Pieter-Steph du Toit captained the Springboks in Rassie Erasmus’ first Test in charge of the Springboks against Wales in the United States in 2018. Confirmation that the Springboks and All Blacks will play the fourth Test of the Greatest Rivalry Tour in Baltimore in September got me thinking about the Boks’ relationship with the Land of Plenty, which has been bizarre. The last time the Boks were in the States was Rassie Erasmus’s first match in charge, on June 2, 2018, and the Boks were terrible in losing to Wales in Washington.
Nobody at that point would have imagined that Erasmus would be a double World Cup-winning coach. The old saying, “From humble beginnings come great things,” springs to mind. To be fair to Rassie, he left most of his heavyweights behind in Johannesburg to prepare for the arrival of Eddie Jones’ England.
A look at the team sheet for the 22-20 defeat raises eyebrows — Chiliboy Ralepelle was at hooker; Pieter-Steph du Toit was still a lock; Curwin Bosch at fullback; Ivan van Zyl was scrumhalf; Elton Jantjies and Rob du Preez shared the flyhalf duties; Travis Ismaiel was on the right wing… The previous Springbok visit to the States had been on 1 December 2001. That was just over two months after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, and the match against the USA in Houston was the finale for the November tour of that year. I covered that tour forIndependent Media, and I will never forget feeling like I was in a war zone.
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The Boks travelled from London to the US after having played England at Twickenham. The security measures at Heathrow were hectic, including every male traveller being stripped to his underpants for scrutiny. The flight landed in New York before transit to Houston.
The hours spent at the airport were uncomfortable, with twitchy, heavily armed officers watching your every move. But the Boks’ first encounter with the USA takes the prize. In 1981, the Boks’ tour of New Zealand began and ended in the USA — they travelled to New Zealand via the States, and then ended the hugely controversial tour with a match against the US Eagles.
That game comes straight out ofRipley’s Believe It or Not. There was no business class in those days, and the Boks stacked up at the back of the plane. Bleary-eyed, they were trooping through JFK Airport to transfer to Los Angeles (then on to Auckland) when they got a foretaste of what was to come.
A group of protesters held placards screaming “Boere gaan huistoe”. On their way to their next stop, Honolulu, they encountered their first Kiwi protester. A lady had seized her opportunity, and on the back of a Scrabble board she scribbled “Shame” and paraded herself up and down the aisle of the aircraft until the flight crew threatened to have her arrested.
If the Springbok tour of New Zealand bordered on the bizarre, it got weirder when on their way home. They stopped in the USA to play a Test against the US Eagles. This time, the threat of violence from protesters was so extreme that the Boks stayed incognito.
After two warm-up games in secret locations, the Test match occurred in the most mysterious of circumstances. Springbok legend Danie Gerber explains: “We got ready for the match at the home of the president of the local rugby union in a rural part of New York state. From there, we were taken to the Owl Creek Polo Club in the middle of nowhere.
It was hard to believe, but the polo field was where we were going to play. We had to get changed in stables and warmed up in a paddock. It was a disgrace.” The only witnesses to the game were 30 state troopers and a few friends of the club president.
Before the match started, reserve Thys Burger helped erect the goalposts. But it didn’t end there for him. He was also a linesman, and when Theuns Stofberg got injured, he handed the flag to another reserve and joined the game. A few minutes later he scored a try!
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