“A lot of the guys from Western Province, Free State, Natal, they supported me as a captain (of the Springboks) but obviously Francois and Kitch were very close and, and Kitch just thought that it would be not good for the team if there’s like a split in the support of the captain,” Strauss said.
“It was all about the captain, but I never had a problem to play under Francois, but, yeah, they didn’t see it like that… they made it clear to me, I won’t play for the Springboks again.”
Strauss sat and watched his former teammates beat New Zealand in an iconic World Cup final in South Africa in front of President Nelson Mandela. Strauss was caught between intense pride at what his country had achieved on and off the field, and his intense sadness at not being part of it.
A few months after the final, Strauss was met by former dual-international Michael O’Connor and Mal Meninga in South Africa about the possibility of moving to Australia and playing in the proposed rebel Super League competition.
Tiaan Strauss of Australia is tackled by Jonny Wilkinson of England during the Centennary Test Match in 1999 in SydneyCredit: Getty Images
Strauss’ international Test future was finished in South Africa and despite only watching a single game of rugby league, he took the plunge and moved to Cronulla ahead of the 1996 season.
“The Super League guys came over here and wanted to recruit some Springboks to league so they could create the interest in the game and then maybe, I think the idea was to later on put a Super League team in South Africa as well,” Strauss said.
“I just thought, I’m not going to play here for the Springboks, I’ve already played 158 games for (Western) Province, so as a new adventure, yeah, I signed a two-year deal with the Cronulla Sharks.”
Strauss was not the only South African who moved to Super League in 1996. Future Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos joined the Bulldogs alongside Christian Stewart, Pieter Muller joined Penrith, while Andrew Aitken and Warren Brosnihan joined Perth’s Western Reds.
Out of his compatriots, Strauss had by far the most success in his new code, playing 14 games in first grade for Cronulla as a front-rower. Given rugby was just turning professional in 1996, Strauss arrived at Shark Park to see his first professional sporting environment and was shocked by the superior levels of toughness and conditioning needed to survive.
“The contact at that stage was definitely tougher than union and also the players were better conditioned,” Strauss said.
“Union was just coming out of the amateur era and we didn’t have gym program and stuff, you know, you, you did a bit with your free time or maybe twice a week.
“Then you come in this environment where it’s very rigorous with very intense gym program and the start it was tough, but yeah, I think I adapted.”
By the end of his second season, despite making strong friendships in Cronulla, Strauss was ready to return home after finding rugby league “monotonous” and missing the technical aspects of the game he had grown up playing. As travel arrangements were being made, the Waratahs gave Strauss a late opportunity to stay in Australia.
While representing the Waratahs, playing Test rugby for the Wallabies hadn’t entered Strauss’ mind. He had played 14 times for South Africa and assumed that he was ineligible. A phone call from Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen to Strauss at the end of the 1998 season changed everything, with a World Cup in 1999 looming.
Tim Horan and Tiaan Strauss training with the Wallabies in 1999Credit: Action Photographics
“Rod Macqueen phoned me out of the blue and he said, ‘do you realise that you can be eligible for Australia next year?’ And I said, ‘no, I didn’t know that’,” Strauss said.
“Then he went through from there: it was like, you haven’t played for your country for three years and if you lived in another country for three years, then you can qualify, that was sort of the basic rule, but yeah, it was never a goal (to play for the Wallabies) I never thought about it until he phoned me and then obviously I thought about it a lot.
“It was a difficult decision because if you’re South African, you’re a Springbok, but the fact that I missed out on the 1995 World Cup and the attraction of maybe making the 1999 World Cup was the motivation.”
Strauss debuted for the Wallabies in June 1999 scoring a hat trick against Ireland, becoming the first former Springbok to represent Australia. The next month, he faced the Springboks with his new teammates, having previously faced the Wallabies three times as a South African.
“It was an emotional week leading up to the game, I remember also Rod Macqueen came to me and gave me the anthem, printed out, he said, ‘you, you better learn the anthem because the camera will be on you’,” Strauss said.
“When you run out and the whistle goes, you just don’t think about the emotional things much, you just play the best you can for your team and your teammates… I think the Springbok players also, they understood, my reasons why I made the transition and the change. I don’t think there was any hard feelings from their side.”
Strauss was a key part of the Wallabies World Cup winning squad in 1999, deputising for the suspended Toutai Kefu to start in the quarter-final win against Wales at No.8 in his final cap. Strauss stayed on working in Australia after the tournament, but ultimately missed his homeland and returned to South Africa, where he has ultimately settled in Stellenbosch raising his family.
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Strauss will be in Cape Town Stadium to watch his two former teams square off on Saturday, but will not have divided loyalties. Despite maintaining a close friendship with former teammates RA chief executive Phil Waugh and chairman Daniel Herbert, when he’s asked who he will support, there is no hesitation.
“It’s an easy answer, I always support the Wallabies when they play any other country, but as I always say, you can change the colour of the jersey, but you can’t change the blood,” Strauss said.
Watch every match of The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup live and on demand on Stan Sport kicking off 17 August.
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