50 Years of South African Rugby PDF
Preview 50 Years of South African Rugby
50 YEARS OF SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY brought to you by Free eBook We make insurance easy, so you’ll have more time to spend doing the things you love. dialdirect.co.z a Ts&Cs apply. Authorised FSP: 15259. 2 50 Years of South African Rugby TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S 2015 Rugby World Cup Preview 4 Introduction 8 Black Rugby in South Africa 13 South African Test Rugby through the Decades 1965-1974 18 1975-1984 30 1985-1994 44 Transformation in South African Rugby 62 1995-2004 76 2005-2015 101 All the Scores: 50 Years of Test Rugby 129 Copyright © Times Media (Pty) Ltd 2015 All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-928216-90-2 (ePDF) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 3 50 Years of South African Rugby The Eighth Rugby World Cup, hosted by England for the second time, is set to be the biggest yet, with over two million fans watching live matches. Here we break the tournament down by the numbers: RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015 FACTS: SA RECORDS: 8 Staging of Rugby World Cup 111 Most points in RWC history (Percy Montgomery, 1999-2007) 11 Cities 105 Most points in a single RWC tournament (Percy Montgomery, 2007) 13 Venues 34 Most points by an individual in a single match (Jannie de 20 competing nations in the finals Beer vs. England, 1999) 20 scrum machines deployed 10 Most tries in RWC history (Bryan Habana, 2007-2011) 44 days long 8 Most tries in a single RWC tournament (Bryan Habana, SA, 48 matches 2007) 100 spin bikes 6 Most penalties by an individual in a single match (Jannie de 200 kicking tees Beer, vs. Australia, 1999) 207 broadcasting countries 6 Most conversions by an individual in a single match (Jannie de Beer vs. Spain, 1999) 620 players 5 Most drop-goals by an individual in a single match (Jannie 6000 volunteers de Beer, SA vs. England, 1999) 400000 visiting fans expected from over 100 countries 4 Most tries by an individual in a single match (Bryan Habana 2,300,000 match day tickets sold vs. Samoa, 2007) 4,000,000,000 expected global TV audience 40,000,000,000 projected income for Britain in Rand value PREVIOUS HOST COUNTRIES: 1987 New Zealand and Australia GENERAL RUGBY WORLD CUP FACTS: 1991 England (with games across Britain and Ireland) PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1995 South Africa (first RWC where all games were played in 1987 New Zealand one country) 1991 Australia 1999 Wales (games played in Britain, Ireland and France) 1995 South Africa 2003 Australia 1999 Australia 2007 France (with games played in Britain) 2003 England 2011 New Zealand 2007 South Africa 2011 New Zealand 4 50 Years of South African Rugby TEAM RECORDS: INDIVIDUAL RECORDS: 1 Number of winners from the northern hemisphere 277 Most points in RWC history (Jonny Wilkinson, England, 1999- (England, 2003) 2011) 2 The number of titles New Zealand, Australia and South 126 Most points in a single RWC tournament (Grant Fox, NZ, Africa have each won 1987) 3 The number of times France have been runners-up (1987, 45 Most points by an individual in a single match (Simon 1999, 2011). Culhane, NZ, vs. Japan, 1995) 24 The number of Pool matches NZ have won. The only team 20 Most conversions by an individual in a single match (Simon in history to have won all their Pool games Culhane, NZ, vs. Japan, 1995) 21 Most number of tries scored by one team in a single 15 Most tries in RWC history (Jonah Lomu, NZ, 1995-1999) match (NZ vs. Japan, 1995) 8 Most tries in a single RWC tournament (Jonah Lomu, NZ, 46.8 Average number of points NZ have scored in every one of 1999 and Bryan Habana, SA, 2007) their 43 RWC games 8 Most penalties by an individual in a single match (Gavin 142 Largest winning margin (Australia 142 Namibia 0 in 2003) Hastings, SCO, Thierry Lacroix, FRA, Gonzalo Quesada, ARG, Matt Burke, AUS) 145 Most points scored by a team in a match (NZ vs. Japan in 1995) 6 Most tries by an individual in a single match (Mark Ellis, NZ, vs. Japan, 1995) 162 Most aggregate points in a match (NZ 145 Japan 17 in 1995) 5 Most drop-goals by an individual in a single match (Jannie de Beer, SA vs. England, 1999) 272 Total tries scored by NZ in RWC history 2012 Most points by a team in RWC history (NZ) DID YOU KNOW? 1 The number of matches the Springboks have lost in World Cups played in the northern hemisphere 1 The number of games legendary prop Os du Rant lost in his World Cup career. 