For the next few months I am going to complete the series on the 1965 Springboks before starting with the 1976 tour to South Africa. The first two sessions on this tour has already been posted and can be found on 16 February and 16 March. The one posted on 16 February is called: The 1965 Springbok tour to New Zealand – the team and some preliminary thoughts and the one posted on 16 March is called: 65 Springboks in Australia.

I suggest people read those two sessions first before reading the rest of the series. Here is session 3 of this series:

Arrival in New Zealand and the first 3 tour matches

The Springboks arrived on June 27, 1965 from Brisbane via Auckland at Gisborne, where they were warmly welcomed by about 2000 people. There were a few protestors with posters against the tour, but the warmth and enthusiasm of the reception left the South African with a warm feeling around the heart. Dawie de Villiers and Nellie Smith, utterly sincere, smiled and said it was like coming home. 

The next day the Springboks had a hard training session under the supervision of Hennie Muller and in the process wrote off both Piet Botha and Doug Hopwood. One get the impression that the Springboks training sessions were not well organized and managed and with the media attention on the quality of their practice runs the players and coaching staff were probably trying to impress/change perceptions and overdid it. Botha plunged so hard into a ruck that he dislocated his shoulder (6 weeks out of action) and Hopwood hurt his back and the diagnosis was that he was out for the rest of the tour; he was admitted to Gisborne hospital. 

South Africa 32, Poverty Bay 3 

The Springboks first game was against a combined team of Poverty Bay-East Coast, which consisted of several quality players; lack of combination was their primary weakness and problem on the day. The captain of the home team was Allan Rowlands, an All Black reserve and trials player. On centre was Biff Milner who would play for the All Blacks in 1970 against the Springboks. There were also players in the team who represented the Maoris and who played for the New Zealand Colts. 

The weather was unfavourable for attractive rugby, especially testing at the end of the game when it rained hard, with a strong and bitterly cold wind blowing quite fiercely. The ground was wet and heavy. The Springboks were in depressive mood after the series lost against Australia and the wet and cold weather certainly did not help to improve their mental state. 

Nelie Smith opened the scoring with a try after a blindside move during which he Mans and Lofty Nel handled the ball. Henare, the opposition no 9 and New Zealand Colt player kicked a penalty shortly afterwards to square the score line. 

A strong run by the Springbok No 8, Jan Ellis, resulted in the Springboks’ second try. Ellis broke through the defence gained some 15 to 20 meters before passing to Barnard who sent Mans over in the corner with a long pass. The try was converted by Mans. 

Soon after halftime Mans was successful with another penalty before Lofty Nel broke through the first line of defence and passed to Barnard to score; the conversion was successful. Walton fell on the ball for another try when the ball rolled over the home team’s goal line after the opposition’s No 9, Henare, fumbled it under pressure close to the home teams goal line. 

There was also a push over try by Goosen and two further tries by Ellis and du Preez towards the end of the match when the rain was falling heavy. Ellis picked-up a ball behind a ruck and dummied his way past Henare and ran over for an unconverted try and du Preez completed the scoring with a try which Mans failed to convert. 

Terry McLean makes the following remarks about this match: 

The star player must have been Walton at hooker. Notwithstanding that he had so much weight behind him, his score of 14-2 –it may have been even more- on heels against the head was the largest I had ever seen. 

Then Schoeman, who had looked so much out of his class in Australia, took to the mud and slush as a duck to water. 

The pace in the backline was shattering, too. Once, at a breakaway, Milner broke clear by two to three yards –Milner the boy everyone was saying is a genius of the future. With the New Zealand Colts in Australia in 1964 he certainly looked good and he could run, too. But within five yards of his break, Brynard and Nomis mowed him down. The sight was a little alarming. 

 Johan (Haas) Schoeman here with Jan Ellis. Schoeman according to McLean “looked out of his class in Australia but took to the mud and slush as a duck to water”. Mclean writes further about Schoeman: Johan Schoeman was so determined to become a Springbok that all through the summer before the team for the short tour of 1965 to the UK was chosen he ran, exercised and spent a great many hours at woodchopping, favoring this last activity as a means of building the bodily strength and vigor he considered would be essential for a visit to New Zealand. 

South African journalist, Roelf Theunissen, went so far as to say he was the most intelligent player in the team. Among the big boys of the All Black teams, however even his woodschopping background made no impression and on the overall count he never quite managed to look the kind of Springbok forward one had always imagined Springbok forwards to be. 

Schoeman started his studies at Stellenbosch in 1959 and left in 1964 with a BA LLB to join a law firm. (Later he obtained an MBA) He walked into the Under-19A and then battled at first team level against the likes of Lochner, Dawie Ackermann, James Starke and Ronnie Melck. He was in and out of the first team. He was remarkably strong and a fetcher in the Jan Boland Coetzee mould. 

He played for Southern Universities and became a regular member of Western Province side from 1962 to 1965. He became a Springbok in 1963 when he was chosen for the third test against the Wallabies. In 1965 he toured Ireland and Scotland with Avril Malan‘s side and then Australia and New Zealand with Dawie de Villiers‘s side – both disastrous tours for the Springboks. In all he played in seven tests. 

