Nelson Mandela pays a surprise visit to the Springbok rugby team's practice session, 1995

Aptly titled, this new documentary (out this week on ESPN) refers to the extra special magic Nelson Mandela provided as an honorary member of the 15-man rugby team in South Africa.  If the theme sounds vaguely familiar, you may be thinking of Invictus; Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated film which was released last year, telling the gritty story of how Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup helped South Africa’s healing process as the country struggled to find its feet in its newly-established democracy. 

Even though some of us were in South Africa at the time and actually at that momentous World Cup final match in 1995, watching the celluloid rendition of this powerful political-sporting story 15 years later still induced some hard-to-believe moments. To the uninitiated, it must have seemed such an unlikely story, so perfect that it could only have been fabricated by Hollywood.  And yet, the events happened (pretty much) the way Mr Eastwood portrayed it. 

The 16th Man documentary  is directed by Cliff Bestall and its drier, journalistic tone gives credibility to this tale that might otherwise be dismissed as exaggerated cheesiness straight out of Hollywood. Perhaps more fantastic than the movie Invictus or The 16^th Man documentary is the fact that this story happened at all, and how different the outcome may have been for South Africa had it not been for “Madiba” (Nelson Mandela) striding out on to the field that day, in his green and gold Springbok rugby shirt. 

“Who would have ever imagined that people would be dancing in the streets in Soweto for a rugby victory of a Springbok side?” asks Bishop Desmond Tutu rhetorically. “But they did!” 

Produced by 46664 Bangle supporters, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary, The 16^th Man promises to deliver an inspiring story – don’t miss it!