McLook
17 July 1976 – Western Province 12 / All Blacks 11
Cape Town. Weather: fine, calm day. Ground: firm. Crowd: 45 000.
Referee: Fonnie van der Vyver (Northern Transvaal). Continue reading
What a game!
An advertisement for rugby, for sure.
The confidence and composure the AB showed after being totally bamboozled by the Wallabies and the referee in the first quarter was astonishing. Continue reading
After watching the Bulls/Sharks and the WP/Cheetahs semi-finals a couple of times I reckon the crucial factor in this match is going to be depth or penetration on attack. Continue reading
It is Currie Cup final time.
Every year this time I just can’t help to think about the 1970 Cinderella story when Griquas came from nowhwere to win the Currie Cup. That magical won by Griquas has intriqued me since I can remember and I have been loosely on the look-out for information about that match/season always thinking that I’ll make some serious investigation into at some stage. Continue reading
There have been many finals over the years but this one has the potential to be one of the most important ones as it could potentially direct coaching strategies for next year’s S15 as well as for the world cup.
Last year saw us at the top of the world; winning the tri-nations comprehensively. Continue reading
Western Province (WP) –as the oldest and biggest province in the early years- dominated the CC competition in the founding years.
The Currie Cup made its appearance in 1891 after it was awarded to Griqualand-West (GLW) by W.E Maclagan the captain of a British team touring South Africa for best performance by a South African team against them. Continue reading
This will be Natal or the Sharks 13th Currie Cup final since 1889. To be more accurate, since 1890, when the Natal Rugby Union was founded.
They have a 41.67% success rate having won 5 of 12 finals.
Natal made their first Currie Cup final appearance in the 1956 season playing against Northern Transvaal and went down by just a single point. Northern Transvaal winning the match nine points to eight. Continue reading
14 July 1976 – Boland Invitation XV 6 / All Blacks 42
Wellington. Wet, drizzling with the field somewhat sandy but firm underfoot. Crowd 16 000. Continue reading
Billy Bush whingeing yet again about unfair treatment by the boks
In an article by Michael Brown regarding Maori being unfairly treated by not being allowed to tour to South Africa he has the following on Billy Bush. Continue reading
I wrote about the importance of the breakdowns before and this weekend it was dominance at the breakdowns yet again that determined the outcome of at least one of the semifinals if not both. Continue reading
The hand-off is not something that you really see in South African rugby. At least to the extent that you see it here in New Zealand. No Springbok rugby player –as an example of an exponent of the hand-off- spring to mind when you think of the hand-off. Continue reading
I’ve just watched the semi finals of the common wealth seven’s tournament played between New Zealand/England and Australia/South Africa respectively.
NZ won relatively easily against the Poms and South Africa lost 17-7 against the Aussies. While watching these matches I penned down 7 observations. Continue reading
10 July 1976 – SA Invitation XV 24 / All Blacks 31
Newlands, Cape Town. Weather, fine, dry, cool in the shade. Crowd 35 000.
The referee: Steve Strydom (Orange Free State).
The SA invitation XV side was assembled or finalized just two days before the match and was a blend of formidable players eight of which would later become Springboks. Continue reading
30 June 1976 – Border &North-Eastern Cape 0 / All Blacks 24
The match was played in perfect weather conditions at the Buller Rugby Union Ground in East Londen and attended by a crowd of 10 000 people. Continue reading
Who would be South Africa’s best loose trio of all time? The loose trio is probably one of the most important combinations in union rugby. The loose trio consist of three players with overlapping but also very distinctly different tasks. Each player has a very clear and specific task traditionally. The allotted tasks might have changed slightly in the modern game and/or the aligned task might also differ from one country to the next but in essence the loose trio’s effectiveness in doing these jobs as well as their ability to hunt as a pack determines to a large extent to outcome of the match. The loose trio are also the players in the team with the fewest set responsibilities (most freedom to go where they want) and therefore the position where the player should have all round attributes such as speed, strength, fitness, handling skills and good tackling and rucking technique. Continue reading
Andy Leslie –the 1976 All Black Captain- said after the tour: “South Africa is a country at war”. The tour was a disturbing experience for the New Zealanders in many ways and is without a doubt the reason for the title of Terry McLean’s book on this tour.
