Ian Kirkpatrick, great rugby man, died suddenly at his home in Helderberg Village on Sunday. He was 82. His influence on South African rugby over six decades cannot be overestimated.
On Friday he complained of a ‘stomach upset’ and cancelled a meeting with an overseas company about to make a documentary on the 1974 tour, when Kirkpatrick was a national selector.
His playing career was great. He left Kimberley Boys’ high and at the age of 19 and played for Griquas. The next year he went to the Springbok trials at Newlands when the great Springbok team was chosen for the 1951-52 tour. In 1953 he made his Springbok debut against the Wallabies at Newlands, playing flyhalf.
Kirkie played for South Africa in 13 Tests. Of the 13 two were lost, and on each occasion it was at Newlands (against Australia and France) and he was at flyhalf. In 10 Tests he was at centre in partnership with John Gainsford.
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Those Tests were successive, starting with the match against Scotland in 1960 and ending against France in 1961. There were four Tests against New Zealand and then Tests against Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland and France on tour. Those were days when centres played left and right. On the 1956 tour to New Zealand., he played in the second Test, the only one the Springboks won in New Zealand.
Kirkie was a wonderful handler of the ball and those around him thrived on what he could enable them to do.
Ian played his provincial rugby for Griquas and Free State. He was employed by Shell in Bloemfontein, then ran his own garage in Kimberley and then became an outstanding coach.
Perhaps his greatest feat was coaching a Griquas team to victory over Northern Transvaal in the 1970 Currie Cup Final. He was also a Springbok selector and after the debacle of 1974 he coached the team in its tour to France which did so much to steady the ship. Johan Claasen was the appointed coach but fell ill and Kirkie took over.
He coached in Port Elizabeth and then Transvaal. In 1978, after the SA Rugby Board had been formed to include the Federation and the Association, Nelie Smith was appointed director of coaching. He went off and in 1982 Doc Craven persuaded the Transvaal to release Kirkie from his post as their director of coaching to become the Board’s director of coaching.
Kirkie gathered Abe Williams and Piet Kellerman to form a coaching arm. When Williams went off, Dougie Dyers came in. Craven had the slogan: We will change South Africa on the rugby field. This is what his team set out to do, travelling the length and breadth of the country, holding clinics, encouraging mixed race rugby. They went to cities, towns and dorps. Craven and Kirkie had the ability to attract people. Into the group came Springboks for not a cent’s remuneration – Jan Boland Coetzee, Hennie Bekker, Hempies du Toit, Danie Gerber, Shaun Povey, Henning van Aswegen, John Villet, Errol Tobias, Colin Beck, Charles Williams, Timothy Konki, Morgan Cushe. Hennie Shields, Pompies Williams, Gysie Pienaar, Rob Louw, Hermanus Potgieter, Dr Augie Cohen to deal with medical matters and others.
Kirkie’s people also started the Project Week for provincial schools teams, each team composed 50-50 by race. It went further – a team to Craven Week, a team to play SA Schools and into senior rugby with the Feeder System and even a team touring abroad. All of that came to an end with the politically acceptable unification of 1992. It also ended Kirkie’s involvement with SARFU. The impetus given by Kirkie and his team was summarily brought to an end. The only project which survived was the Fish Factory tournament. His treatment caused him much grief.
But off he went to Stellenbosch and coached Maties. He was still the Under-19 coach at the time of his death.
It is hard to find a greater contribution to South African rugby than Kirkie’s. He had a passion for it based on the firmest of principles which led Craven to call him the Mule. His fear was that South African rugby was in ‘terrible trouble’. Like Craven anything opposed to the best interests of rugby was anathema.
And he also played as much golf as possible.
He was part of a sporting family. His wife Norma and his sister Rhoda played hockey for South Africa. Rhoda was married to Richard Lockyear, the Springboks scrumhalf.
Alexander Ian Kirkpatrick was born in Bloemfontein on 25 July 1930. His father was on the railways and so the family moved. He went to Merchiston Junior in Pietermaritzburg, Grey High in Port Elizabeth and Kimberley Boys’ High. He died on Sunday 18 November 2012, survived by his wife Norma and children Richard, Bridget, Alexander and Ian.