2 The number of World Cup winners’ medals Du Randt won 93.75 Du Randt’s winning percentage at RWC. He played 16 games and SA won 15. 4 The number of games the Springboks have lost in RWC history 5 The number of RWC tournaments the Springboks have played in 86.2 the Springboks’ RWC winning percentage after 25 wins in 29 matches. It’s the highest by any nation. NZ has a winning percentage of 86.04 with 6 losses in 43 outings 82957 The highest attendance for a RWC match when Australia and England played in the 2003 final at the Sydney Olympic Stadium. 5 50 Years of South African Rugby 2015 POOLS POOL A POOL C 1 AUSTRALIA 1 NEW ZEALAND 2 ENGLAND 2 ARGENTINA 3 WALES 3 TONGA 4 FIJI 4 GEORGIA 5 URUGUAY 5 NAMIBIA POOL B POOL D 1 SOUTH AFRICA 1 FRANCE 2 SAMOA 2 IRELAND 3 JAPAN 3 ITALY 4 SCOTLAND 4 CANADA 5 USA 5 ROMANIA Tackle claims easily by logging them online. dialdirect.co.za 6Ts &C s ap5p0ly .Y Aeuathrosr iosef dS FoSuPt:h 1 A52fr5i9c.an Rugby SOUTH AFRICA’S WORLD CUP 2015 TEAM Lwazi Mvovo Wing Adriaan Strauss Hooker Morné Steyn Fly-half Bismarck du Plessis Hooker Pat Lambie Fly-half Bryan Habana Wing Pieter-Steph du Toit Lock Coenie Oosthuizen Prop Ruan Pienaar Scrum-half Damian de Allende Centre Rudy Paige Scrum-half Duane Vermeulen Number 8 Schalk Brits Hooker Eben Etzebeth Lock Schalk Burger Flanker Fourie du Preez Scrum-half Siya Kolisi Flanker Francois Louw Flanker Tendai Mtawarira Prop Frans Malherbe Prop Trevor Nyakane Prop Handré Pollard Fly-half Victor Matfield Lock Jannie du Plessis Prop Willem Alberts Flanker Jean de Villiers (Captain) Centre Willie le Roux Fullback Jesse Kriel Centre Zane Kirchner Fullback JP Pietersen Wing Lood de Jager Lock 7 50 Years of South African Rugby Time is precious, so we won’t waste a moment of yours. dialdirect.co.z a Ts&Cs apply. Authorised FSP: 15259. 8 50 Years of South African Rugby 50 YEARS OF SPRINGBOK RUGBY An Introduction THIS BOOK looks back at the past 50 years of South attempt to do much the same for South African black and African test rugby through the eyes of the Sunday Times white people, briefly achieving apparently unequivocal writers who covered those matches. It reflects the period unity in 1995 when one of Roos’s more recent successors, from 1965 to 1989 when the Springboks played as a team Francois Pienaar, declared that the Springboks’ victory over representing apartheid South Africa, the hiatus between the All Blacks in the World Cup final had been achieved 1989 and 1992 when the difficult process to rugby unity not only for the 63 000 mostly white fans in the Ellis Park was achieved, and up to the present with the Springboks stadium that day, but for the country’s entire 43 million preparing to contest their fifth Rugby World Cup. people. Accepting the trophy from Nelson Mandela, who Springbok rugby, of course, goes back much further than was wearing a Springbok cap and jersey, the two men – in 1965. The first time a South African rugby team was called that brief, euphoric, moment for South Africans – became the Springboks was in 1906 when Paul Roos, a Stellenbosch symbols for unity. school teacher who was selected as captain by his teammates, That feeling of optimism was short-lived. As difficult as led a team to Britain for the first time. The nickname for the it was for Afrikaners to put aside their bitterness over the team emerged from an impromptu meeting between Roos, devastation of their land and their women and children his vice-captain Paddy Carolin and the team’s manager, being forced into concentration camps during the Anglo- Cecil Carden. It was an attempt to pre-empt the British press Boer War, so it was for black South Africans to suddenly coming up with its own name for the team. The touring forget the oppression of apartheid after just one democratic team was made up of English and Afrikaans-speaking election and one world cup triumph. The very symbol of players, some of whom had been on opposite sides just four that brief unity on a June afternoon in Johannesburg – the years before in the South African (Anglo-Boer) War. Roos’s Springbok – quickly became divisive as South Africans got aim during the tour – apart from winning the rugby matches back to the business of normal life. Among many black – was to heal “race relations” in the team. In those days South Africans, the Springbok was a symbol of white that meant reconciliation