Rugby "S.A. TOUR FAILURE”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 5

Rugby "S.A. TOUR FAILURE”

Rugby Writer’s

Views

( N .Z.P.A .-Renter—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 19. A Rugby writer in an African nationalist newspaper says the Springboks’ tour of England was a failure because crowds injected the atmosphere with “hypocrisy and political dislike of the tourists.” Dirk Kampfer, who reported on the tour for the nationalist press, published his sharp attack in a week-end supplement of Cape Town’s “Die Burger.” He asked whether the tour was worthwhile, apart from the fact that the Springboks won 28 of their 30 matches. His answer was: It was not. “The Britishers do not like us because we do not want to be Britishers.’’ Kampfer wrote. “Sick of Winning” “We became almost sick and tired of winning and the British were utterly sick and tired of our winning—but what did we really win? Kampfer continued: “Sitting on the field watching a Rugby match on this tour was like being swept willy-nilly into the emotional maelstrom of a struggle as intense as a religious war.” The tour had not contributed in any way to “socalled Rugby friendship” between nations. Nor did it contribute to a better attitude by Britons to the South African way of life and things South Africans did off the playing field.