In his 1994 inaugural speech, Nelson Mandela said: 'If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.'
This adage is one that seems to apply to Chester Williams on many levels. The Paarl-born player was the only non-white in South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup team. His presence in that winning team is seen as the moment the concept of the 'Rainbow Nation' became a reality.
Before the 1.74-metre winger stepped on the pitch and scored four tries in the quarter-final against Samoa, South Africa was a nation where the Springboks and rugby were seen as symbols of apartheid. 'Before that 1995 Rugby World Cup, non-white South Africans cheered for England, Australia or New Zealand when the Boks used to play', says Williams. 'It was only at the beginning of that World Cup that all of South Africa started to embrace rugby and the Boks.'
Williams will be sharing his views on the 1995 tournament and other rugby matters at a lunch open to all at the Hong Kong Football Club, where today's final will be shown live. He will be joined by three other stars of the past - Rico Gear, the former All Black winger now playing in Japan; former Wallaby Tony Daly; and Mike 'Iron' Teague, an ex-England international who is now a publican and property developer. The four rugby legends represent the four nations who have won the six previous World Cups.
The most famous of those victories was undoubtedly South Africa's success in 1995, which has been turned into a Clint Eastwood-directed movie, Invictus, starring Hollywood hot shots Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Springbok captain Francois Pienaar. Williams was played by McNeil Hendricks.
Of Pienaar's role as captain on that victorious team, Williams reveals: 'His strength was leadership. He knew how to motivate a team and he was very good at communication with both players and management'.