‘Get physical with All Blacks’

MARK Andrews, one of the toughest Springbok locks to have graced the green and gold, remembers vividly packing down behind two nutty hookers that both knocked the living daylights out of Sean Fitzpatrick in matches against the All Blacks in New Zealand in the late ‘90s.

Once was when fiery John Allan infamously went into a head-butting frenzy against Fitzy in the first scrum of a match in 1997, resulting in an incredulous Fitzpatrick asking: “What are you on?”

The second was a few years later when James Dalton was the hooker, and he was never shy of a scrap.

“Ja, our hookers were not too fond of Fitzy during game time.

“John and James would have been in a long queue of Boks that wanted to give Fizpatrick a klap, and they are two that got it right,” Andrews smiles.

“James gave the best upper cut I have ever seen, so much so that as the scrum broke up, from scrumming behind Os (Du Randt), I saw Fitzy’s eyes rolling — he was out cold on his feet and his nose was bleeding.

“When he came to, he asked James why he had done that, and James gave him such a torrent of unsavoury words as to why he deserved a smack that my eyes widened ....

“But after the game we all had a beer.

“There was many a game like that, when we got stuck into each other, absolutely knocked the crap out of each other, because that is the way it has been since the first Test between the countries a hundred years ago.”

Andrew says he is not championing violence, and admits the game has changed a lot in the modern era, but he says that physical confrontation (within the rules) remains a non-negotiable if you are to have a hope of beating the All Blacks, especially in New Zealand.

“You have to take them on, especially at the breakdowns, you cannot take a step back, and the British and Irish Lions showed that if you smash the All Blacks at the breakdowns and prevent them from getting momentum, you have a chance,” Andrews says. “Allow them get on the front foot and have their strike runners hitting you with support in numbers, then it is just a question of time before they score.”

But can the current crop of Boks emulate the Lions, who won and drew a Test in New Zealand in June, and the Wallabies who led the All Blacks until the 78th minute of their Test in Dunedin a few weeks ago?

Andrews is not too sure.