Rugby fan Clint Eastwood is looking for actors to play the parts of New Zealand's All Blacks in the 1995 World Cup.

Eastwood is directing next year's filming of the match said to have changed the world, in a film adaption of British journalist John Carlin's book on the New Zealand vs South Africa rugby match: Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, the New York Times reported.

Actor Matt Damon, who played a flanker in Martin Scorcese's Oscar-winner The Departed, is reported to be set to play Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, according to the New York Times, but no actor has yet been named to play All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick.

Carlin has sold the film rights to actor Morgan Freeman, who has had a script, The Human Factor, written by South African Anthony Peckham.

Freeman will play Nelson Mandela, the new South African president who used the rugby world cup for a symbolic healing of the wounds caused by apartheid, just a year after the country's first democratic elections.

The All Blacks failed to capitalise on opportunities and lost 15-12 in extra time. Joel Stransky, the Springboks' first five-eighth, thumped in the winning drop goal that sparked a nationwide celebration.

Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok rugby shirt, presented the William Webb Ellis Cup to Pienaar, becoming a symbol of new-found unity in the "rainbow nation" with the slogan "one team, one nation".

Still the most recent appearance of the All Blacks in a World Cup final, the match was also marked by allegations that a hotel employee named Suzy had poisoned the All Blacks.

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