70,000 Crowd Expected: N.Z. Team Confident

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23023, 13 August 1949, Page 5

70,000 Crowd Expected: N.Z. Team Confident

(11 a.m.) Johannesburg, Aug. 12. Spectators arrived here from all over the country today for the second Rugby test, which is expected to attract an all-time record crowd of about 70,000.

All the £2 2s, £1 Is, and 10s 6d seats have been sold, leaving room for about 35,000 at 5s each so that the total gate receipts should be about £40,000. One up and three to play, South Africa is in a strong position but this time they face the historical fact that while a visiting side has never won the first test so the home side has never won the second. Naturally every South African hopes that the precedent will be flaunted and if the Springboks succeed then the All Blacks will have to wait for another few years to regain the test supremacy. It was possible with this in mind that the South African selectors made a few experiments in their side and those changes effected appear aimed at strengthening the defence rather than infusing attack into a side which never looked remotely like crossing the All Blacks’ line at Newlands. On the other hand, now that Allen and Elvidge have been pronounced fit, the All Blacks’ confidence of victory has increased.