Test to be held where it all kicked off in SA
George’s Park), and 16 at the Boet Erasmus before international rugby in the city found a new home at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has also spoken about Port Elizabeth’s rich rugby history in the build-up to today’s international.
“Port Elizabeth it is not called the Friendly City for nothing and there are massive Springbok supporters here and it is great for the team to be in this environment,” he said. So what was it like back in the day? While some may bemoan the passing of some of the old and quaint customs, current Springbok captain, Eben Etzebeth, will not be among them.
If things were still being run as they were back in 1891, Etzebeth would most likely not be leading the team today.
As was the tradition in the old days, the organising union, Eastern Province, chose the captain and the team before the first-ever South African rugby Test was played in PE. And there was a perfectly logical reason for the hometown selection, according to the men administering the game at that time because they said it would cut down on travelling expenses.
The first rugby Test played on South African soil was contested at the Port Elizabeth Cricket Ground between South Africa and England, with the Englishmen running out 4-0 winners.
The venue, now known as St George’s Park, was packed as big crowds turned up to watch the Test.
The EP president at the time was Emile Castens and he chose his brother, HH Castens as the man to lead South Africa in the historic clash.
Naturally, the South African team were all new caps. The next time this would happen would be in 1949 after World War 2. The referee for this first Test was Dr John Griffin of the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
An Englishman, he had played for Wales against Scotland in 1883 when he was a medical student in Edinburgh and the Welsh arrived a man short.
Before the Test, SW Black wrote in the Cape Argus: “South African rugby was now to be put on trial. The metal was to be placed on the crucible, the gold to be separated from the dross.”
At that time, penalties were a new thing in rugby and English captain, Bill Maclagan claimed many for his side.
Reports say the English team won the toss and South African captain, Castens, kicked off to start the very first Test on South African soil.
The English scored from a scrum, when Arthur Rotherham eluded Alf Richards and gave the ball to big halfback Willie Wotherspoon, who sent centre RL Ashton over for a try.
That made the score 1-0 to the English and they went on to win the encounter 4-0.
For all the South African attacking in the first half, the fit English side were equal to the occasion and there was no score in the second half.
The EP Herald reported: “When ‘no side’ was sounded the forwards looked as if they had quite enough of it. The backs, on the contrary, had so little to do that they looked quite cold. It was entirely a forward game.”
Paul Clauss, who played for England, described it as a hard-fought game with more forward than back play.
After the players had shaken hands and left the field, they could little have realised that they had set the wheels in motion for modern, full-time, professional international rugby in South Africa.