Rugby World Cup: What happened when the lights went out in Port Elizabeth

The Canada vs. South Africa match in 1995 at Boet Eramus Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is best remembered for the brawl that broke out in the second half.

But there was also another, less-remembered, incident that day.

With the teams on the field finishing up their warmups, the stadium’s floodlights suddenly went out.

To this day, Rod Holloway, Canada’s assistant coach at the time and today a veteran immigration lawyer in Vancouver, insists things were a little fishy.

“The lights went out and we all went back to our dressing rooms,” Holloway recalls. It wasn’t clear what was happening.

“We were in the dark dressing room and the guys were cooling down of course. As the time carried on, I went to find out what was going on. It was ridiculous. There was no communication.”

What Holloway would discover was that while the Canadians were told there was nothing that could be done for them to keep warm, the South Africans had prepared for a possible lighting failure by having fifteen exercise bikes in their own dressing room.

“I’d gone back down to the sidelines,” he said. “And a bunch of Scottish journalists were standing there. ‘You know, the South Africans practised for the lights going out on Thursday,’ they told me. They then told me that they’d been observing the South Africans’ team run at the stadium when suddenly a loud noise was blasted over the PA and the South Africans moved quickly to evacuate the field and head back to their dressing rooms.”

The Canadians did know going in was that there had been some sort of threat made by protestors, suggesting they were going to take over the local power station, where the stadium’s electricity came from.

Whatever the circumstance, Holloway returned to the Canadian room and told head coach Ian Birtwell what the Scottish reporters had relayed to him. The coaches then went to the South African room and discovered, sure enough the South Africans had a team’s-worth of stationary bikes and were cycling away, hoping to keep their legs loose.

The Canadian players remained calm throughout, former captain Gareth Rees said.

“We’d done a ton of work with Dr. David Cox, who’s a legend,” Rees said, referring to the famed Canadian sports psychologist, who has worked with Rugby Canada for many years but also the Vancouver Canucks and others.

“The ability to deal with it was awesome, thanks to David,” Rees said. “The mental strength of our guys, there was a calmness. It was a bizarre time. Physiologically we were ramped up and then we came down and then we had to get up again.”

The teams were huddled up, saying their final words, getting ready to lineup for the anthems when the power went out.

Rees recalled giving his teammates a quick speech in the moment.

“The lights went out, and I said ‘alright boys, stick together we’re Canadians.’ And then you hear all the cleats rushing out, as the South Africans scrambled back to their dressing room,” he said. “And then our security guy came over and said. ‘what the hell are you doing boys, it could be a bomb!’ We moved pretty quick when we realized that.”

“Definitely a bizarre time.”

But Rees also pointed out, with pride, how the match finished: the Canadians had lost 20-0, but took a lap of honour, complete with a banner that said “Thank you PE,” to pay tribute to their hosts. They’d so enjoyed their time in the Eastern Cape city, they wanted to make sure the fans knew of their thanks.

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