The Springboks were happy with the referee -6 penalties for them and 10 against them- and Nellie Smith’s comment “It is quite pleasant to play under international rules instead of Australian rules” went off well with the Kiwi’s. 

Don Walton who gained his test spot above former Captain Abe Malan with superb hooking and excellent overall play. Walton made his presence felt from the very first match on tour when he hooked 14 heels against the head. He played in 14 matches including the 3^rd and 4^th test matches and scored 4 tries on tour. 

McLean writes as follows about Walton: He won a vast number of heels against the head against practically every hooker he competed with – 14 at Gisborne, 12 at Blenheim to mention the extraordinary ones. Had he not suffered a hamstring injury at training two days before the first test –by which time against considerable odds he had established himself as a decisively more efficient hooker than Malan- Walton might have came out of the tour with a very much greater reputation than he did. 

He won the contest with Malan (who had advantages in a previous captaincy of South Africa and membership of the team’s Tour Committee) and by the end of the tour had taken rank as one of the most efficient hookers to visit New Zealand in 20 years. 

Walton played in 8 tests (1964 – 1969) and his provincial team was Natal. 

The Springbok team playing in this match: 

Mulder; Truter; Nomis; Brynard; Mans; Barnard; Smit (captain), Ellis; Nel; du Preez; Goosen; Schoeman; Macdonald; Walton; van Zyl. 

Wellington 23 South Africa 6 

The next game was against Wellington (Hurricanes in S14 terms) and upon arrival at the airport and the hotel, there were more Cops than spectators not to mention demonstrators. Students from Victoria University in Wellington were openly against the tour, but nothing came from the expected march -by students- against the tour. 

It was bitterly cold, wet, with a biting Southwester the day after arrival during the Springboks first practice run and the players were shaking like aspen leaves. 

Besides Dawie de Villiers, Lionel Wilson and Botha who were injured, the Springboks fielded a team very similar to the side that played in the tests against Australia. Mans were selected at centre in place of Mannetjies Roux while Frik du Preez were moved to the lock position opening the flank position for Jan Ellis. 

The Springbok team for this match: 

Mulder; Truter; Mans; Gainsford; Engelbrecht; Oxlee; Smith (Captain), Bedford; Nel; Goosen, du Preez; Ellis; van Zyl; Malan; MacDonald. 

Five players in the Wellington team, Ken Gray, Nev MacEwan, Ralph Caulton, Ian and Mick Uttley and Williment were All Blacks, while another two, Graham Williams and Tom Lister would later earn their All Black caps. Eleven players in the Wellington team were invited to the All Black trials. 

A crowd of about 38 000 attended the match played in good weather with a light Southwester blowing. 

About this match McLean writes: 

…the Wellington team bashed the Springboks with power in the forwards and precision in the team play. By half-time, the score was 17-3. 

The New Zealand captain of 1953-54, R.C. Stuart, one of the profoundest of rugby students, remarked in die Sports Post: “The 1956 Springbok team were technically perfect but tactically indifferent. This 1965 team are babes-in-arm tactically. Their tactical blunders today would not be tolerated by any self-respecting club side in New Zealand.” 

Fair comment. Very fair comment. But it should still be noted that out of all the comings and goings, each team scored only one try. 

He also writes that Wellington was by far the better team on the day but that the speed of the Springbok backline allowed them to scramble well enough on the defence with the result that the Wellington team won the match primarily with penalties. 

 The game had been in progress for 10 minutes when Williment opened the scoring with a 40 meter left foot drop goal. Five minutes later he was successful with a penalty when Bedford was caught offside in a lineout. There was another successful penalty by Williment before Mans opened the scoreboard for South Africa with a 52 meter penalty. Seven minutes before halftime Bedford was again caught offside and Wiliment was successful with yet another penalty. Two minutes later Wellington send the ball down the backline from a scrum; Williment, the fullback, jumped into the line passed to Bowerman who send Uttley, the centre, over for Wellington’s only try for the day. Williment converted; the halftime score 17-3. 

Ten minutes after halftime Lofty Nel forced himself over the line for a unconverted try from a ruck close to the opponents’ goal line. There were two further penalties for the New Zealand team late in the second half for a final score of 23-6. 

The Springboks forwards were good in the loose with Bedford-who got injured late in the second half and who did not play again on tour- outstanding. Malan and MacDonald also performed well and Mulder was steady on fullback. Smith’s slow service behind the scrum made things difficult for Oxlee. 

Wellington was not one of the stronger provincial teams in New Zealand in 1965 and there was a reasonable degree of disappointment among the Kiwi’s –not wanting a one sided affair in the test matches- with the Springboks performance in this match. 

McLean writes: 

Poor ‘Boks. Two matches played and the head already lost. Sign of omission and commission contributed largely to the defeat. Backs like Oxlee failed to find touch and like Gainsford dropped the ball. Forwards leaned on the rucks, if they got to them before they had been won by Wellington, and with pretty childlike faith, used their hands in the rucks to scoop the ball back. 

