‘I didn’t realise I was captain’ – Deon Fourie’s Rugby World Cup final revelation and his crucial comment to Wayne Barnes
Springboks forward Deon Fourie and an inset of him, Ardie Savea and Wayne Barnes during the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
Deon Fourie had no idea that he was the Springboks captain during the Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand back in 2023.
This, after he didn’t even expect to get onto the park at all during the showpiece event, but everything changed in the opening five minutes of the game when Bongi Mbonambi was forced off the pitch due to a knee injury sustained after a dangerous clear-out by Shannon Frizell.
Fourie had been included in the Boks’ World Cup squad primarily as a flanker, but when Malcolm Marx was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament during the pool stages, the coaching staff opted to call up Handre Pollard instead of hooker cover. That meant that Fourie and Marco van Staden were tasked with covering the position.
Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus gambled on Mbonambi playing a full 80 minutes in all of the knockout matches, but that backfired when the hooker was forced off the pitch, and Fourie had to play almost the entirety of the final.
Early Rugby World Cup final substitution
Speaking to fellow Rugby World Cup winners Trevor Nyakane and Steven Kitshoff on the For the Love of Rugby SA podcast, Fourie revisited how the events unfolded on that night in Paris.
“As we all know, the plan was for Bongi to play 80 in quarters, semi, and final,” Fourie began.
“Then we went into the final with a 7-1 split. I remember we went out to the warm-up, and Rassie called me over and said, ‘With a 7-1 split, the chances of you going on are slim’ because Pieter-Steph [du Toit] and Kwagga [Smith] trained at wing and Cheslin at nine, so we always needed someone just on the bench for if something goes wrong.
“I remember telling him, ‘I don’t mind, let’s just win this trophy.'”
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A dream first cap against the All Blacks
In 2022, Fourie became the oldest-ever Springbok debutant when he came off the bench against Wales in Bloemfontein. Fast forward a year, and now he was on the bench for the World Cup final and consigned to the fact that he wouldn’t get onto the pitch, but all that changed when Mbonambi lay prone on the turf.
“I saw Bongi lying down, holding his knee, and we know Bongi is not a guy who just falls down. If he is not injured, my first thought was ‘Jis, final is happening again for him’ because he got concussed in 2019,” he continued.
“In the video, you can see Kwagga start talking to me, and to this day, I can’t remember what he said to me at all, but you can see in my eyes a bit like glass that you can see through, because now this is it. This is a thing that, as a kid, you dreamed of. My first memory was the 1995 World Cup – when I was 19 years old. So that’s where my first memory of rugby was, and now you’re in it. We received a kickoff. I was behind Pieter-Steph, and then everything happened so fast. That game was so fast. You look up, and it’s half-time now.
“We were just scrambling and tackling, and you actually didn’t even hear the crowd because you were so focused on the job you have to do and playing the All Blacks as well. It was my first cap against them, which was a massive honour too. Seeing the Haka for the first time as well.
“So all those memories that as a kid, as a boy, as a young player, professional player, it’s always something you wanted to do, and you experienced it in the blink of an eye.”
Shock Springboks’ captaincy call
When Fourie started his professional career at Western Province and the Stormers, he would often play at flank and hooker. However, as he has progressed through his career, he has predominantly played in the back row. In fact, before his appearance against Tonga in the front row, he hadn’t played hooker for several years; now he was being tasked with fulfilling the physically and tactically demanding position in the biggest game of his career.
Even more weight was thrust onto his shoulders; unbeknownst to him, he had been given the Springboks captaincy role after Siya Kolisi was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle.
In fact, it was referee Wayne Barnes who had to tell Fourie that he was captaining the team.
“I didn’t know I was captain. Wayne Barnes came to me and said, ‘Listen, Deon, you’re captain now, Siya’s yellow card is remaining a yellow card.’ So I was first flabbergasted that I got that role. And I was barely breathing, but thanks. Thanks for the honour,” he said.
Fourie retained the captaincy when Jasper Wiese replaced Kolisi after the usual skipper’s return from his sin-binning period. Still, he had another big role to play beyond his captaincy, with the hooker’s scrummaging ability being pivotal in the set-piece.
John Dobson reveals Deon Fourie’s selfless act as Springboks veteran ‘stood himself down’
Crucial comment to Wayne Barnes
And that came to the fore in the final play of the match when South Africa had the feed to the set-piece and held a one-point lead over the All Blacks. Fourie not only played a crucial role in retaining possession for the Boks, who were under pressure in the set-piece, but also made a crucial comment to referee Barnes to ensure the scrum wasn’t a deciding factor.
“On that last scrum, luckily, the scrums went very well,” he said.
“I felt there was no dominance from them, no dominance from us; it was a solid performance from both packs, and I went to Wayne before that last scrum, and I said, ‘Wayne, there were no issues the whole game with scrums, so don’t let it be an issue now.’
“And then it ended successfully. Well done to Jasper for picking up, leg driving, and keeping the ball up.”
RG Snyman’s injury
Kitshoff added: “It was that game where RG Snyman tore his pec; he had no pec left. So we lost RG. Trevor was on the field, and he was holding on for dear life. RG had no power behind you.”
Nyakane revealed the conversation he had with the injured Snyman before that final scrum, where he asked the Bok lock to just do everything he could and fight through the pain.
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“He just looked at me and said, ‘Trev, I can’t really help you that much. My pec is off. I can’t really bind.’ I just looked at him like, “Come on, RG, it’s just one more. Just one more. We just need to hold on for this, and we’ll sort your pec out later, but right now, I need you,” the prop said.
“And knowing RG, he just went ‘Okay, I’ll try my best.’ Going into it, I asked myself, ‘Are you going to be alone in this?’ But believe, obviously, your flankers and your lock said you will be there. But I think he was pulling cables there. It was tough for him. He was really experiencing a hard one, and I know how torn muscles can feel, and I commend him for actually sticking his head there and trying to do what he did, and at the end of the day, once that ball went out, we forgot about pecs and everything that was sore.
“Everyone who had a little bit of a niggle is running around, jumping on top of each other, and the doctor had to sort everything out later on. We were just overjoyed.”