Terry McLean entitled his book “goodbye to glory”. An interesting title and a choice based on the fact that this tour was in many ways an end. It was a goodbye to innocence in terms of separating rugby and politics for New Zealand rugby players because there is no glory in playing rugby against a country that treats more than half of his population as substandard humans. This tour was an eye opener for the New Zealand rugby people (players and administrators). As the teams prepared for the first test, in Durban, it was announced that Egypt had become the 29th country to boycott the Olympic Games in Montreal –a direct protest against the All Black tour. Continue reading
There are four periods of extended misery in Springbok rugby history: 1963-65, 1972-74, 1996-97 and 2000 to 2003. The 1972-74 period was of course the loss against John Pullen’s England team and the dreadful series lost against the 1974 lions. The period 1996 to 1997 –the Markgraaf/Du Plessis era- was a time when South Africa was able to win only 4 tests out of 12 against New Zealand. It was also during this period that South Africa lost, for the first time, -in its long rugby history- a series at home against the All Blacks. What made it worst is the fact that South Africa was the reigning world champions at the time. Continue reading
Run-up to the test
In view of the scoring sprees on which the Springboks had embarked over the previous two weeks –after the win in the third test- a number of critics thought they were certain to tie the series, especially as the last test looked likely to be played in conditions that would favor the Springboks. The feeling was shared by the Springboks who approached the game with a great deal of confidence. Continue reading
A number of off-field incidents dominated the last three tour matches and turned the NZ public –being very positive, even sympathetic, up to this stage- against the touring Springboks. The most significant of these incidents was a very ill timed announcement by Dr. Verwoerd that Maori’s will not be welcome as part of the envisioned 1967 All Black tour to South Africa.
This was big news and the New Zealand media went ballistic. Danie Craven was in the center of it trying to blow out fires and to calm the emotions; stemming the accumulating negativity towards South African rugby. Continue reading
Run up to the test
A interesting relationship developed between Danie Craven, the media and the New Zealand public during the 1956 tour –when Craven was coaching the side. Adoration and apprehension probably the best way to desbribe the curious fascination they had with the man. They adored him for his dedication, his competiveness and the excitement he brought, by posing a real challence but they were apprehensive because of the uncertainty within that very challenge; the fear of not being able to overcome the challence or that their beloved All Blacks might lose. Craven was literally front page news -on a daily basis- in 1956. A man they loved to hate and in 1965 he was treated like royalty on arrival in New Zealand. Continue reading
This topic has been on but here is my views on this issue. Continue reading
Reaction on the 2nd test
In the firing line, the All Black backline unable to score tries in spite of having the majority of the possession. Too much kicking, the charge against the halfbacks. After a TV broadcast of the test even the Springboks were asked about this; their response slightly arrogant. Terry McLean writes:
After a telefilm of the test, the Springboks, or the thinking ones, this evening were agreed on one thing –if the All Blacks had been really on the ball, they would have won by 20, even 25, to nil. The case in point just before halftime when Laidlaw ran the blindside from a loose movement with Murdoch, Moreton and Birtwistle lined up outside him. Ahead stood only Gainsford and Brynard.
With any sort of accuracy in passing and any sort of speed in movement, it must have been a try at the other end. But did this try come off? Not a ghost of a chance. Murdoch kicked.
“I tell you,” said Gainsford not without a touch of scorn, “those All Black backs will never run against us. They never will. They will always kick.” This remains to be seen and proved; but it was a devastating display of defensiveness of New Zealand rugby at the highest level. Continue reading
The last time the Wallabies won on the Highveld was in 1963 when they won two of the four tests to square the series. They lost the first test (14-3) at Loftus Versveld, won the second (9-5) at Newlands and the third one (11-9) at Ellis Park before losing the last one (22-6) Boet Erasmus in Port Elizabeth. Continue reading
Just read an article by Marc Hinton (Nonu and Smith the best ever) in which he argues that Nonu and Smith is right up there as one the best centre combinations –if not the best ever. He then goes on and compare them with other All Black centre combinations as if New Zealand is the only country that can produce top class centers. Continue reading
South Africa and Australia came close to producing a new version of rugby this morning in Pretoria.
It was essentially rugby sevens played with 15 men a side – an interesting hybrid model which, alas, I don’t think has a future.
Leading up to the test
McLean and the rest of the New Zealand rugby journalists once again had much to say about the Springbok’s preparation in the week before the test. McLean writes as follows on this matter:
Training – the importance and fostering of. That could be the theme of the day. In the morning, the Springboks did a good deal of it. Someone threw the ball in incessantly. Goosen, newly and most deservedly capped, rose up at No3, du Preez at No5, Nel at No7. In turn all made the catch. Everyone else stepped to the right positions; and that was that. Meanwhile, the backs, under care of Nelie Smith, chased around the place and did a good deal of criss-cross scissors passing. It was all very proper and not terribly enthusiastic and re-awakened the feelings of early in the tour that these men weren’t working hard enough. There was certainly not much humour about anything; nor earnestness, either, for that matter. Just everyone going through a routine. Continue reading
The use of small sided games in football (soccer) to integrate scientific training methods used by athletes -to peak- with skills is a exciting new innovation in repeated sprint sports. I thought it might be useful to add some additional explanation as most readers probably don’t have a background in the science of training and peaking.
