Folklore has spoken … Boks by 15
27 Sep 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day Sport Monthly, writes it will be the Boks by 15 against the Aussies at Loftus on Saturday. At least that’s what history says.
Perception too often is accepted as fact. The perception of excellence in Springbok rugby is an illusion. The fact is the Springboks lose a lot of Test matches and have done so consistently over the last century.
They have a win percentage that has on occasion threatened 65% but is closer to 60%. It has always been this way. There have been some magnificent teams. Equally there have been some shockers, who have taken beatings abroad and been humiliated at home.
Time dulls the memory. Results are forgotten, folklore ensures only the good times are remembered and the good in one era become very good. The 30 metre kick to beat the All Blacks is now 60 metres. The tough men of the early 1900s were man mountains and when the current pretenders deliver a depressing result, the obvious is to hanker back to the days when Bok midfielders were more imposing than town marshalls – all 76 kilograms of them.
The modern player would not survive the amateur era. ‘In my day,’ says a player, who forgets he ever lost a Test.
‘Steak, chips and a bottle of wine,’ says another. ‘That was the pre-Test meal.’ Those were the days apparently when men were men, the Springboks were something mystical and pasta was something only the Italians ate.
And so we romance the game, listen to the stories told by those who were there, who saw the 60 metre kick, although it could have been 70 metres and take comfort that the Springboks, if not today, then most days were destroyers of opposition dreams and the ultimate challenge in world rugby.
‘You win in the Republic. Then you can call yourself a rugby player. The South African public acknowledges you can play … boy then you can play.’
You’ve heard them all …
‘A wounded Bok is a dangerous animal … There is nothing as imposing as a Bok team written off … Beware the mighty Boks … Wait till you get to altitude …’
Then we recall a glory moment when the Boks were given no chance of victory and won; when the world dismissed the challenge of those giants in green and gold and were forced to concede the greatness of those rugby men from the Republic.
The storytelling goes beyond rugby. Historically, it has been a life identity. A Springbok … it is what every white boy dreams to become. Post apartheid it is what every South African boy wants to be.
In sporting isolation the legend rose more than it grew. Mortals were immortal and no team could claim anything until they had proved it in the Republic.
Thus, for 20 years, the Boks were the best team in the world. Our rugby was of superior quality; our players dominated every South African media World XV.
Our boys kicked 70 metre penalties (forget the small matter of altitude). Those blokes overseas, they can’t even knock them over from 50 (forget the small matter of sea level).
The television images don’t lie.
The rugby media, be it in print, on television or radio, reinforce the legend.
‘You can’t call yourselves the world champions until you beat the Boks.’ That’s our response to New Zealand’s claim to have won the first ever World Cup in 1987.
And then we hosted the 1995 World Cup final and beat the All Blacks 15-12 in a final that went into extra-time. Andrew Mehrtens, ironically born in Durban, had the chance to win it for New Zealand with a drop goal attempt from 20 metres out and right in front. His kick, with less than a minute to play of normal time, missed and the game ended 9-all.
It was God’s will, said the older folk. It was written in the stars said the team management. There was no way we could lose, said the players. A greater force was guiding them.
And don’t forget that when a Jew plays for the Boks, that’s even greater confirmation defeat is never a consideration.
The All Blacks, a year later in 1996, beat the Boks four times in five, with three of the wins in South Africa. They won in Cape Town, Durban and in Pretoria.
But when they lost the last of the five Tests in Johannesburg, order was restored and the Boks had again shown the Kiwis and the world just who was the best.
As the legend grew, so too did the belief that nothing but an emphatic victory every Saturday would suffice. A failure to deliver was treated with disgust; apparently such was the rarity.
‘How? We are the Boks … We don’t lose.’
But we do, too often when reality is measured against perception.
‘Not in my day,’ screams a newspaper headline. Another of yesterday’s heroes has given up on the jersey he once wore as symbol of superiority in everything rugby and most things generally.
‘I don’t watch the kids of today. They’re soft. I’d rather mow my lawn.’
The media fuels the frenzy. Another of the all-time greats, with a Test record of nine wins in 17, says he is embarrassed to call himself a Bok if the lot that just disgraced the jersey are still called Boks.
He is so disgusted at the Boks losing to Scotland he tells the media he is considering giving back his Bok blazer.
‘Scotland!’
Our game is in crisis. Legends want to mow the lawn and give back their prized green and gold Bok jersey.
‘It’s the blacks,’ say some. ‘They’ve destroyed everything and now they’ve even destroyed our rugby.’
Another of those giants of yesteryear is inspired to let the nation know there won’t be a future for the Boks by the year 2000.
