McLook
Wayne Gray wrote an interesting article (Prelude of things to come in World Cup) in the New Zealand Herald about the Bulls victory over the Hurricanes. Here are some extracts:
Fast forward to October. The All Blacks want to play a fast-paced, ball-in-hand style of rugby at the World Cup.
The Springboks will favour muscular confrontation and an aerial bombardment if they adhere to recent comments from coach Peter de Villiers, who wondered why his side should vary much from the attritional, combative style the Springboks had used with success in annexing two World Cups. Continue reading
14 Sept 1976 – Griqualand West 3 / All Blacks 26
Referee Professor Tinkie Heyns was the unlikely –and unwilling, one might add- hero of the fixture in Kimberley. Continue reading
11 Sept 1976 – Orange Free State 15 / All Blacks 10
Front page news of the Sunday Rapport was a remark by All Black coach JJ Stewart apparently made in aftermath of the Bloemfontein match: “I’ll be glad to get out of this stinking country.” Continue reading
6 Sept 76 – North West Cape/South West Africa Combined 17 / All Blacks 34
This game against a combined team of North West Cape and South West Africa -played in Upington- produced some of the best running rugby on tour. By half time with the score a deceptive 24-7 in the favour of the All Blacks due to the brilliance of Bruce Robertson the Namib and Kalahari boys turned more and more too violent tactics in an attempt to unsettle the All Blacks. This spoiled what could have been a first-rate game as the desert boys had a pack that could stand up to the All Blacks and some real playmakers and speed in the backline. Continue reading
See the famous Joggie Jansen tackle, the Sid Nomis interception, the third test of 1965 which shows Brynard diving over two defenders to score, the Tiny Naude penalty and much more.
A total of 62 video’s can be viewed on the McLook Collection.
Click on these links.
4 September 1976 – SA 15 / All Blacks 10
The series was square -one test all- and the third test was therefore of critical significance for both sides. As is often the case with so much at stake it was a brutal affair.
The tempers flared.
Tension related jittery movements caused heaps of unforced errors during the match while tentative decision making and mind boggling unintelligent option taking, incompetence and idiotic mistakes manifested itself at crucial stages before and during the test. Continue reading
The arch enemy or the nemesis of South African rugby has always been the All Blacks. The All Black/Springbok rugby rivalry is in my mind the fiercest sporting rivalry on the planet. It is a rivalry that started in 1921 and which it still going 90 years later.
Watch the video below for a summary of this 90 years of Springbok / All Black rivalry. Continue reading
Here is what Gabriel David wrote about Dirk when he played for Western Transvaal against the 1970 All Blacks:
…. the little-fancied Western Transvaal side this afternoon was the toughest game of the tour so far. Superbly coached by the national selector Mr. Johan Claassen, Western Transvaal played some magnificent rugby and actually took the All Blacks on at their own game – driving in the forwards and putting the ball behind the tourists with skilful tactical kicking.
Western Transvaal played some inspired rugby at times with the springbok halfback, Dirk de Vos, in brilliant kicking mood as he placed the ball in the exact position he wanted. Continue reading
For those interested. I’ve created my own webpage; the McLook rugby collection.
It will ultimately contain everything I’ve written so far on tours (1965, 1970 and 1976 tours). I’ll add all the other tours over time with all my rugby picures, video and rugby tapes containing commentary of matches. The video’s and rugby commentary will be only snippets of tries. Continue reading
28 August 1976 – All Blacks 42 / Natal 13
The All Blacks have resonated well with Natal rugby over the years maybe because of it being predominantly an English community -the last outpost of the British Empire as Tommy Bedford described it in 1970- but the friendships was renewed and McLean writes in general very positively about Natal rugby as he did in his book about the 1970 tour. The feeling I get it that he had a bit of soft spot for the Banana-boys and was just a little to elaborate with his praise and appreciation of players and province.
The match against Natal was, however, interesting in many ways. Natal -not one of the top provinces in SA in 1976- was playing reasonably good rugby and was certainly no walkover having beaten Transvaal 7-6 just a fortnight ago. Continue reading
24 August 1976- All Blacks 48 / Transvaal combined Country XV 13
The All Blacks next match was against a combined Transvaal Country XV which included players from three provincial unions –South Eastern Transvaal, Far North and Rhodesia.
This was the first time an All Black touring side did not play against Rhodesia. Both the 1949 and 1960 All Black sides in fact played against two Rhodesian sides namely against a “Southern” Rhodesian and “Northern/Central” Rhodesian side.
