Francois Pienaar
Jacobus Francois Pienaar ( born January 2, 1967 in Vereeniging ) is a former South African rugby union player who played in the position of winger. For the South African national team, the " Springboks ", he came from 1993 to 1996 in 29 internationals for use ( in any game as captain ) and won with her 1995 world title. At the provincial and club level he played from 1989 to 1996 for the Transvaal, then to 2000 in England for the Saracens. For five years he was coach of the Saracens.
Career
Pienaar is the oldest of four sons of an Afrikaner working-class family, descended from Huguenot immigrants from France called Pinard. After finishing high school in Witbank, he received a scholarship for the Rand Afrikaans University (now part of the University of Johannesburg ), where he studied law and played for the University Rugby team. From 1989 he was in the South African Championship, the Currie Cup, the national team of the province of Transvaal ( today's Golden Lions ) in use. 1993 Transvaal won with Pienaar as captain of the Super 10 (predecessor of the competition Super 14) and the Currie Cup in 1994 for a second time the Currie Cup.
His first cap for the Springboks graduated Pienaar on June 26, 1993 against France, nearly a year after the lifting of the boycott because of the South African apartheid policies. In each of his 29 games, he led the team as captain. Although the Springboks only had one black players in their ranks, President Nelson Mandela supported the team in public. He hoped it would with a successful showing at the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa in transition located a the country and help overcome contradictions.
During the 1995 World Cup defeated the South Africans, who were in the world rankings only in sixth place, one after the defending champions Australia, Romania, Canada, Samoa and France. In the final in front of 60,000 fans at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, they met New Zealand. Despite a lower leg strain Pienaar played by and the Springboks won 15:12 after extra time. After the game he received from Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey, the trophy awarded, the Webb Ellis Cup.
A week after the world title in the Transvaal led Pienaar a player strike and sat better conditions. He has not been nominated for the national team after coach Andre Markgraaff had accused him that he had faked an injury during a game in late 1996. In 1997 he went to England, where he was taken by the Saracens in Watford as player-coach under contract. 1998 won the previously relatively unsuccessful Saracens the Pilkington Cup and came in the championship in second place.
2000 Pienaar retired as a player and was manager of the Saracens. Since the team was unable to build on the previous successes in the following two years, he put 2002 positions as coach and manager down and returned to Cape Town, where he has since lived with his family. Occasionally, he commented rugby matches on British television. From 2002 to 2005 Pienaar led to the South African Bid Committee for the World Cup 2011; However, the contract was awarded to New Zealand. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2005.
Book and Film
1999 Pienaar was co- author of the book Rainbow Warrior, in which he looks back on his career and in particular the 1995 World Cup, but also exerts criticism of the sports officials. In the 2009 released movie Invictus - Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, which is based on a novel by John Carlin and the events before and discussed during the 1995 World Cup, Pienaar is portrayed by Matt Damon.