Pride of SA rugby

TWO years ago the prospect of the Lions going into a home Super Rugby final as favourites would have been written off as fantasy. However, Johan Ackermann’s charges will take to Ellis Park as marginal favourites against the seven-time champions from New Zealand.

After losing to the Jaguares in Buenos Aires back in March, the Lions have gone on a 14-game winning streak, catapulting them to a home semi and now final.

Confidence is high, there will be over 60 000 partisan Lions supporters cheering them on, and the fact that the Crusaders will have to contend with altitude and travel factors gives the Lions the edge in what promises to be a humdinger of a final.

But with no less than 12 current All Blacks in their ranks, the Crusaders will be no pushovers.

The East Indiaman Grosvenor, carrying 132 crew and 18 passengers sinks off the coast of Pondoland, north of the mouth of the Umzimvubu River. Of the wreck’s 123 survivors, just 18 eventually reached Cape Town, believing incorrectly that it was closer than Delagoa Bay (Maputo). Several of the survivors were known to have been accepted into the ranks of the local tribes.

German cavalry crosses into Belgium for the first attack of World War I.

The cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the Eastern Cape coast, near Coffee Bay. A 7-hour rescue operation by the South African Air Force and Navy, using 16 helicopters, ensures that all 571 people on the ship are saved.

Amy Biehl’s murderers receive amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Decision taken to integrate municipalities of the Tshwane. Mercenary Simon Mann pleads guilty in a Zimbabwean Court to attempting to purchase dangerous weapons.