’Bok butted manager

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 17

’Bok butted manager

• From T. P. McLEAN The Springbok tight head, Johan Strauss, J whose collapsing of the • scrum in the third test • against the All Blacks caused an international uproar. is reported to have ’ assaulted the manager of the President Hotel in Cape Town after tl. > test. The manager. Mr Alan Masters, an English: an, suffered a bloodied nose and cut lips. He had been entertain- ' ing some of the Springbok team when he was asked if he had an” opinions abc :t the plav during the match. Mr Masters asked whether the Springboks

present wanted an honest answer. When they said they did, he pointed to the lock forward, Kevin de Klerk, and said he thought this man had benefited at line-outs by being lifted by Strauss and the loose head prop, Rampie Stander. Strauss made no remark at the time, and, according to Mr Masters, went to the bar, where he had a couple of drinks. When he returned to the group he suddenly seized the lapels of Mr Masters’s jacket, and wrenched him forward, while at the same time offering what is known as a “Liverpool kiss” — a violent butt of the head into the face.

Apologies were made by the Springboks and their managers the next morning, and Mr Masters said he would take no further action.

In reporting the incident the Johannesburg Sunday papers were remarkably coy. The Johannesburg “Sunday Times” said Mr Masters had denied that Strauss was responsible for the incident. Mr Masters said to the “Sunday Times,” “I deny absolutely that I was punched by Strauss.”

It has been reported that on a previous occasion de Klerk punched a waiter at the President Hotel.