1995 Springboks run for World Cup cause

Hundreds of South African rugby fans went on a dawn run in central London with members of the Springbok team who won the 1995 World Cup to encourage their team in Saturday's semi-final against New Zealand.

Francois Pienaar, captain of the 1995 team, organised the run in a bid to rekindle the spirit that led to the triumph over the All Blacks 20 years ago.

On the morning of the 1995 match, Pienaar took his squad on a jog through the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.

This time Pienaar and the Springbok fans gathered in London's Trafalgar Square before singing the country's national anthem in front of the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square.

The sight of the late Mandela, wearing a Springbok shirt, handing the World Cup to Pienaar in 1995, less than a year after he was elected as South Africa's first black president, became an iconic political and sporting image.

"We'll take the Springbok players in our hearts and in our hands," Pienaar, 48, said as he launched the anthem. The two mile (3.2kilometer) jog was held eight hours before the semi-final between two of the biggest rivals in rugby.