Springbok veteran Deon Fourie. Image via Twitter @JohnPleasurre
Of all the Springboks’ unsung heroes, none deserve more credit than Deon Fourie, who completed the most remarkable fairytale journey to ultimately achieve World Cup glory.
When the 37-year-old returned to the Stormers in 2021, he openly admitted that earning Springboks selection was the furthest thing from his mind. However, he has aged like fine wine, with the regular flanker proving to be one of the most influential players for the Stormers over two unforgettable URC seasons.
With Siya Kolisi missing most of the Springboks’ games prior to the World Cup due to injury, Fourie suddenly became an even more important member of the Bok team, and ultimately earned a ticket to France not long after becoming the oldest-ever Springbok debutant.
Fourie’s role at the World Cup then went from ‘back-up’ utility forward to the second choice hooker after an injury to Malcolm Marx.
In the final, the veteran unexpectedly had to play as many as 76 minutes of the title decider, replacing injured Bongi Mbonambi early in the contest and even captaining the side in the closing stages.
Upon closer inspection, it’s now become evident how crucial Fourie’s leadership was during the final seconds of the match.
With the Springboks needing to complete one final scrum to hold on for a one-point victory, the All Blacks went in search of a penalty at the set piece, which could have won them the game.
Before the scrum is set, the All Blacks’ captain at the time, Ardie Savea, can be heard giving a “heads up” to referee Wayne Barnes as he told him to be aware that New Zealand would be trying to “go for it”.
Not long after this interaction, though, Fourie also crucially came up to speak to Barnes, and could be heard telling the referee he should also be looking “to expect something funny” from the All Blacks.
He also added a bit more ‘sweet talk’ to suggest that the accuracy of Barnes and the scrums had “been good all game”, while Fourie also had a moment where he joked and smiled with the referee to further defuse the tense situation.
It was ultimately an incredible example of important leadership and the small margins that make all the difference, as was the case when Faf de Klerk used all his experience to not feed the ball into the scrum after an early surge.
The importance of all of this was also recounted by former Springbok Rob Louw in a post to social media that can be seen below.
Also make sure you check out the YouTube video during the dramatic final stages, and look out for all the interactions from the two-hour mark.
The ball in on seeing us under pressure from the hit thankfully because of his experience he didn't feed the scrum and was reformed and the rest is history!!The moral of the story experience wins finals !Well done to Faf and @Deonf 👍💪👏👏👏
The emotion on Fourie’s face after the final whistle blew when thy beat All Blacks 12-11 revealed how much the victory meant to him.
“That emotion you saw after the whistle, that was relief. The last three weeks, winning by one point, it was stressful. Grafting it out at the end, and you know you just have to get the ball back to win the game and move on.
Fourie, who was the oldest Springboks player to make his debut at the Rugby World Cup this year also told IOL that he would’ve never imagined he’d be a world champion two years ago.
“If you had told me two years ago when I came back to South Africa that I would be standing here today with a World Cup winners medal, I would’ve laughed and said you are smoking some weird stuff. But I am very happy and fortunate to be in this position.”
