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From director Clint Eastwood, “Invictus” tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their deeply divided country after the end of apartheid.
The film focuses on Mandela’s successful effort to make South Africa the host of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which Pienaar’s underdog Sprinboks won in dramatic fashion against legendary winger Jonah Lomu and the New Zealand All Blacks.
The moment was recently called one of the “Top Ten Sporting Moments that Shook the World” by Foreign Policy magazine.
The director and stars got serious about rugby while making the film and in order to be ready to portray a veteran rugby player, Damon got help from [Pienaar and] another star member of the 1995 Springboks, Chester Williams, who served as a coach for the onscreen rugby players.
Producer Lori McCreary attests, “Chester was a great technical advisor because he remembers every single play and where every person was. He was in a unique position in 1995, being the only black player on the Springboks. He became kind of a symbol at the time, which wasn’t his choice because he really just wanted to play rugby.”
“Chester wanted to make sure we played real rugby in the film,” Eastwood adds. “He said, ‘None of this fake movie stuff. We’re going to play proper rugby,’ as he put it. It’s a very tough game, and the guys who play it are a special breed of cat.”
“Clint actually became a big rugby fan,” says producer Robert Lorenz. “When we were in South Africa, he would watch hours of rugby every night and come in the next morning and talk about the games. He enjoyed it quite a bit.”
With nearly 85,000 registered members and a database of over 100,000 fans, USA Rugby, along with Play Rugby USA, are organizing numerous events around the “Invictus” opening in cities across the US.
The events are not only engaging the rugby community to see the movie, but are also intended to get the local community involved with their youth rugby programs and inspire more young players to ‘pick up the ball and run with it.’
“A movie such as ‘Invictus’ promotes exactly what the game of rugby is all about; rugby combined with local leaders can help transform lives and communities. USA Rugby and Play Rugby USA are very excited to be working with local communities all around the country to engage them in rugby clinics, tournaments and movie outings.” said Mark Griffin, USA Rugby’s Youth & High School Director.
The partnership between USA Rugby and Warner Bros. also allows for the placement of the USA Rugby logo on the “Invictus” movie website and vice-versa.
In addition, USA Rugby is hosting a contest centered around its ‘I Play’ promotional video that invites players to tell organizers why they play rugby by a short piece on www.rookierugbyclub.com
USA Rugby will choose 10 inspirational winners to receive a commemorative “Invictus” T-shirt.
More information on selected city-based events can be found on the website at www.usarugby.org/goto/invictus and all organizers are being encouraged to highlight their events on the recently upgraded Rookie Rugby Club events calendar as a platform to promote their efforts.