As in Australia, the moments of crises were faced with excitement rather than coolness and a calculated plan. The backrow plan couldn’t compare with Wellington’s, partly because Bedford was wrongly placed on No 8 instead of on the flank and partly, too, because Ellis either didn’t know what he ought to do or hadn’t been told it. 

Strange it was, too, to see Gainsford’s superb trust in the very first minute not turned into a try because Truter couldn’t run fast enough. 

The best came last, too, when Ken Gray in his thank-you speech for the Springbok head, said that the Springboks were the most sporting team he had ever played against. 

Best synonym for “Sporting” is surely “Gutless” but that was within the context of the formal post-game speech conditions probably not politically ‘correct terminology. 

A young and very inexperienced Jan Ellis who in 1965 first became a Springbok. About Ellis writes Terry McLean: Jan Hendrik Ellis rugby-wise came from “about as fur as you can go”. He was brought up in South-West Africa some 300 miles from Windhoek and his nearest rugby club was at least 60 miles from the farm. Jan never had occasion to think of rugby as a sport until round about the time of the visit of the All Blacks of 1960 to Windhoek. 

By the time of the 1965 Springbok trials Ellis had had only about five years of rugby and it took discernment on the part of the selectors to judge that he had the talent to be a Springbok. In the early days of the tour Jan had speed but was a bit of a joke to his team mate but while he may have lacked experience he had the physique, drive and aggression for a top class international loose forward. By the end of the tour it wouldn’t be fair to assert that he was on his way to greatness but it would be right to say that was beginning to get the hang of tactical play. With that speed and that physique, Jan Ellis promised to become the greatest player in the history of South-West Africa.   

South Africa 30, Manawatu-Horowhenua 8 

The next game against Manawatu-Horowhenua, a combined rural team with no big names, was played in Palmerston North. 

Terry McLean made two primary observations about the Springboks as they prepared for this match. The first observation relate to how they responded on the loss against Wellington: 

The Springboks emerged cheerfully enough. That’s the baffling thing: They don’t compose themselves as a beaten team ought to do. The 1956 team, in the same circumstances, were as sore as boils and one respected them for this. But it’s evident that, underneath, some of the 1965 Springboks at least are very sour. 

His second observation relates to the team practice session in preparation for the match against Manawatu. Write Terry McLean: 

Louw announced last evening that all of the team would train today. We galloped, therefore, to Freyburg High School in mid-morning. Who was present? Only the dirt trackers. Jingo, these are peculiar people! They just had a hiding, they are all short of a gallop and yet, so they feel, they don’t need more work. Someone is nuts around this camp. I am glad it’s not me. 

Both de Villiers and Wilson played in their first games in New Zealand. The general perception of the local media were that the Springbok team consisted of the “dirt trackers” or the players who were not favourites to play in the test matches. 

In reality, there were several players on the team who would eventually play in most of the tests. 

The team was: 

Wilson; Brynard; Nomis; Gainsford; Engelbrecht; Oxlee; de Villiers (captain), Ellis; Janson; Goosen; Naude; Schoeman, Parker, Walton; Marais. 

McLean on this match: 

The Springboks after leading by only 11-8 at half-time won pulling it up at 30 to 8. The principal reason was the play of de Villiers. Manawatu-Horowhenua had a shrewd tactician in Jimmy Taitoko. Beautiful on the kick to the right spot, fascinating agile of movement, full of speed when he decided to run. Yet even Jimmy couldn’t foot it with Dawie in all –seeing vision. Where Nellie Smith, up til now, has been solid, dependable, as countable upon as the next striking of the Town Hall clock, Dawie was fluid, versatile, an instant appreciator of the possibilities of a situation. 

De Villiers play was the best of all the ‘Boks and it was a delight to observe how readily he switched the direction of the attack; but Goosen was readily splendid at the lineout, Janson was ruggedly vigorous in the tight-loose, and with a score of seven to one in heels against the head Walton further served notice that he was the best hooker in the team and the two countries while Ellis was again full of dash. 

There was no score for the first 18 minutes and it was the combined team who scored first. The one wing Paewai scooped up a loose ball and passed to No. 10, Taitoko, who kicked the ball into the Springboks 25. Here Rumball, one flank gained possession to dive over near the posts for a converted try. 

Two minutes later, Goosen drove to within a few yards from the opponents’ goal line where he offloaded to Ellis. The ball went to Oxlee, who sent Nomis over in the corner. Janson stormed over two minutes later from a lineout before scoring his second try soon afterwards following up on a kick made by de Villiers. 

Four minutes into the second half Walton dived over from a loose ruck for a try, converted by Naude. Then de Villiers sent Engelbrecht away on the blindside of a scrum to run through unopposed for a try also converted by Naude. Oxlee was successful with a dropgoal before Brynard broke through on the left touchline making good ground before he found Walton on support on the inside for the hooker to score his second try. Four minutes before full time Engelbrecht broke through several tackles before finding Wilson who scored wide form the posts. Naude missed with the conversion and the game ended with an easy 30-8 win for the Springboks. 

A relatively satisfactory performance by the Springboks against a combined rural team without any evident speed in the backline or bulk up front.