The team will be black, they will be called something else and they will play in another colour jersey is his prophecy. But he no longer objects because at least the legacy of the green jersey, the Bok and the King’s crown won’t suffer more embarrassment.
‘This lot … in my day … when the game still had scrums, when a punch sorted the kings from the queens and when players could run, pass, dummy, side step and tackle … In my day.’
Bok rugby is again in crisis, screams another newspaper front-page lead story.
Apparently another legend of yesteryear is embarrassed. He is even thinking of moving to Australia because if he had ever produced such a passionless display he would have fled out of fear for his life; alternatively he would have done what men of those days did and claimed himself unworthy of the jersey and all things South Africa. He too would have fled the country, but the measure of his quality is that it would have been before they kicked him out.
The great grandfather is sullen. The grandfather tells the son it is because of the hurt at the Boks losing to Australia.
The blacks and ANC government are no longer to blame. It’s the cash. Professionalism and money are the evils.
The players are spoilt and greedy. Then the grandfather tells the eight year old. ‘Ah you would have loved it … Victor Matfield (paaaaleeeeeese). He wouldn’t have lasted a minute. Frik du Preez, now that is a lock. A giant of a man. Taller than anything these days, stronger, heavier and quicker than Habana. He could run, tackle, kick and pass. And boy could he scored tries, and he could drink.’
The boy logs onto the internet and wishes it was Frik out there earlier in the day.
The Boks he believed could not lose were not the real Boks.
The headline demands change. The coach must go; those imposters in green and gold must go. Alternatively, rugby in South Africa, as it was once known, will be dead.
Another of yesterday’s heroes says he fears the rest of the world thinks of us as Wales. He says there is no future for the game and he gives his 10 point plan to restore order the next week. It involves kicking out half the team and replacing the coach.
‘In my day,’ he tells the reporter. ‘Doc Craven would not have tolerated this. That guy’s career would be over. Those were the standards Craven demanded. This legend then boasts about the physicality of the Boks of his era and the brutality of the tackles and the magic ways of the wings and the length of penalty goals our flyhalves used to have to kick … in the wet, with a heavy leather ball, into a wind (not the breeze we get today … a wind) and in conditions that were mudbaths … not the carpets you call a rugby field.
Oh, and in those days you played for 80 minutes, he adds. You got up after being knocked out and you played. You broke your collar bone and you played. That was what the jersey meant to him and his teammates.
Now guys last 50 minutes and even that is too much because it is so easy to play club rugby in Japan for outrageous sums of money. It’s rugby’s blasphemy.
This legend too is thinking of heading to Australia where rugby union’s not even the first choice sport; yet those okes still beat us. What next?’
The national coach fronts the media, as if on trial for treason. A nation has been lied to, betrayed and insulted.
The coach promises the players will work harder, restore credibility and be true to the history of the jersey.
We hold our breath, we pat ourselves on the back that even in these foreign and dark times we can show such loyalty and we vow to watch the Boks the following week.
The grandson asks the grandfather if we can win.
‘We are the Boks,’ he says. ‘We don’t lose.’
And the grandson smiles. Order has been restored.
The legacy of the Boks is not dead. The game apparently is no longer in crisis and we will not be the Wales of rugby.
He logs onto the Internet and smiles even more. The legends of yesteryear won’t be going to Australia after all and one of the finest legends has laughed off reports that the Boks are a team that historically loses 40 percent of their Tests.
‘Not in my day,’ he has told the reporter. ‘And definitely not on Saturday. Boks to take it by 15 because we never lose.’
– This article first appeared in the October issue of Business Day Sport Monthly. The magazine is distributed free with Business Day newspaper on the second last Friday of each month.
703 Comments
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27 Sep 2012, 12:20 pm
@Horings-295:
lol, 231 is going bull superrugby final balistic at the minute.
even better when you listen to the kiwi commentary from 2009. Those poor okes had to get subbed from the commentary box by half time they were so fcked up and out of ideas.
27 Sep 2012, 12:20 pm
Fck it, who needs his post to be number 300? Here it is again.
@Provvas-280: That argument has more holes that the average Poppa onnerpant. You can’t just pick any two players that suit your point, regardless of their quality. I said a good big trumps a good small, always. Next you’re going to “kill” my point by pointing out that Matt Giteau was better than Dries Scholtz.
Also, are you really suggesting that Paulse is better than Lomu based on the arbitrary stat of who scored against whom? Because that has the potential to make you look very silly.
27 Sep 2012, 12:21 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-286: Wrong. It wasn’t stolen… It was given away…
Funny that none of those players are now involved with the Bulls… They left soon after… wonder if there was a clearing out of “different” thinkers…
Those that dont conform…
Those that aren’t “family”?
