Rainbow Warrior, Francois Pienaar

Francois Pienaar is quite a remarkable figure in world rugby. Captain of his country on his debut, he went on to win more than 30 caps for South Africa, before becoming one of rugby union’s great statesmen and a powerful force in the game’s transformation through the twilight of amateurism into the professional era. Rainbow Warrior is Pienaar’s own story of how he grew up in a strong Afrikaner heartland and went on to unite the new South Africa, the rainbow nation, in rugby and thus helped accelerate his country’s acceptance onto the world stage following its emergence from the apartheid years.