South Africa's brilliant performance in winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup and going through the tournament unbeaten has earned them the 2008 Laureus World Team of the Year award.
Watched by a global television audience, coach Jake White and players Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha, Percy Montgomery and Butch James received the world's most prestigious sports award from rugby legends Sean Fitzpatrick and Hugo Porta at the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg yesterday.
Montgomery said: "This award goes to all the players who can't be here tonight. I'm sure they would all have liked to be here.
"It's also a tribute to all those who have played for South Africa since 2004. This win took a lot of planning. We gelled at the right time, and that was the key."
Habana said: "I was a youngster in 1995 when Joel Stransky kicked that (drop)goal over. To carry on my dream, we have inspired the rest of a nation. Hopefully we can help to make a better South Africa for all."
Laureus Academy member Morné du Plessis, who was the 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning team manager, said: "The country is really proud of you. Comparisons in the team game are complicated, and the game has changed.
"Both teams have written epic chapters in our rugby history and shown that sport can bring people together."
Montgomery was the highest points scorer in the competition, but Habana, the top try scorer, was acknowledged as the player of the tournament.
Os du Randt, who also played in the 1995 World Cup-winning side, retired after the 2007 tournament as the most capped forward in South African rugby history.
The other nominees for the Laureus World Team of the Year Award were Italian football team AC Milan, the Australian cricket team, Ferrari, the German women's football team and the Iraqi men's football team.
The Laureus World Sports Awards is the only global sports awards honouring the best sportsmen and women across all sports each year.
The winners are selected by the ultimate sports jury - the 43 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, a collection of the world's greatest sportsmen and women, all living legends of sport.
The winners in the other categories were: World Sportsman of Year: Roger Federer; World Sportswoman: Justine Henin; World Breakthrough: Lewis Hamilton; World Comeback: Paula Radcliffe; World Sportsperson with a Disability: Esther Vergeer; World Action Sportsperson: Shaun White.
SA's Laureus history
South Africa has a rich history in the Laureus World Sports Awards: its patron, one of its founders, three members of its Academy and three previous award winners are South African.
Former President Nelson Mandela is the patron of the "Oscars of sport", which were co-founded by another South African, Johann Rupert, the executive chairman of Richemont, along with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche.
Three South Africans have won Laureus awards: Mike Horn (World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year 2001), Ernst van Dyk (Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability 2006), and Gary Player (Laureus Lifetime Achievement award 2003). Swimmer Natalie du Toit was nominated for the Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award in 2004.
And three South Africans - Horn, Player, and rugby player Morné du Plessis - are among the 46-member Laureus Academy, which reads like a who's who of sporting greats.
Sapa and SouthAfrica.info
