Peter-Steph du Toit became the first Springbok player to mark his 100th test match with a victory over the All Blacks at the DHL Stadium on Saturday.
Since the first flight of the SAA plane over Ellis Park before the 1995 Rugby World Cup final between these two great rivals, South Africans have been captivated by the sound of jet fuel marking the start of epic rugby matches. On Saturday, two planes—one black, one green—flew low over Table Mountain, and for a moment, the entire DHL stadium fell silent.
Cape Town, seeking to redeem last week's disappointment in Johannesburg, gathered thousands of fans. They came from Sasolburg, Stellenbosch, Portchepstone, and Pretoria, desiring only one outcome: to see their great hero Peter-Steph du Toit mark his 100th match with a victory over the mighty All Blacks.
No Springbok centurion had achieved this before him. The first to lose after reaching a hundred matches was Percy Montgomery, followed by former captain John Smith, who experienced disappointment in front of 90 thousand fans at FNB Stadium, Jean de Villiers in Wellington, and Damian de Allende last week at Ellis Park.
When du Toit emerged from the tunnel not alone, but accompanied by his wife Wilhelmien and their three children gathered around him, emotions reached their peak. The Stellenberg School led a flag procession while the voice of former Idols winner Sasha-Lee Davis sang the national anthem under the open roof, bringing tears to the eyes of half the spectators. South African Olympic champion Chad le Roux, holding the flag, could not hold back his tears.
It seemed everyone understood PSDT's path to this momentous occasion. Two cruciate ligament tears in his early twenties threatened to end his career before it even began. In 2015, his own father, Pieter, donated a tendon that restored his son's knee. Then, in February 2020, a routine collision in Super Rugby turned into something much more serious—a vascular injury and acute compartment syndrome, which called his left leg and, according to some reports, his entire rugby career into question. Doctors told him he might never run again. Sixteen months later, he was back in the Springbok squad.
Between the two cruciate ligament tears and the leg injury on one side hangs the 2019 World Cup medal, and on the other, the 2023 medal, the 2021 British & Irish Lions series win, and two World Rugby 'Player of the Year' awards framing this period. When referee Angus Gardner finally blew the starting whistle, the rugby matched the intensity of the drama: Bok centre Jesse Kriel broke through near the goal line in the first two minutes, setting the tone for the match.
The teams exchanged scores and several tries, but the noise level increased when Springbok captain Siya Kolisi crossed the line, inspiring the crowd to support their team even more strongly. However, this is not called the Greatest Rivalry for nothing. The All Blacks absorbed the hits, kept getting up after falls, and launched their counterattacks, with Captain Ardie Savea's touchdown putting them within one point in the final minutes.
Nevertheless, the Boks were not going to give up that night in Cape Town, and it was fitting that Cheslin Kolbe, the son of the Mother City, demonstrated play on the scale of du Toit to finally break the centurion's curse.