{"id":197339,"date":"2025-10-13T15:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197339\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T15:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:27:11","slug":"fran-cottons-role-in-rugbys-most-iconic-image-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/197339\/","title":{"rendered":"Fran Cotton’s role in rugby’s most iconic image revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

England<\/a> legend Fran Cotton will forever be famous for the picture taken of him covered from head to toe in mud on the British and Irish Lions<\/a> tour to New Zealand<\/a> in 1977.<\/p>\n

However, the prop turned sports clothing entrepreneur has revealed that he played a significant role in arguably the most iconic rugby image of them all: Nelson Mandela presenting the Webb Ellis Cup to Francois Pienaar<\/a> while wearing the Springbok No.6 jersey.<\/p>\n

Interviewed in the next issue of the glossy quarterly publication, Rugby Journal, Cotton talks about his life in and outside of rugby, including how Cotton Traders, the company he founded with former team-mate Steve Smith<\/a>, helped to make that magical moment happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat people never knew was that the shirt Nelson Mandela wore for the final was a Cotton Traders shirt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president\u2019s office phoned Cotton Traders to say \u2018the President would like to wear a Springbok shirt for the game\u2019. But they said it must be the captain\u2019s shirt; it had to have the captain\u2019s number on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had to fly him out a Springbok shirt that he could wear for the final. So that was pretty iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandela\u2019s gesture was a defining moment in the evolution of the Rainbow Nation, at a time when rugby was also undergoing a massive transformation.<\/p>\n

\"Fran<\/p>\n

The 1995 World Cup was the last tournament before the game went professional, a status bestowed upon Cotton well before the IRB officially declared the game \u2018open\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote an autobiography and Bob Weighill, the secretary of the Rugby Football Union, said, \u2018What are you doing with the
royalties?\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Well, they\u2019re in my bank account\u2019. He said, I couldn\u2019t do that, otherwise you\u2019re professional, so I said, \u2018Unfortunately, I\u2019m going to have to be a professional then. Because it was \u00a320,000, which doesn\u2019t sound a lot, but in those days, it was a lot, particularly if you\u2019d just got married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full 4,000-word Fran Cotton interview in the new issue of coffee-table print quarterly Rugby Journal, available to order now by clicking here >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England legend Fran Cotton will forever be famous for the picture taken of him covered from head to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-197339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}