Rugby consultant Rudolf de Wee on Invictus

I thought it was a big joke," Rudolf de Wee says of the night former Springbok rugby player Chester Williams called to ask him to collaborate on a movie for Clint Eastwood.

"I mean, why would Clint Eastwood — Clint Eastwood — now want Chester for a movie? And me?"

De Wee laughs at the recollection, and a year later still seems in awe of that moment when his love of rugby led to him working as a rugby consultant on Invictus with one of the greatest directors of our time.

"I only figured maybe there was something to it when Chester said I should catch a plane from Johannesburg to Cape Town the next day — the ticket had been bought already. He said he'd be waiting for me at the airport. And he was."

His suspicion wasn't unfounded, as he'd grown up playing rugby with Williams. "I grew up in Paarl," the South African says. "Big rugby country.

"While Chester went on to play on provincial and national level, I focused on club rugby."

De Wee currently coaches rugby skills at Jebel Ali Primary School. "We started casting almost immediately after I stepped off the plane. The guys didn't just have to be able to play rugby, we were also looking for guys who resembled players in the 1995 World Cup."

A lot has been written about the realism of the action in the movie. "It's all real," De Wee says. "We looked at the actual game footage from the World Cup, then choreographed plays based on that.

"Clint would start shooting with the choreography, go into free play while continuing shooting. He was loving it! Wow, at his age he would move with a camera between us while we were playing. And these are professional first league rugby players — the tackles you see are real.

"The guys took some hard knocks. You'd put some ice on it and carry on."

In one of the film's most humorous scenes, McNeil Hendricks, portraying Williams, says, "I don't think — it messes with my rugby."

"That actually happened," De Wee says. "Chester came up to McNeil and gave him that line."

Filming highlight

Matt Damon stars as then Springbok captain Francois Pienaar in the movie. "Matt was very professional. He'd spend a lot of time just chatting with us to get the accent right. He'd go over his lines, or ask us in play what his character would actually say, then move aside to go over it, return and nail it. Matt's a great guy. Very down to earth."

De Wee says his highlight was filming the South Africa vs France game, where he was the only coach on set and got to work closely with director Eastwood. "He's a wonderful guy. Just a regular guy with a great personality."

Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, then South African president. "We didn't work together much, but he was very warm on set. Just wonderful."

At the time of this interview, De Wee hadn't seen the finished film yet. "The idea was to capture the feelings and emotions of '95. On set, that was exactly what I had experienced back then — people driving in their cars, blaring music and their hooters and hugging random strangers after the win.

"It still sends chills down my spine."

Reliving the past

Most South Africans, myself included, remember vividly the moment Nelson Mandela presented the trophy to Francois Pienaar after the Springboks' triumph over New Zealand in the 1995 World Cup final. So why watch Invictus, a movie about this event, a friend asks, if you experienced it first-hand?

Because master of subtlety Clint Eastwood is in top form here, taking you behind the scenes, facilitating an understanding of the nuances at play in post-apartheid South Africa. His storyline is gripping enough because this is a sports film in which the events on the sideline and in the stands are more important than what's happening on the field.

The acting, led by Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Pienaar and supported by a host of home-grown talent, should be lauded.

Because this is likely to be the only time we'll see a Mandela character not sanctified, but presented with all his human quirks — to greater effect.

Because once again South Africa will play host to a major sporting event amidst mounting Afro-pessimism casting doubt on its chances of success. And because it once more has the opportunity to be victorious, if not on the field, then in nation-building, leading to feelings of unity that send chills down one's spine.

Exactly like Eastwood has achieved, despite one's having lived through it all.