Scots trample over Les Elephants in South Africa Hastings sets world record in one-sided World Cup opener
Edinburgh in double swoop for Lance and Gordon
IT was 25 years ago this month that the sporting world witnessed a miracle when the former pariah state of South Africa hosted what many people still consider to be the best ever Rugby World Cup finals.
It would see President Nelson Mandela parade in the Springbok shirt he once despised as the former apartheid system gave way to the Rainbow Nation. It would see the South Africans win the World Cup for the first time – we’ll celebrate that anniversary soon – and witness the arrival of an extraordinary rugby star called Jonah Lomu. In the midst of it, the amateur sport of rugby union would be utterly transformed by an announcement of a television deal between Rupert Murdoch and the three Southern unions that led inevitably to professionalism.
How South Africa came back from the rugby wilderness is a story brilliantly told in the Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus. Suffice to say that until Nelson Mandela walked out of prison, the other rugby nations were never going to allow South Africa back into the club. With two World
Cups successfully hosted in New Zealand in 1987 and the Home Nations in 1991, the final being at Twickenham, the International Rugby
Board (IRB) were considering who would host the 1995 tournament when apartheid officially ended and South Africa was allowed back on the world stage.
They were able to offer a real carrot to the IRB that all the matches would be played in the one country for the first time. Importantly, matches would be played in much the same timezone as the major television audiences in the UK and France. But could the Finals live up to the hype?
These are all matters to be examined in the weeks and months to come. We all need some cheering up, so today I am going to concentrate on the match that briefly made Scotland world record holders.
The run-up to the Finals had seen Scotland in fine fettle, and having been the losing semi-finalists in 1991, the country hoped that the men in dark blue would go deep into the tournament, though few seriously expected a Scottish victory in the final.
The Scots had a very good Five Nations, beating Ireland and Wales at Murrayfield and France in the Parc des Princes in Paris for the first time since 1968. That set up a Grand Slam encounter with England and Twickenham and this time there was no repeat of the 1990 heroics, England winning 2412 with all their points coming from the boot of Rob Andrew.
The sole warm-up match was against Romania, who were also going to South Africa. On April 22 at Murrayfield, the Scots won an entertaining game 49-16, the victory as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
So off Scotland went to
South Africa with the feeling that if they could just beat
France in the group stages, they would avoid the All Blacks in the quarter finals and play against Ireland or Wales.
First of all, however, Scotland had to beat the minnows in
Pool D, who were Tonga and Ivory Coast, the latter country more formally known as Cote d’Ivoire, though we’ll stick to the English name just now.
Ivory Coast were first up, the match played at the Olympia Park in Rustenburg. The altitude – the city is located at a height just less than the summit of Ben Nevis – and the heat were expected to give Scotland more of a hard time than their African opponents who did have some Frenchbased players in their ranks.
Gordon Brown, Big Broon fae Troon, was working as a pundit for ITV who were the chosen broadcasters for the 1995 World Cup. He attended a training session for “Les Éléphants” as they were nicknamed and said he couldn’t believe how Ivory Coast had made the finals.
On May 26, Ivory Coast actually started the match quite well, but Gavin Hastings broke through after eight minutes, chipped ahead and gathered the lucky bounce to score the first try which he converted. Hastings then kicked two, before Ivory Coast lost their captain and best player Athanase Dali to injury.
Another Hastings try and conversion made it 20-0 on the half-hour mark before the floodgates opened. Hastings scored another try and conversion before Peter Walton crashed over for his first try for Scotland. Hastings converted and it was 34-0 at half time.
Kenny Logan with two tries and Craig Chalmers put Scotland over the 50 point mark, and it was clear that the Ivorians were knackered. Hastings converted Logan’s try to set a new world record for points in a match, and with the Scottish pack totally dominant, Tony Stanger dashed through for another try. Walton scored his second, and props Peter Wright and Paul Burnell notched scores with Hastings gaining his fourth try, equalling the number scored by an individual in a World
Cup match.
Graham Shiel rounded off the tries to make it 13 fivepointers in all, and Hastings kicked the conversion to notch 44 points in all. It was 89-0, the record score of any World Cup, but it would last only nine days until New Zealand beat Japan 145-17. Still, at least we were once record setters.
EDINBURGH coach Richard Cockerill has taken two vital steps in rebuilding his squad for next season by signing stand-off Jono Lance from Worcester and centre Matt Gordon from London Scottish. With Simon Hickey and Matt Scott leaving at the end of the season, cover for both positions was a priority.
At 29, Lance played Super Rugby in his native Australia and New Zealand before moving to England and the Warriors in late 2017. He will compete for the No.10 jersey with Jaco van der Walt, as Hickey did in his time with Edinburgh.
“Jono is a very experienced playmaker that fits the mould of both the type of rugby player and person that we want at this club,” Cockerill said of the new recruit, who can also cover full-back. “He’s a good character that works hard for his team-mates and we believe that his skill set is well suited to the style of rugby we want to implement at Edinburgh. We’re delighted with the signing and look forward to working with Jono next season.”
Lance (left), who is currently back home in Australia, suggested that the more open and attacking style which Edinburgh adopted this season was one of the factors in his decision to move from England. “To get the chance to come to a club that has become one of the strongest in the Guinness PRO14 and to hopefully play Champions Cup rugby was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse,” he said. “The style of rugby Edinburgh have been playing is something that excites me and to have coaches who feel that you can be a big part of developing that brand of rugby was something I wanted to be a massive part of.”
Gordon, who is also Australian, is joining Edinburgh after a season with London Scottish. The 25-year-old, who previously played in the National Rugby Championship back home, echoed Lance in citing Edinburgh’s style of play as one of the attractions of moving north.
“They’ve put together a great squad over the last few seasons and are really starting to make their mark in both the Guinness PRO14 and European competitions,” he said. “They have very good basics and play an attractive brand of rugby.”