Revisit the glory days of Bok rugby
Paul Dobson, a chronicler of rugby, has singled out 108 Tests, charting the SA team’s progress from 1891, writes Lindsay Slogrove
SPRINGBOK fans will never forget the anguish and horror of Saturday’s loss against the dynamic, passion-driven Japanese; it is forever part of the record books. But, thankfully, the record books also contain moments of joy and jubilation – and here are some of them to send to the faraway memory banks.
This collection is not only a tribute to the great moments in Springbok history; it is also a fascinating “clipping service” from newspapers of the day.
There is no calm “analysis” of a game, written when the heat has died down and cool heads return: this reflects the passion South African rugby inspires and the special place it holds in the hearts of its supporters.
Front pages and back pages, the pictures and headlines are evocative and tell two stories – one of the sport, and one of how newspapers have evolved over the decades.
There are some “first evers”: the first Test on South African soil against England at Port Elizabeth which England won 4-0; the first on Scottish soil (Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland 6, SA 0) in a “remarkable game”.
Then there is the All Blacks (still all white then) tour in 1928; the game at Kingsmead, Durban, won by the Boks 17-0, in which Bennie Osler bagged 11 points and ruled the match.
All here – in the ’30s, the Boks ruled, scoring a Grand Slam in Britain and then beating the Aussies, All Blacks and British Lions.
Fast forward to the troubled ’80s and the headlines cover the protests and the rugby side by side.
Also included are South Africa’s return to international rugby, the first game of the 1995 World Cup played in SA, and of course, The Greatest Springbok Win Ever.
There’s the World Cup game in which Jannie de Beer drop-kicked the team to a 44-21 victory over England in the Stade de France, Paris, in 1999.
In the newspaper, a picture of the mighty Joost van der Westhuizen in his heyday, a sad reminder of the man as he used to be before his lengthy battle with motor neuron disease began.
And then, again in Paris, Jake White and John Smith and the boys celebrating the Boks’ second World Cup.
It wraps up with last year’s 27-25 victory over the All Blacks at Ellis Park.
Perhaps someone should send copies to Heyneke Meyer and the Boks so they can remember what it feels like to win…