A Rite of Passage
Initiations were just shit. I got bliksemed so many times at Transvaal; it was the highlight of most okes’ evenings. They just wanted to hit and humiliate me, and they found a way to keep at me. I didn’t just get slapped when I got my first cap; I got smacked for all sorts of things.
My Springbok initiation was horrendous. I was smacked 79 times. I saw my father a couple of days later, and he was appalled at what I told him. I struggled to put my pants on. My arse cheek was swollen to three times its size. They hit me 79 times on one arse cheek. My leg was black all the way down to my calf.
Most of it came from Naas. He was bombastic and arrogant in those days. As the captain of the team, he thought he owned the world. It was a case of whatever he decided, happened.
The punishment meted out to me was part of the reason why this ritual was stopped later on. I never agreed with the initiations. Bob Skinstad was genuinely scared when he got initiated. I couldn’t understand its value, and fortunately I hear that today’s guys have done away with the bits that I think were nothing short of barbaric.