Jasper Wiese: When you play for the Springboks, you put your own desires behind you
South Africa's Jasper Wiese celebrates after winning the Rugby World Cup final match against New Zealand at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Springboks forward Jasper Wiese has revealed what is even more important to South Africa’s rugby team than the World Cup trophy itself.
Ahead of Sunday’s release of Chasing The Sun 2, the story of the Springboks’ 2023 Webb Ellis Cup triumph in France, back row star Wiese has lifted the lid on what fuelled the team to retain their global crown.
A greater cause
“The trophy is an empty cup,” Wiese exclusively told Planet Rugby. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly special, and I felt massively privileged to be a part of winning it.
“But the inspiration you’re able to give as a group, that’s what makes the Springboks special. This is a group of people who put their own needs to one side for a greater cause.
“A special bunch of people coming together, ready to fight not for themselves but for team, for country. People, I think, now associate the Springboks with inspiring people. It’s incredibly humbling to be a part of that.”
The SuperSport documentary, made in collaboration with the Boks, tells the tale of South Africa’s journey from glory in 2019 through to the Paris final against New Zealand four years later and the country’s fourth title.
“The rest of the world will never understand what it’s like to be a South African,” says captain Siya Kolisi, teeing up the show.
“That’s what I love about our team. We all come from different backgrounds, different races, we all had different dreams, we all play for different reasons. But we have one thing in common: to make South Africa proud.”
Kolisi has been consistent on this from the day in 2018, he became South Africa’s first black captain. His towering example, the driving force behind his team’s rise to greatness.
“If you think you’ve had it hard in life, listen to one or two of the stories in our team,” said Wiese. “Look at Siya, listen to Makazole Mapimpi.”
WATCH: Trailer for highly-anticipated Springboks’ World Cup documentary ‘Chasing The Sun 2’ released
Goosebumps
Kolisi’s story is now well known. The boy born with nothing in the Zwide township of Port Elizabeth, who had just enough food to live and, now lives to inspire everyone faced with similar circumstances.
Mapimpi, scorer of South Africa’s first-ever World Cup final try against England in 2019, lost his mum Eunice in a car accident and his sister Zukiswa to a severe headache. His brother Zolani passed away after being electrocuted.
When the Boks were invited to include photos of loved ones on their jersey numbers in the 2019 final, the winger only had one of himself. It left team boss Rassie Erasmus in tears.
Yet, out of these seemingly hopeless situations came the collective bond and fierce determination which enabled South Africa to become only the second nation to retain a World Cup, after New Zealand in 2015.
“It gives you goosebumps knowing you can be with someone who’s faced such hardship,” said Wiese. “To be able to call them a teammate is a huge privilege.
“My story is not particularly special, other than I grew up on a remote farm in the Northern Cape and went to a school so small it didn’t have enough pupils to field a rugby team.
“Not for one moment could I have thought I would make my career out of playing rugby. Win a World Cup? Not in a million years. You would have had to beat it into me to have me believe that.”
For that, he says he will be forever grateful to Leicester Tigers for helping transform both his game and his prospects. The journey of England’s biggest club from near relegation to Gallagher Premiership glory in 2022 put him firmly on the Boks’ radar.
The main thing
Once aboard, Wiese quickly came to understand the special environment he found himself in.
“The main thing is you put your own desires behind you,” he explained. “You’re not playing for yourself; you’re playing for 60 million people.
“You’re playing for a kid in a village who might have a dream. If he or she sees our story, you give him or her hope. It is such a privilege.”
South Africa won the World Cup the hard way. Drawn in the Pool of Death, their loss to Ireland sent them down the more difficult route in the knockout phases.
Their response was to beat hosts France by a single point in a quarter-final thriller, come back from the dead to pip unfancied England, again by a point, in the semis, and then get the better of the All Blacks by the same margin.
They did so with the words of their skipper, delivered to the world’s media ahead of the England game in a tiny village hall north of Paris, ringing in their ears.
“Who we play for will never change,” Kolisi said. “I wish you could see all the support back home. This is all that people talk about, with everything else happening.
“Kids in schools are sending us clips of them singing – because they know some of us like singing. People at work on Fridays wear green jerseys.
“And the beautiful thing to see is that people who can’t afford them wear anything green, anything to represent the Springboks.
“When you think of how many people would give anything to be where we are; how many people in our country are unemployed.
“I’m not saying we’re going to win every game, but giving up and not giving everything would be cheating – not just myself and the team, but the people at home.”
He signed off by declaring that the Boks were a “purpose-driven team, not a trophy-driven team” – which ties in exactly with Wiese’s assessment today.
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