Chester Williams


Chester Mornay Williams was a South African rugby union player. He played as a winger for the South Africa national rugby union team from 1993 to 2000, most notably for the team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was hosted in South Africa. He was the only non-white player on the team. During the tournament he scored four tries for South Africa in its quarter-final match and also appeared in the semi-final and final. Domestically he played rugby for the Western Province in the Currie Cup.
After retiring, Williams pursued a career in coaching, including a spell with the South Africa national rugby sevens team, the Uganda national rugby union team, and the University of the Western Cape. He was portrayed by McNeil Hendricks in the 2009 Clint Eastwood film Invictus, a biographical sports drama film about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and he also helped to coach Matt Damon and other actors for the rugby scenes used in the film. Williams died from a suspected heart attack on 6 September 2019 at the age of 49.

Playing career

International

Williams is best known as the star winger of the South Africa national Springbok team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup against New Zealand and was nicknamed "The Black Pearl". Williams was selected in the initial squad, but had to withdraw due to injury. He was later called back into the squad and played in the quarter final, scoring four tries, followed by the semi-final and the final against New Zealand, which South Africa won 15–12.
Williams was tall with a playing weight of. He was the first non-white player to be included in the Springboks squad since Errol Tobias and his uncle Avril Williams in the early 1980s. The selection of non-white players was not common in South Africa before 1992 because of the country's policy of apartheid, and there were separate governing bodies for whites, blacks, and coloureds.
He made his debut for the Springboks at the age of 23 against Argentina on 13 November 1993 in Buenos Aires, a game that the Springboks went on to win 52–23 and in which he also scored a try. Williams was on the Springboks team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, notably scoring four tries against Western Samoa in the quarter finals. His Boks career, hampered by knee injuries in 1996 and 1997, ended with a 23–13 win against Wales on 26 November 2000 in Cardiff. In total he played 27 games for the Springboks, scoring 14 tries and a total of 70 points. His honours included a Currie Cup win in 1999, with the Golden Lions, a Tri-Nations title in 1998 and the World Cup win in 1995.

Provincial

Domestically, Williams played rugby with the Western Province, appearing 63 times between 1991 and 1998, wearing shirt number 11. He then went on to win the Currie Cup with the Golden Lions in 1999.

Test history

No.OppositionResult
PositionTriesDateVenue
1.52–23Wing113 Nov 1993Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires
2.15–32Wing4 Jun 1994Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
3.27–9Wing11 Jun 1994Newlands, Cape Town
4.14–22Wing9 Jul 1994Carisbrook, Dunedin
5.9–13Wing23 Jul 1994Athletic Park, Wellington
6.18–18Wing6 Aug 1994Eden Park, Auckland
7.42–22Wing18 Oct 1994Boet Erasmus Stadium, Port Elizabeth
8.46–26Wing115 Oct 1994Ellis Park, Johannesburg
9.34–10Wing119 Nov 1994Murrayfield, Edinburgh
10.20–12Wing126 Nov 1994Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
11.60–8Wing213 Apr 1995Ellis Park, Johannesburg
12.42–14Wing410 Jun 1995Ellis Park, Johannesburg
13.19–15Wing17 Jun 1995Kings Park, Durban
14.15–12Wing24 Jun 1995Ellis Park, Johannesburg
15.40–21Wing12 Nov 1995Stadio Olimpico, Rome
16.24–14Wing218 Nov 1995Twickenham, London
17.14–13Substitute18 July 1998Subiaco Oval, Perth
18.13–3Substitute25 July 1998Athletic Park, Wellington
19.51–18Substitute10 Jun 2000Basil Kenyon Stadium, East London
20.18–13Substitute17 Jun 2000Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
21.22–27Substitute24 Jun 2000Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
22.23–44Substitute8 Jul 2000Colonial Stadium, Melbourne
23.46–40Wing119 Aug 2000Ellis Park, Johannesburg
24.18–19Wing16 Aug 2000Kings Park, Durban
25.37–33Wing12 Nov 2000River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires
26.28–18Wing19 Nov 2000Lansdowne Road, Dublin
27.23–13Substitute16 Nov 2000Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Biography

In 2002, Williams released his controversial authorised biography, simply titled "Chester", in which he claimed that he was shunned by some of his team mates in the 1995 Springbok squad and was called racist names by James Small, though he later clarified, "When we were together as a team, the team-spirit was good. We partied together, we had fun together, we stuck by one another. Those other things happened while we were playing against one another in the Currie Cup or domestic competitions. But that's in the past now. We have all moved on and everybody's happy."
Clint Eastwood directed Invictus, which is about the 1995 Rugby World Cup and how it helped South Africa heal after years of apartheid. It features many scenes involving Chester, portrayed by McNeil Hendricks, including his face on the side of an SAA aeroplane. It also showed several scenes showing black children in South Africa idolising him, although author John Carlin has questioned the accuracy of this as Williams in fact identified as coloured rather than black. Carlin also wrote that during the team's visit to a township, Mark Andrews had attracted more attention than Williams as he was able to speak Xhosa. Williams himself worked as one of the film's rugby coaches, alongside Dubai-based coach Rudolf de Wee, a childhood friend whom he recruited to the film. Williams and de Wee worked with the actors, including Matt Damon, in recreating the games depicted in the film.
Williams was selected to carry the Olympic torch on behalf of South Africa on two occasions, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2010, Williams completed the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race, joining several former Springbok Rugby players who have also taken on the rugged challenge of the Untamed African MTB Race.
Williams died on 6 September 2019, at the age of 49, from a suspected heart attack. He was the fourth player from the 1995 world-cup-winning side to die, after Ruben Kruger, Joost van der Westhuizen, and James Small, the last having died two months before Williams.

Coaching career

In 2001 Williams was selected as the coach of the South African sevens team that won bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and ended runners up in the World Sevens Series. He remained sevens coach until 2003.
Despite having almost no experience at coaching the fifteen-man code at any senior level, Williams was mentioned as one of the possible successors to Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli after he resigned in 2003, but the job was given to Jake White in 2004. He became coach of the Cats Super 12 team instead. He remained coach until July 2005 when he was fired after a series of poor results, when the Cats finished next-to-last in the 2005 super 12, achieving only one victory. However, in 2006, he was brought back into the South African coaching ranks as the head coach of the national "A" side. Also in 2006, he spent a successful few months as coach of the Uganda national rugby union team, the Cranes.
He was named as the new coach of the Pumas, the team representing Mpumalanga in the Currie Cup, on 7 September 2006. He signed a two-year deal with the team, effective 1 October 2006, but resigned as coach in mid-2007. When White stepped down as the national coach in 2008, Williams was again in the running to replace him, but the job instead went to Peter de Villiers.
Williams lastly was head coach of University of the Western Cape in Varsity Rugby. Under his leadership UWC won the 2017 Varsity Shield competition.