“I liked rugby without being fanatical like most white South Africans, so in a way my knowledge of the game grew along with President Mandela’s,” said Brand as we waited on the Cape Town waterfront. “He knew that it was something the wardens would always talk about and make a personal relationship possible and he set about learning everything he could about the game, all the gossip and bits of pieces. That’s how we started talking. It was a way of connecting in a world when you are not meant to connect. He would never claim to be any sort of expert – he was a boxing man – but he came to know more than enough to get by.