The 1949 side played their first match in Bulawayo and lost 8-10. Five days later they played a second match in Salisbury which they drew 3 all. Continue reading
21 August 1976 – NTVL 29 / All Blacks 27
Uncle Piet and hypocritical Thys had the All Blacks pretty worked up after the Northern Transvaal game. There were several incidents during and after the game but the cherry on the cake, for the All Blacks, was the way referee Piet Robbertse and NTVL captain Thys Lourens conspired to cheat them out of a victory in extra time. Continue reading
18 August 1976 – Quaggas-Barbarians 31 / All Blacks 32
This was without doubt the most exciting match of the tour. A thriller with some fantastic tries scored right up to injury time. The All Blacks had a shocking start to the match and was trailing 31-9 with 20 minutes of the second half gone when they started their come back. It was probably only due to the spirit in which the game was played which allowed them to come back as the Baabaas never closed down the match. Nevertheless, it was an unbelievable comeback and a match which had the crowd on their feet right up to the final whistle. Continue reading
14 August 1976 – South Africa 9/ New Zealand 15
Test matches is about pressure; the ability to create pressure and to handle pressure. Handling and creating pressure has to do with tactics, key players, and senior players stepping up. This was in essence the difference between NZ and SA in the second test of the 1976 series. NZ had a superior game plan while South Africa’s strategic approach neither created nor alleviated pressure. Continue reading
10 August 1976 – OFS country XV 6 / All Blacks 31
Frankly, if Springs was bad, this match took the gold cup for agonizing rugby. The All Blacks played excruciating poor rugby against a bunch of terribly ordinary footballers whose only virtue was that they could tackle. Terry McLean in his book “Goodbye to Glory” writes: Continue reading
7 August 1976 – Eastern Transvaal 12 / All Blacks 26
It was dreary, negative and mediocre; it was the 12th match of the tour, halfway anyway you look at it and the presumptions was that this All Black side was “gatvol” (had their gutsful) playing dreary, negative and mediocre rugby against a team with a knack for bringing opposition down to their own dreary, negative and mediocre way of playing. Continue reading
4 August 1976 – South African Universities 9 / All Blacks 21
Terry McLean in his book “goodbye to glory” starts his piece on this match with the following paragraph:
June 25. Jan Smuts Airport. All Blacks arrive. Big crowd. Much cheering (but crowd neither as big nor cheering as loud as it used to be). Danie Craven. Jannie le Roux. Handshaking. “Welcome. Glad you could make it boys. Season wouldn’t have been the same without you.”
Craven again. “South African Rugby is much better than it was when the Lions were here two years ago. You will see. Much, much better. The new Currie Cup competition has stirred everything up. You will see. We will be waiting for you. And don’t forget – there are five tests. Ja, man, five. South African Universities. A great team. You will find them very hard.” Continue reading
31 July 1976 – Transvaal 10 / All Blacks 12
In the end it was the five crocks which cost Transvaal the match. Transvaal started the match with five players not fully fit and that contributed to 1) running out of puff in the last 5 minutes 2) losing a vital line-out in the last minute and 3) Bosch –one of the crocks- botching it up by missing a penalty kick in the last minute. Continue reading
28 July 1976 – Western Transvaal 3 / All Blacks 42
Oliën Park, Potchefstroom.
Fine, cool, light north-east breeze.
Crowd: 24 000.
Referee: Mike Kessel (Natal). Continue reading
In my previous post I’ve stated that I came to the conclusion that the Springboks are not that far of the pace. In that post I’ve argued that the primary reason why the wheels came off in 2010 is because they’ve lost the plot psychologically.
I also said that some curative work needs to be done in three main areas but after pondering a bit about it I realized there is a bit more to it. So here is what I think need to receive attention in the Springbok team. Continue reading
It being the end of the year it is a good time to review what actually happened this year with the Springboks. Coming last in the Tri-Nations, losing at home against Australia (on the Highveld first time since 1963), losing all three Test matches against New Zealand and then the gut wrenching loss against Scotland was almost too much for this ardent Springbok supporter.
It is all over, done and dusted, now but I have been pondering non-stop (I hope PdV is doing the same thing) about our season.
What exactly went wrong and how bad was it really? Continue reading
24 July 1976 – South Africa 16 / All Blacks 7
King’s Park, Durban. Glorious summer’s day, temperature 30 degree’s. Crowd: 45 000. Referee: Ian Gourlay (Natal). Continue reading
Yes, I know it was the second stringers; it was a team full of young players; some of the players haven’t played for 4 weeks and were just a little of the boil; the team came back well and could have won had we landed all our kicks but let’s stop the damn excuses.
