Syd Nomis
Indomitable South African rugby player who once underwent dental treatment during a match
SYD NOMIS, the Springbok winger who has died aged 76, played 54 times for his country, 25 of them in successive Test matches between 1967 and 1972, which was then a record. With Okey Geffin and Joel Stransky, he was one of the greatest Jewish players to have appeared in international rugby. Early in his career, playing for the Wanderers in Johannesburg, he was called a “blerrie Jood” (“bloody Jew”) by an Afrikaner opponent, who was soon carried from the field after Nomis registered a forceful protest against this anti-semitic remark.
For a man described as “a likeable, friendly person”, Nomis was involved in an unusual number of violent clashes on the field. One notorious episode took place at Cape Town in 1970, involving the combative All Black full-back Fergie Mccormick. Nomis kicked the ball past Mccormick and, using his electric pace, tried to run round him. Mccormick turned and threw out an elbow behind him, catching Nomis in the face, knocking out two teeth and loosening others. The referee, Wynand Malan, was a dentist and gave Nomis running repairs on the field. He played on with blood streaming from his mouth.
In the next Test match the Springboks targeted Mccormick from the kick-off, roughing him up when he caught the ball. When he got up, still dazed, Nomis started punching him until the referee intervened. After the match the referee, himself a South African, asked Nomis: “Did I give you enough time?”
Mccormick always claimed the collision was an accident; Nomis disagreed, insisting that the All Black was “one of the dirtiest players I ever played against”. Their feud lasted nearly 50 years until the two men died within two months of each other.
Sydney Harold Nomis (known as Syd or Syddie) was born in Johannesburg on November 15 1941, the son of Joseph and Mae Nomis. He was educated at the Marist Brothers’ College at Observatory, a suburb of Cape Town.
He joined the Wanderers on leaving school and went on to play provincial rugby for Transvaal, for whom he made 54 appearances from 1963 until his retirement in 1974. His first three caps for the Springboks were as a centre, but thereafter he played on the wing.
He scored the first of his 45 tries for South Africa (six of them in Test matches) on his debut in Cape Town against France in 1967, catching a cross-kick from Gys Pitzer. When he congratulated Pitzer at half-time on what he described as the most brilliant cross-kick he had ever seen, the hooker replied: “Don’t be silly. I was trying to kick the ball into touch on the other side of the field, but it caught the side of my boot.”
The following year Nomis scored a decisive try in South Africa’s series victory over the touring British Lions. Springbok tours of Britain in 1969 and New Zealand in 1970, in which he took part, were disrupted by anti-apartheid protests, fuelled by the announcement by Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African prime minister, that no Maori players would be allowed to enter the country. Nomis said that he sometimes feared for his life during these violent demonstrations and let it be known that he had not voted for his country’s apartheid regime.
One try for which he will be remembered took place in 1968 at Stade Colombes, Paris, when he clinched a Springbok victory over France in a Test match described by the leading South African official, Danie Craven, as one of the best ever.
Nomis kicked the ball over the line and was winning a foot race to the touchdown with French defenders when he was suddenly struck with cramp. He fell, crawled towards the ball, fell again, crawled a bit more, and finally fell on the ball just ahead of his pursuers. Craven said that Nomis was “an ideal winger, exceptionally fast, courageous, determined and dedicated to the success of the team”. South Africa lost only four of the 25 Tests in which he appeared.
After retiring from rugby he became a printer, then worked in the clothing industry before moving into security. In 1999 he was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2010, on a visit to Switzerland, he suffered from serious blood clots which required him to have his left leg amputated. He died in Johannesburg from a heart attack.
Nomis is survived by his wife Ann, their son Gary, who played rugby for Transvaal, and their two daughters, Joanne and Romy, who both represented South Africa at hockey in the Maccabi Games.
Syd Nomis, born November 15 1941, died June 16 2018