Danie Craven

Statue of Dr Danie Craven, South Africa’s ‘Mr Rugby’

Danie Craven supported the 1987 Rugby World Cup even though South Africa was not able to compete because of its apartheid policies. His decision to support the proposal in effect guaranteed that South Africa would host a future tournament once apartheid was relaxed. The wily former Springbok captain thus set the stage for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which cemented the place of rugby, until then a symbol of Afrikaner supremacy, in the new multicultural nation.