Because a couple years later the Bulls were a lot better and more value for their 2009 and 2010 wins… And without those players you mention playing a huge part or any part at all.
Ag, maybe I’m just seeing Blue tinged shadows everywhere…
But then again maybe those shadows are really being cast…
27 Sep 2012, 12:21 pm
@XhosaKid-294: size is always an advantage in a game based on collisions bud.
what you are trying to say is that small players can be incredibly skilfull and make up for their lack of size.
this is indisputable.
but the counter is that large players can also be incredibly skilful AND big.
taute is clearly viewed this way.
i also dont get the constant hand wringing over aplon?????? the oke is the wrong side of 28 and who would you have him replace? kirchner, habs or mvovo/JPP?
therefore my suspicion is that the whole black player argument is simply a provincial argument dressed up as a race discussion.
busted!
27 Sep 2012, 12:22 pm
@Horings-285:
This guy was probably the best backline player I have ever seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf9Elzj7ZPU
27 Sep 2012, 12:23 pm
@WP-Forever-298: The only reruns from the 80s I have seen is either the 1987 World Cup or the 1981 Bok tour to NZ. I would love to see more clips of Currie Cup rugby from the 80s. I watched “In conversation with Naas Botha” the other day and have also seen a couple of great tries from the WP team in that era.
27 Sep 2012, 12:24 pm
@WP-Forever-305:
Here’s another length-of-the-field try by Cullen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyydzjjg_-U&feature=related
27 Sep 2012, 12:24 pm
@katman-300: just so happens all the small players being touted are from the cape.
the fact that they are bleck just adds sauce.
27 Sep 2012, 12:24 pm
@Horings-276: FFS!!! apply your brains, I didn’t say rugby is a game of midgets, I’m saying rugby is a game of all sizes, Richard Hill, Joe Worsely, Lewis Moody were all bigger players than Back, Back was first choice, as small as he was, even the English back line had 3 “big” players the rest were smaller than what you guys want or expect, now argue with that fact.
27 Sep 2012, 12:25 pm
@XhosaKid-294:
didn’t bother reading, I would rather not argue with you.
you are a nutjob in my opinion who is all to serious, massive chip and limited humour.
lets just agree to disagree then, no wait, in fact, lets just settle this.
You are right, we are all biggotted racist afrikaaners with no skill or anything of any use to anyone ever.
okay
you happy now?
27 Sep 2012, 12:26 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-289: He too has no permanent position in our cabal.
In fact he and HG – now there’s a delightfullywickedfuckingcombo, in the Mel and Kim, Sonny and Cher, Kylie and Jason Donovan mould
@WP-Forever-291: All he needs is for Lambie to get 35 minutes game time and all will be soooooperwooooper in his world again.
27 Sep 2012, 12:26 pm
@XhosaKid-309: and imagine how much better back would have been with an extra 5 kilos?
27 Sep 2012, 12:26 pm
@Horings-306:
Here’s a short clip with highlights from the 1989 Currie Cup final between NTvl and WP at Newlands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlzwn80ObnA&feature=relmfu
27 Sep 2012, 12:26 pm
@rangerman-308: Ja, the Province bunch have a lot of growing up to do, in more ways than one.
27 Sep 2012, 12:27 pm
@Heavens Game-303:
listen lunatic,
habana moved to wp and has won fokol since leaving.
kuun and waco retired.
you and your maddass theories
27 Sep 2012, 12:28 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-310: blerrie calvanists!
luckily you arent muslims because if xhosakid had chirped them he may arrive home to an angry mob torching his entire neighbourhood.
27 Sep 2012, 12:28 pm
dawns gonna have my liver for that one.
27 Sep 2012, 12:29 pm
@rangerman-308: Not all the small players…unless Keegan and Lambietjie are really WP boys at heart.
27 Sep 2012, 12:29 pm
@Heavens Game-184: ‘I am as disgusted with myself, as an anorexic in a mirror, with how I really was a supporter when he was finally made coach… I lied to myself. Fuckthat…’
27 Sep 2012, 12:30 pm
Stuff me Mark! Just write a normal article!! Stop trying to be clever and/or witty and just write about the game.
Poor poor writing.
27 Sep 2012, 12:30 pm
@Horings-306:
And here’s one showing the highlights of the 1988 Currie Cup final between Province and NTvl at Loftus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWhL9y9Z4qY&feature=relmfu
27 Sep 2012, 12:30 pm
@Horings-285: I didn’t bother with the Currie Cup clips, because he does those blindfolded, now now me a clip of another SA inside center cutting defenses to pieces.
