"During the apartheid era, South African teams had been banned from international competition, and its exclusion from rugby was an especially severe blow to the white population. Blacks, on the other hand, saw the national Springbok team & its colors as symbols of oppression and cheered against their home team. With the 1995 Rugby World Cup set to take place in South Africa, Mandela recognized an opportunity with the Springboks to achieve national...

Now a senior at Pine Mountain Academy, fifteen-year-old Ryan Dean West becomes captain of the rugby team, shares his dormitory room with a twelve-year-old prodigy, Sam Abernathy, and through the course of the year learns to appreciate things he has tried to resist, including change.

In 1994, having been released from his long imprisonment, Nelson Mandela is elected as the first president of post-apartheid South Africa. Racial tension runs high, even in the president's offices, and especially among the members of his half black, half Afrikaner security team. As hosts of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, South Africa's low ranked national team, the Springboks, have a berth in the tournament. Mandela begins makeing public appearances supporting...

Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.