Rest in peace Kirkie!
A bit off the subject… but just after Kirkie’s time….. Pietman asked me to put this Youtube clip of the 1974 British Lions on for you guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eha1IdQkz-k
RIP!
RIP!!! Great rugby man. Hope someone in the halls of power at SARU will see that his legacy does not die.
@ grootblousmile:
Thx GBS!
I want Puma to listen to the part how ‘Flower of Scotland’ originated on that tour.
They were a great singing group, the ’74 Lions.
Btw, I see in the paper ‘Popeye’ de Bruyn was seriously burned over the weekend in a wildfire on his farm; he is the player with the glass-eye Gordon Brown speaks about in this clip.
5 @ Pietman:
No problem!
You could have placed it yourself too by just copying the URL (web address of the youtube clip), then pasting it into a comment.
5 @ Pietman:
Bad news about Popeye de Bruyn!
Talking about Popeye…. my late dad, GBS Maksimus, never spoke about “Popeye The Sailor Man”… he called him “Poepoog die sterk Matroos”
@ grootblousmile:
Ek weet, maar my laptop is gefok, ek is hier by kantoorrekenaar nou.
Sal later die video clip by die huis gaan kyk, kan dit nie hier speel nie.
Bekende gesigte daar, ek het destyds heelwat van daai spelers ontmoet, was drie weke in Leeuendal Kliniek langs een van hulle, Alan Old, in die kamer. En die manne het saans gereeld kom inloer.
9 @ Pietman:
Dis mos ‘n nuwerige Notebook daai… het een of ander arabier hom gelaai of wat?
Jammer oor jou craptop Pietman.
Ons helde raak al hoe meer oud.
Kirkpatick was n grote
Daai ’74 Lions is net voor my tyd. (ek is in 1970 gebore).
Ek het wel die 1980 Lions gekyk op Coetzenburg. Ollie Campbell teen Errol Tobias.
Kirkie was a great part of SA rugby; his contributions immeasurable. Interestingly, his start to international rugby in 1953 is reminiscent of what is happening in SA rugby at the moment namely a heated debate about the SA style of rugby. Kirkie made quite an impression during the 1953 trials breaking past Hennie Muller and Basie van Wyk to score an outstanding try. Hansie Brewis was, however, the incumbent No 10 and the boks with Brewis on flyhalf went on to win the first test against the touring Wallabies 25-3. The Springboks were nevertheless condemned by the public for their ‘boring’ style of play. Consequently, Brewis –who incidentally never played in a losing test match- was dropped in favour of the fleet footed Kirkpatrick. The boks went into the second test playing ‘running rugby’ and lost 18-14.
Kirkpatrick was replaced by Transvaal golden boot Natie Rens and the boks won the next two tests against the Wallabies playing their ‘traditional rugby’.
Do I care today what rugby they played in 1953? Honestly, not really. Reading the history books I appreaciate the fact the Springboks made the right decisions and won the series more than what style of rugby they played.
Back to Kirkpatrick. He went on the 1956 tour but played only in the second test mostly due to injury. He was involved in two controversial incidents during that tour. The first incident was in the second test when he ‘kicked’ Tiny Whites after the latter has tackled him (See here: http://www.rugby-talk.com/2012/03/1956-springbok-tour-second-test/).
The other incident was in the third test when Kirkpatrick was the line judge and raised his flag to a conversion kick of Don Clarke which was later proved to have skimmed the upright to the outside. This kick became quite important later in the match when the Boks fought their way back to within point of the lead. They maintained that position up to four minutes of no time. It is debatable whether they would have won had they been in the lead but some scribes argued that a 1 point lead at that stage of the match could have lifted the team and changed the way they approached the last 10 minutes.
Kirkie became a regular in the boks side in 1960.
@ Pietman:
Alan Old he was the flyhalf whose tour was ended by a tackle in the 7th match of the tour against the Proteas. The Proteas tackled everything in sight that day and Old got smashed with a late tackle which caused a cruciate ligament tear and ended his tour, if I remember correctly. This lifted Phil Bennett into the test line-up and it was Bennett who ran us ragged in the second test. Bennet also slotted two drop goals in the 3rd test to seal that victory for the Lions.
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