As Paris buzzes with the thrill of hosting the Rugby World Cup, Elixirr partner Bobby Skinstad remembers he was once among South Africa’s green and gold line-up in 1999, playing hard for 80 fierce minutes before more than 80,000 fans.

“Nelson Mandela opened up the eyes of the world to South Africa and what was possible. I suppose the abridged version is that it was the end of apartheid,” he says of the World Cup hosted by South Africa in 1995. The event marked the first phase of his country’s re-entry into international rugby after more than a decade of exclusion due to apartheid.