Joel Stransky 🇿🇦 & Gareth Rees 🇨🇦 | Episode 10

Hosts Dallen Stanford & Robin MacDowell are joined by legends Joel Stransky and Gareth Rees for #RugbyHive Episode 10.

Gareth Rees captained Canada 23 times, winning 55 Caps and scoring 487 Test points. He played in the first four Rugby World Cups in 1987, 1991, 1995 and 1999, cementing his name in rugby history as the only player to do so. He played professionally for several clubs in his career including Newport, Wasps and Harlequins as well as the famous Oxford University team and later represented the prestigious Barbarians.

In 2010, Rees was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He and fellow inductee Brian Lima of Samoa were the first members from outside the traditional rugby playing nations. He was inducted in the British Columbia Rugby Hall of Fame and the Canada Sports Hall of Fame as the first and only rugby player. Rees donated one of his rugby boots to be bronzed and used as a trophy to be competed for annually by St. Michaels and Oak Bay High School.

Joel Stransky is most famous for kicking the winning drop goal against the All Blacks to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. He scored all 15 points for the Springboks, which helped unite a divided South Africa with President Nelson Mandela using the sport of rugby to bring people together. In the 2009 movie Invictus, which tells the amazing story of South Africa’s World Cup win, he is portrayed by Clint Eastwood’s son Scott. Stransky played 22 times for his country, scoring 240 points.

He was part of the first ever Natal team to win the Currie Cup, played in Italy for L'Aquila and San Donà before representing the Leicester Tigers 73 times in the Premiership, scoring 896 points. His side won the 1996–1997 Pilkington Cup and the 1998–1999 Allied Dunbar Premiership.

Since retiring both Rees and Stransky have become well known television commentators.

In today’s episode we explore their early sporting days, advice for young rugby players, kicking technique and mindset. We go through the infamous Battle of Boet Erasmus, a pool game between Canada and South Africa which took place 25 years ago, we talk about the Canada side traveling all for the very first time to a post Apartheid South Africa.

We fast forward to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, where Canada again faced South Africa in a pool game for the first time since 1995, with Stransky and Rees connecting at the match and sharing a few laughs!

We also talk about Rees and the British royal family - coaching Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, at Eton College. We also get Stransky to reflect on Chester Williams and what he meant for South Africa - and creating positive change in communities through the LumoHawk Foundation.

We hope you enjoy and follow us on these platforms!

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