Despite the disappointing result of the rain-affected game, the night will be long remembered for that moment and serve as a reminder of the uniting force sport can be.

But while Saturday night's anthem, sung in the Indigenous Eora language, gave me goosebumps, there was another national anthem I used to look forward to the most.

Rugby is a game played all over the world and one of the most interesting places to tour was South Africa.

A harsh place where murder and crime is an everyday reality.

But despite that, you didn't have to go far to see the respect the nation still holds for its former President Nelson Mandela, the historic figure who did his best to unite the divided nation.

In years following South Africa's iconic 1995 Rugby World Cup win, Mandela said: "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does."

And I believe the same is true for the anthems that are sung before big matches.

South Africa adopted its current national anthem in 1997. It's a song combining the 19th-century hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika with the previous national anthem, Afrikaans song Die Stem van Suid-Afrika.

But once the Apartheid ended, both songs would be sung before a match.

However, the practice of having two national anthems proved to be a cumbersome arrangement as performing both of them took as much as five minutes.

So the two were combined and sung using the five languages of Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. To have had the honour of being on the field to hear the home crowd belt it out is one of my most cherished rugby memories.

And while much gets made of the Haka and its cultural significance, I also really enjoyed hearing the Kiwi national anthem as you could feel the pride radiate throughout the stadium as the crowd belted it out to a level that I never quite felt while singing our anthem.

Why?

Maybe it has something to do with pride those countries have in the Springboks and All Blacks.

But I'm not sure.

Like the situation South Africa was in with singing two anthems before a game, Australia is now in the same predicament.

And to be honest, the "Welcome to country" is quickly becoming a well-intentioned box-ticking exercise.

A formality rather than a unifying statement of pride in the national identity, having been designed to keep everyone happy without having to compromise on an anthem that best represents us all.

And while coming up with an anthem that everyone can be proud of would be a great step forward, it still won't fix issues that continue to deny First Nations' peoples equal access and opportunities in society and sport.

But as someone who has a British passport and convict blood in him, I thought Saturday night's anthem was a positive step in the right direction and that the time the team spent learning the words was a greater show of respect than if they had "taken a knee".

South Africa's push for more coloured players wasn't a smooth ride, but I think most South Africans would say the bumps in the road were worth it when Siya Kolisi hoisted the William Webb Ellis Cup last year.

Kolisi not only became the 61st Springboks captain but the first black captain to win the Rugby World Cup. He will no doubt inspire the next generation of coloured players.

And in the future, I think we'll hear more triumphant stories like his and winger Makozalo Mapimpi's, which give hope to kids growing up in the toughest parts of Africa.

By studying South Africa's experiences, I think we could learn something and one day have an Indigenous captain lead the Wallabies to a World Cup title and capture the nation's attention in a way not seen since Cathy Freeman won Olympic gold.

And in the process, restore pride to the game they play in heaven and heal some wounds of an increasingly divided nation.

Garraburra ngayiri yabun

Yirribana Australiagal