It was a dream come true for dedicated rugby fan Sean Piper, when he finally met Rugby World Cup winning captain, Francois Pienaar.
The 43-year-old has been on a 24-year journey to get every single World Cup winning captain to sign an original rugby ball since the inaugural tournament - and he's finally there.
Piper met Pienaar, who led the Springboks to their first RWC victory in 1995.
The South African added his signature to the ball, used in the 1987 RWC semifinal, that's fast becoming a piece of sporting history.
Ahead of the meeting Piper was so nervous he said he couldn't sleep.
The rugby-mad Australian had the long-awaited encounter with his idol at the Sky Grand Hotel in Auckland. The South African appeared relaxed and intrigued by the ball, commenting on the signatures of the other winning captains.
Piper asked the 44-year-old what he was thinking when the final hooter went off in the 1995 World Cup final, because he kneeled to ground and put his hand to his face and all the other players went around him.
"I was praying. I am a Christian so I went on my knees to say thank you for this opportunity and before I knew it everyone was around me," said Pienaar.
"It was amazing."
Piper said he's spent hours searching the internet and writing numerous emails to track down Pienaar, but it wasn't until he met Australian captain Nick Farr-Jones that he finally got lucky.
The 1991 winning captain put him in touch with Pienaar's personal assistant and when Pienaar learned that Piper would be in New Zealand for the final, he agreed to meet him.
"I've spent years trying to track him down. He's the missing link," Piper said.
Piper first got the captain's signature idea when he was in Sydney in 1987 watching Australia play France in the RWC semifinal. The ball was kicked into the crowd and he picked it up.
"I was hooked into rugby and I thought this could be a piece of history here, so from then on I decided to track down every winning captain, and I have."
It's part of a journey that's spanned decades and thousands of kilometres with Piper flying around the world following a sport he loves.
He's kept every single World Cup final ticket and programme.
In 1988, he found out ex-all Black captain David Kirk was in Sydney for a charity event. He tracked him down to the hotel where it was held and Kirk signed the ball.
In 1991, Piper was working in London and went to the Twickenham for the RWC final and tracked the Wallabies to a pub nearby, where Farr-Jones signed the ball and the whole team signed his jersey.
He travelled to South Africa in 1995 but missed out on getting Pienaar's signature, although he almost got the South African president's scribe - a close second as Mandela presented Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup after winning the tournament.
"I had a brush with Nelson Mandela. I wanted him to sign the ball. I got close to him and I put my pen out for him to sign it but the security guard belted my arm and Nelson Mandela looked at me and said 'I can't sign that.'
"That would have been amazing."
Australian captain John Eales who captained the 1999 winning side and Martin Johnson again in 2003 were relatively easy to track down, but South Africa's second RWC winning captain John Smit was more of a challenge.
"When he came to Australia, he flew to Brisbane. I live in Sydney but I flew to Brisbane. I'd called the Sharks' staff who gave me the details of where he was staying. So I flew up and met him there."
What began as an idea has quickly become a huge part of Piper's life.
There no doubt that the Australian will go to England in 2015 where he's hoping to add Richie McCaw's signature to the other winning captains on the ball.
"The only final I never went to was first one in 1987 because the ball was from the semi-final. But I've been to every final from then on and I'm going to every final in the future for a long time.
"Maybe it'll end up in a museum one day."
My journey did continue after Francois, I met up with Richie McCaw the morning after the final .
Regards Sean
See film of Sean meeting Francois at http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/fan-central/5834602/Rugby-zealot-gets-his-man-Pienaar
Memory added on June 6, 2012
1 Comment (Add your voice)
I am Wales fan and had hoped for a French win, for no other reason than the Arrogance and disrespest that this England side shows to other teams. They took the p*** out of Ireland in the Six nations and got stuffed, then shouted about how France would fold in the RWC and got stuffed again. There is a lack of discipline and some of them play just for themselves and behave like premier football $%£^s. English RFU need to tear some a******* when the team get home.
– Yusuf, August 3 2012 at 23:46