I am going to do the explanation using a typical 10 week running periodization program. For the purpose of the discussion I will focus only on the interval sessions because that is essentially what I want to emphasize in this post; how the interval sessions differ from one phase of the periodization cycle to the next. Continue reading
There has been quite some reaction on perceptions that the Springboks are not fit enough (see Graeme Henry’s remarks on this issue). Some bloggers have made remarks like “they are professional athletes. How can they not be fit enough?” This is essentially what inspired this post because fitness can mean a number of things depending on how you define fitness and there is quite a difference between being fit and being sharp. Continue reading
What a great game of rugby. Credit to the players for staging such a fantastic spectacle.
In the end, a rather disappointing result if you are a Springbok supporter. A heart-broken loss is the word that has been thrown around in the newspapers. I’ll concur with that and with that in mind I believe it is important to dissect what went wrong as that is the only way to learn from your mistakes and to move forward. The Springbok team would undoubtedly do their own dissection but for us Springbok supporters dissection and discussion of the match helps to brings closure.
I believe we showed massive improvement at the breakdowns (as compared to our previous two games against the All Blacks) for 90% of the time. However, the 10% of the time that we were not up to it -at the breakdowns- actually cost us the match. Continue reading
The Springboks next three matches were against North Auckland, Auckland, and a combined team of Nelson / Marlborough / Golden Bay-Motueka.
The game against North Auckland was played in Whangarei probably one of the most scenic and best small-boat cruising areas in the world. Terry McLean put it as follows:
It was a perfect flight from Hamilton to Whangarei, especially from Auckland northward along the coast, over the bounteous beaches and islands of the fairyland that is the Hauraki Gulf. I freely sold this as the greatest small-boat cruising ground in the world and the Afrikaners living a thousand miles from the seas warmly agreed with me that it probably was. As it is. Continue reading
Just found the following article in the New Zealand Herald. Written by Peter Bills.
It’s official.
The All Blacks are treated differently by referees from either of their Tri-Nations opponents. The statistics from the first five games of this year’s competition show a staggering difference in the ratio of penalties per yellow card. Suspicions are rife in South African rugby that the All Blacks get a special deal, are favoured whether subconsciously or consciously by referees.
Now, the figures seem to prove the point. South Africa are the most regularly penalised, conceding six penalties per yellow card. The Australians’ figure is remarkably similar – just seven a card. But by the same calculations, the New Zealand tally is incredible. Continue reading
The weather was muggy, heavy and oppressive the mood in the Springbok camp morbid, heavy and oppressive and the two hour bus ride to Wanganui felt murderously long and oppressively uncomfortable. Unexpected and naughty humor from Hannes Marais lightened the day whose post test melancholy –worsened by hangovers of varying degrees of profundity- was deepened by the frigidity of the weather all over New Zealand. Continue reading
Build-up and teams
It was a test of missed opportunities. A test of controversy. A test almost won, against all odds, by South Africa.
True to form Athletic Park in Wellington was a swamp on test day. The weather was heavy and overcast; the field was a mud bath after two days of sustained rain; a gale force, 50 mile per hour cold southern wind, was blowing to top it off. The Springboks -after their series defeat in Australia and one lost out off 8 matches in New Zealand- were given no change to win. Five of the Springboks in the test side played in the 1960 series against the All Blacks in South Africa, namely Lionel Wilson, John Gainsford, Keith Oxlee, Lofty Nel, and Abe Malan. Continue reading
This article is the result off a shared attempt by myself and Superbul. Superbul came up with the idea and some original thoughts. However, I’ve added quite a bit and Superbul have not seen the final product so I’ll take the hits if you don’t agree with any opinions expressed.
Leaving, New Plymouth the Springboks crossed over to the South Island for the second time on tour and travelled down to the southernmost town in New Zealand, namely Invercargill to play against the regions representative team, Southland. The South Island is considered to be main land in New Zealand and more patriotic and enthusiastic rugby supporters are hard to find. The real New Zealand men or the hard men comes from the Deep South; the men with natural strength, endurance, and grit developed by manual labour in tough and uncompromising environmental conditions –cold, windy, and hilly with little luxuries. Continue reading