DEFEAT OF THE SPRINGBOKS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 14

DEFEAT OF THE SPRINGBOKS

“Not What The Doctor Ordered’’

JOHANNESBURG PAPER’S COMMENT

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, June 11.

The defeat of the South African Rugby team by Waikato on Saturday in the first match of the New Zealand tour has been taken philosophically, and apart from a leading article in the Johannesburg morning paper the “Rand Daily Mail’’ has caused little newspaper comment. » Under the heading “Not Quite as the Doctor Ordered,” the paper says: "There is no need to be downhearted over the defeat of the South Zxfrican Rugby team in the first match of their tour of New Zealand. Unexpected as the defeat was, it is not a disaster, and the failure of the Springboks to come out on top can be explained,” says the paper.

‘They had just come from Australia and could not have been in their best form. Rugby players, stalwart fellows though they are, are temperamental creatures who

are often upset by travelling. “They had just come from a run of fairly easy victories in Australia and were mentally unprepared for the severer task facing them in the other islands. “There is no doubt that the New Zealanders play very good Rugby and it is just as well to have been reminded of it so early in the tour. All honour to the Waikato for having caught the Springboks on the wrong foot. “The Springboks have ample time to make amends for their secondbest performance at Waikato. The New Zealanders expect them to. A formej' All Black captain has said that it will need a good team to beat them in the tests. We think it wi” need a super-team. “Dr. Danie Craven, the Springbok manager, says that Waikato—if not the medicine the doctor ordered—is just the medicine the Springboks needed. Moreover, the success of the tour is now assurred. Waikato has given it the tension and excite-

i ent it looked like losing in Australia. \ “After Waikato, the Springboks will have the best audience in the world before whom to prove that they play the best Rugby,” says the paper.