The moment when the then president of South Africa Nelson Mandela presented Springboks captain Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park in 1995 is celebrated as showing rugby’s power to bring people together.

This poignant image showing solidarity between black and white South Africans in the post-Apartheid era, has since been immortalised in books and movies.

At that same time in the mid-1990s, in the opposite hemisphere, a series of rugby matches took place in Sarajevo that potentially have just as much capacity to inspire as that famous Rugby World Cup final.

At that time, whenever the city of Sarajevo was mentioned, it was a byword for the war that ravaged the newly independent former Yugoslav state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

As technical director of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Rugby Union (BHRU) Danijel Keserovic explains of the grave danger players put themselves just to play in the country’s first match.

Men risked their lives to play rugby

“The first official match of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held on 28 November, 1992 in Split against Croatia but it is important to understand the war was raging, and the players travelled through a war zone by bus, literally risking their lives to play rugby,” says Keserovic.

The town of Zenica, about 70km northwest of Sarajevo was a rugby hot bed, providing the large numbers of players to Yugoslavia national teams and today it is where the BHRU is headquartered. 

Players from Zenica would play a key role in matches that may not have been at test level or featured any iconic rugby names but would give hope to people whose lives had been decimated by war.

“During the war period in 1994, Sarajevo was under siege, every day snipers were shooting, thousands and thousands of people died in the city but in that time, the United Nations peace-keeping forces made a contract with all sides and said today there will be a truce, peace, no shooting and that there would be a rugby match in Sarajevo, in Kosevo Stadium,” says Keserovic.

“Players from Zenica were escorted by the UN in armoured vehicles to Sarajevo. The media captured that match. It was a great historic moment, to have a rugby match in a city where people were dying because of the war every day but to have one special day where the shooting and killing would stop and for rugby to be played is a very special story.”

Rugby connecting people

The match featured Team Zenica playing against a selection of the French United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) troops and Keserovic saw it as rugby connecting people. 

“For the local boys, rugby was the only way to escape from the horrors of war. For the UN guys it was a way to have fun and relax at a difficult time and see a different side of the country of which they were not aware and they definitely were not expecting the country in which to play rugby.”

Over a four-year period, a total of eight games were played between the side from Zenica, winning five times and UN forces sides winning on the other three occasions.

Keserovic believes that these matches mean that rugby in Bosnia and Herzegovina became known as a sport that broke down barriers and pushed the boundaries and represented the goodwill of the international community.

“Lots of people around the world helped us during the war period, sending packages with food and clothes. The story of the rugby match is a continuation or extension of that help from around the world and the help that was given by the UN forces.”

Solidarity is one of World Rugby's core values

Much of this spirit of cooperation that aided the development of the fledgling BHRU demonstrates perfectly one of World Rugby’s core values, solidarity.

In 2009, member unions came together at the then IRB General Assembly in Dublin and it was agreed that solidarity, along with respect, integrity, passion and discipline would be established as the core values of the global game. The inspiration for including solidarity was born out of another conflict in Europe, more than a decade after the Balkan wars. 

The president of the Georgian Rugby Union (GRU) Giorgi Nijaradze spoke about the war that took place between Georgia and Russia in 2008 and how, rather than strain the relationship between the GRU and the Rugby Union of Russia (RUR), it further strengthened their friendship. Very soon after the conflict began, the RUR made contact with their Georgian counterparts to offer their moral support in a way that transcended war or political upheaval. It was a gesture of solidarity that has never been forgotten and helps to maintain the lasting rugby friendship between the two nations to this day.

According to Douglas Langley, who works with unions such as those in Georgia, Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in his role as World Rugby Regional Development Manager for Europe: “It was very emotional for a lot of people to hear Giorgi telling the story. It came from the heart. It was also such a tangible example of what goes on in rugby. On the basis of Giorgi’s poignant story, it was decided that solidarity should be one of the core values.”

Balkans again showed true spirit

Last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina was hit by a different kind of tragedy as floods devastated large parts of the country that were still only recovering from the war. The rugby community throughout the Balkans again showed the power of solidarity.

Keserovic says: “Rugby players were the first to provide assistance to people affected by the floods and landslides. We all went together to rescue people and property. Great help came from Slovenia and Croatia also where are our rugby friends collected food, medicine and clothing and sent it to Bosnia for people who lost everything.”

The BHRU may be relatively young but its history of standing strong together in the face of staggering adversity gives its members a great strength of character that will hopefully cause the game to continue to bloom into a brighter future.