: “He is a sensational player. Sensational! Any coach would love to have him.”
To which Bok coach Andre Markgraaff replied: “Now everyone has seen what a difference a fully fit Andre Joubert makes to the Springbok side. Do you see? We have had to play without him for most of the winter. Now he is back and look at the impact he had on the game.”
The final word on Joubert deserves to go to a man cut from the same fine-quality cloth, Morne du Plessis. The Springbok legend said: “Of all the Springbok players I have known, Andre Joubert stands out as a man of absolute quality.”
*** This story is an extract from Mike Greenaway’s forthcoming book, The Fireside Springbok. It will be published in August.
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