This game demonstrated exactly what is wrong with Springbok rugby. There is firstly a huge gap between our A-team and our second stingers. So stop this infuriating tendency to think some sort of young star is going to sort our problems. What huge difference did the Beast make when he came on? Continue reading
To be honest I am slightly dumbfounded after the loss against Scotland and the rather pathetic show against Wales. This year’s international rugby season was one colossal disappointment for me and I am really struggling to mount any enthusiasm about this weekend’s game.
I am bitterly disappointed with not only the type of rugby we play but also with our inability to execute our “game plan” if one can call it a plan. Continue reading
CORNE KRIGE admitted he deliberately set out to injure England players during South Africa’s 53-3 record mauling at Twickenham in 2002.
See added video material of the Krige elbow incident; the Labuschagne red card, and the Greenwood tries.
Presenting a Gallery of the top 10 most humiliating defeats under Peter de Villiers since his reign began as coach of the Springboks in 2008.
Peter de Villiers took over a World Cup winning team, and took them to Tri-Nations and British and Irish Lions glory, but along the way he has at times plumbed new Springbok lows and earned unwanted records especially in recent times where the Springboks have seemingly gone from World Champions to Chumps.
During May and June 1984 England toured South Africa playing a series of seven matches including two test matches against the Springboks. They won four of the seven matches but lost both of the test matches as well as drawing the fixture against Western Province. Continue reading
Over the years there have been some intense battles on the rugbyfield between SA and England. England have this uncanny ability to surprise, frustrate and bring us back to earth. For the next couple of days I am going to describe my personal favourites of matches between these two rugby nations in terms of the worst, the best, the most frustrating, most annoying, most dissapointing, most embarrasing, most shocking and most satisfying matches I’ve had the privilage to experience (see or listen to on the radio). I’ll start with the most shocking test match between England and South Africa.
The Grand Slam is a relatively modern term coined to either represent a full house of wins by one Six Nations country over the other five participating nations or a full house of wins by a touring Southern Hemisphere team over the four United Kingdom (UK) home unions. The term Grand Slam was first used in 1933, by the American journalist John Kieran. In describing the attempt that year by Jack Crawford to win all four titles, he compared it with “a countered and vulnerable grand slam in bridge”. Kieran singled out these four titles as being the biggest in tennis because, at the time, they were the main international championships held in the only four countries who had won the Davis Cup. Crawford failed to achieve the Grand Slam that year as he lost in the US Championships final to Fred Perry. It wasn’t until 1938 that Donald Budge became the first person to achieve the Grand Slam. The expression Grand Slam, initially used to describe the winning of the tennis major events, was later incorporated by other sports, notably golf, to describe a similar accomplishment.
Considering that each of the four UK teams (and France) generally play a different style and have different strengths and weaknesses a Grand Slam is, in terms of adaptability, probably a greater feat than winning a series against one country.
20 July 1976 – South African Gazelle 15 / All Blacks 21
Boet Erasmus, Port Elizabeth; Weather: fine, warm with a wisp of a breeze; Ground: Perfect; Crowd: 27 000; Referee: Max Baize (Eastern Province). Continue reading
Between the referee, Habana and box kicks the Springboks nearly lost this Test. The score line is certainly flattering to the Welsh and we should be concerned by the fact that we made such hard work to put away a Welsh team that was fairly average on the day. Continue reading
Check out this video on sport24. Habana has become the target of opposing teams because he is constantly out of position (off his line) on defence.
“Pienaar gets my man of the match award. His kicking game was outstanding and he adapted well to the conditions,” analyst Skinstad told pay channel SuperSport after South Africa ended a run of losses in Dublin.
Another former Springbok, right wing Ashwin Willemse, backed Skinstad and added that the entire South Africa pack, led by stand-in skipper Victor Matfield, was a close second behind Pienaar. Continue reading
The Wallabies have had a tendency in recent years to struggle against Wales. A success rate of only 50% against the 9th ranked team in the world is without a doubt a bit of an embarrassment for the Aussies. Continue reading
The Springboks won – just – with a convincing performance by the forwards pack but the dangers and limitations of our old school style was again ominous.
In fairness, the way the pack dominated we should have won this match by at least 17 points, but lack of structure when we play the ball wide /down the line culminated in a comedy of errors and some frustrating decisions by the referee which almost cost us the match.