It's the first week of July 1891.
There is an earthquake in San Francisco so strong that
according to reports, it's altered the course of the
Colorado River and parts of Prussia is hit by a heavy
tornado. Chili is in the midst of a civil war and in
India, press censorship is instituted while Lisbon suffers
a financial crisis.
But the people of Cape Town
has more important things to do in this first week of
July 1891 and is little worried about what happens in the
rest of the world. They are to busy preparing for the
arrival of the first international rugby team to visit
Southern Africa.
Rugby has already been played in this part of the
world since about 1860 and by 1889 the game was already
well established - so much so that the South-African
Rugby Board has already been formed as the governing
body. After some negotiations with the English Rugby
Union the plan was approved for the visit of W.E (Bill)
Maclagan and his team of twenty men to play South Africa
for the first time. The Dunottar Castle arrived
in Cape Town after a journey of 16 days, which in those
days was seen as a fast time. Shortly after their arrival
Maclagan took his men to loosen their limbs after the
long sea journey. The huge amount of spectators were
impressed with what they saw. The Cape Times had
this to say about Bill Maclagan: "He has acquired
the acme of perfection as a tackler, can punt with
considerable ability and with either foot, and can cover
the ground at a splendid pace..."
The touring teams' first match was
against the club Hamiltons
which they won 15 - 1. The only try by the home team and
the first try in an international match by a South
African team was scored by Charles
(Hasie) Versveld whose brother is the more famous Loftus
Versveld after which the huge Northern
Transvaal stadium in Pretoria
was named. This first historical try as described by The
Cape Times: "Versveld found an opening, put in
a grand sprint and scored a try for Cape Town amidst
tremendous cheering. Duff took the kick but failed to
announce the major points."
South Africa first entered the international rugby
arena when the national team played their first match
against the British Lions on Thursday, 30 July in Port
Elizabeth. Not very much is known about the first
captain, Herbert Hayton Castens. He has the unique
achievement that he was the first captain of the South
African national team and in 1894 he was also the captain
of the South African touring Cricket team to England.
According to the cricket year book Wisden he was
born on 23 November 1864 and died on 18 October 1929 in
London. Castens received his school education at the
famous school of Rugby and later graduated from Oxford.
Shortly after that he came to South Africa where he did
much to promote rugby in the Western Province area. In
the rugby test he was constantly at the forefront of the
forwards' charging runs in a match that was mostly fraught
out under the forwards. Unfortunately for them the
British backs played a much more rounded game and Aston
and Whittaker each achieved a try which was goaled by
Rotherham. The final score was 4 - 0 for the British
visitors and all the points was scored in the first half.
Now it's 1997 and the Springboks is a totally different
team from the one who played in those very early days
more than a hundred years ago. Since then they have
toured all over the world and achieved many victories of
which we can be so very proud. Most notably of those must
be the Rugby World Cup final
which placed them right on top of the world as the best
of the best. In recent days the Springboks have been through some very tough times. They didn't win many games, the coaches came under fire, etc. I believe they must build on their World Cup victory but not let it go to head too much. The recent Tri Nations series as well as the All Blacks tour of last year must have certainly help them come back to earth. The moral of the story is just: Never give up, and remember, it's not so much about win or lose, but how you play the game!!