27 Sep 2012, 12:30 pm
@WP-Forever-313:
i was at that game, bulls were by far the better side, the kakky weather stopped us crushying you. And you okes even got a shot at winning the game with that last kick. That was also at the time when everyone got a shot at hosting the final. Final should have been at loftus.
if memory serves correctly we wiped the floor with you okes a few weeks earlier in the lion cup final.
27 Sep 2012, 12:31 pm
Mark Keohane,
What has gotten into you Bro.
Over the last couple of months your articles have been first class.
Rehab seems to agree with you.
Kind Regards,
cane.
(better than 1st class actually).
27 Sep 2012, 12:32 pm
@rangerman-290: at least he has a step, now show me a SA inside center with a step, let alone what direction its going.
27 Sep 2012, 12:32 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-323:
Your memory serves you wrong, Province won that Lion Cup final in 1989.
27 Sep 2012, 12:33 pm
@cane-324: You mean Class A?
27 Sep 2012, 12:34 pm
the Christian Cullen of keo and Xhosaskid have been drinking the same bee koolaid.
very emboerit.
27 Sep 2012, 12:36 pm
@XhosaKid-325: Well if he answers you with the name, “Frans Steyn” I am going to spit out my coffee in laughter for the 3rd time today…..
27 Sep 2012, 12:38 pm
@gunther-328: The Christian Cullert? You talking about Boesak?
27 Sep 2012, 12:38 pm
@Big Hit-299: Regarding Woodward, the emphasis was who can get the job done NOT who can get the job done with bulk and brute force, the latter seems to be HM’s emphasis.
27 Sep 2012, 12:39 pm
@rangerman-316: What you talking bout?
My muslim friend is the bomb…
27 Sep 2012, 12:39 pm
@WP-Forever-326:
you sure? I was at one of the lion cups around that time. We killed someone. maybe it was natal?
27 Sep 2012, 12:41 pm
@XhosaKid-309: Richard Hill… Now there is the bravest sonofagun I ever saw on a rugby field other than Ruben, Buck and JP Rives…
Hellsteeth, I reckon him and Ruben could have been separated at birth (Twins – now thats enough to get the Blou Ballas faithful choking in their Klippies, and the Twickers stalwarts, their G&Ts)
But none of them were these visions of physical grandeur… These ideal phenotypes indicating genetic superiority…
But they were all greats… No doubt all in most loose forward top 10s ever.
27 Sep 2012, 12:41 pm
@gunther-328:
Who’s the Cullen of keo?
27 Sep 2012, 12:42 pm
doubt dejong would make any starting 15 in international rugby.
and i include fiji,samoa and scotland in that.
27 Sep 2012, 12:42 pm
@katman-330:
boom
@Taahirah-332:
boom
you two keep going like this and khakibollox is going to be unleashing his chemical arsenal upon you.
27 Sep 2012, 12:42 pm
@katman-330:
27 Sep 2012, 12:42 pm
@rangerman-304: Jaco Taute skillful?, that’s an oxymoron, clearly did watch Lions Super Rugby games or the recent CC, let alone the U/20 World Cup, he must have developed this skill in the past week, the number of dropped balls from Taute is astronomic for modern day standard.
27 Sep 2012, 12:43 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-333:
It was the next year, 1990. Your boys klapped Natal 62-6 in that Lion Cup final.
27 Sep 2012, 12:43 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-315: Exactly… nothing like a new broom sweeps clan and all that…
27 Sep 2012, 12:43 pm
@katman-330:
Boesak and Eugene Terblanche are the greatest orators of our generation and that includes Martin Luther King and Obama.
When Boesak speaks he makes your whole body tingle.
27 Sep 2012, 12:43 pm
@WP-Forever-340:
Wait, it could have been 1991. Will double-check.
27 Sep 2012, 12:44 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-198: Bakkies.Your s econd paragraph.Post 198.Hell will freeze over.
27 Sep 2012, 12:44 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-333:
Of course, that was just before most of your team moved to the Lions…
27 Sep 2012, 12:45 pm
@rangerman-308: Johan Goosen is no monster, nor is he from the cape, nor is a he black, lets argue on merit.
27 Sep 2012, 12:46 pm
@XhosaKid-339: meant to say, “clearly didn’t watch”
27 Sep 2012, 12:46 pm
@XhosaKid-339: it was good chatting to you bud, we can continue another time as i must go.
have a good day all!
27 Sep 2012, 12:47 pm
@WP-Forever-345:
ja,,,the lions under luydt.
if we can’t beat the bulls, just buy them all.
bit like chelsea of a couple of seasons ago.
27 Sep 2012, 12:48 pm
@Jeraldjay-342: you clearly never saw the great rattray (RIP) in action.
he made you sway like a zulu warrior or stand like durnford on the kopje holding all at bay til he was cut down by the foe.
bygones.
tjorts.
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