between the two white language supremacy and apartheid, despite its having been used as groups. Articulate and gracious, in victory or defeat, Roos an emblem on the jerseys of African and coloured teams also regarded the tour as an opportunity to mend fences who had played separately from the white Springboks until with Britain, the aggressor and victor in the war. 1992. Compromises have been made over the past 23 years Ninety-six years later, a new Springbok team would in which the Springbok emblem, if not the team’s name, has been relegated to the jersey’s sleeve amid a profusion altogether as a result of the area being declared “white” in of sponsors’ logos, national symbols, clothing brands and – 1966, the removal of an entire community in the 1970s and every four years – a World Cup label. the destruction of old community ties. Today the controversy over Springbok rugby is rather If such comparisons smack too much of politics, it’s the pace of transformation. Team selections, widely because rugby has always been about politics, whether debated among the fans and coaches, dare not lose sight of racial politics, national and provincial politics, or pure rugby racial make-up of Springbok teams. Since the first unified politics where Danie Craven proved a master. Paul Roos, Springbok team in 1992, which contained not a single black too, was a politician. His diplomacy during the 1906 tour to player, coaches and selectors have striven – or been urged to Britain was nothing less than the politics of reconciliation strive – for a more representative side. But the complexities between former enemies. He was even elected to Parliament of rugby politics, the socio-economic disparities of players in 1948 by the voters of Stellenbosch on the National Party from different ethnic groups and all the old prejudices have ticket but died in the same year. proved difficult to overcome in choosing the strongest team to Craven was as skilled a politician as he was a rugby confront rivals that don’t share these problems. Nevertheless player, Springbok captain, coach and administrator. In his it would be churlish to deny that Springbok rugby has moved 37 years as head of first white rugby then briefly as head on, dramatically so, since 1965 when teams were made up of the united SA Rugby Football Union, together with of only white men and many white South Africans firmly Ebrahim Patel, Craven had to defend his presidency against believed that black people did not play rugby, or if they did, insidious Broederbond attempts to undermine him. For were not up to white standards. Overcoming such bigotry most of his life he was a Sap, a Jan Smuts/United Party and also eliminating the perception that rugby is still the supporter, although he never declared that openly. Although preserve of white Afrikanderdom remains at the bottom he appeared to run the SA Rugby Board like an autocrat, of the game’s problems. Indeed, today’s Springbok coach, he cunningly manipulated votes, sometimes through blatant and even the captain and players, have responsibilities wider gerrymandering, to stay in power. When annual meetings than just tactics on the field. of the board, always held on a Friday, appeared to run as This book attempts to put Springbok rugby in its wider smoothly as a communist party central committee – with context, although games played, won and lost from 1965 no dissent – it was because any contentious issues had to 2015 remain the main focus. However, it cannot ignore been caucused and resolved the day before in some secret that in the first decade of the past 50 years, while Springbok gathering. So anyone who believes that sport and politics rugby players were packing their bags to tour overseas, other should not mix – and it was phrase often uttered by white rugby players were packing up their belongings in places sports people during the apartheid era, including Craven – like District Six in Cape Town to be forcibly removed far they are being either wilfully ignorant, or plainly dishonest. from communities that had been established for more than Craven’s politics extended beyond South Africa. He a hundred years. In the case of District Six, the Roslyns became a member of the International Rugby Board in club which had been established in the 1800s, disappeared 1957, a year after ascending to the South African Rugby 10 50 Years of South African Rugby
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