PHILIP NEL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3941, 18 August 1937, Page 9

PHILIP NEL

THE SPRINGBOK CAPTAIN. HE WAS FORBIDDEN TO PLAY. It is fitting that the man who is leading the Springbok Rugby football team in New Zealand should be a descendant of the Vootrekkers, writes J. Sacks, Rugby editor of the Rand Daily Mail, travelling with the Springbok team. His mother is a Maritz, whose name is written in big letters in the story of the pioneering journey of a nation, while his father s predecessors came to South Africa with the Huguenots, and they, too, took part in the Trek. The Nels have been in Natal nearly 100 years. Strangely enough, there was considerable family opposition before Philip Nel was allowed to play Rugby, which was due to a fatal accident to an uncle, who hurt his hip while kicking a ball and subsequently died of the injury. It is almost laughable to-day to look at the immense barrellike figure of the Springbok captain and to think that it was feared at one time that he was too frail to stand up to the rigours of the game. However, -he persisted in asking to be permitted to play, so that his parents wearied of his repeated requests and he was allowed to participate in school practices. He played the game for the first time when he joined Maritzburg College, though it took him a long time to absorb the essentials of the play. TWICE SPRINGBOK CAPTAIN. Although since then Nel, who is now a 21,6-pounder, has played 65 times for Natal. In 1928 he played in all four Test matches against the All Blacks; during the 1931-2 tour of Britain he played in all four Tests; and in 1933 he played in four out of the five internationals against the Wallabies in South Africa. Nel has the proud distinction of being captain of South Africa in two different series of international games. He is an honest scrummager and he plays hard right through a match. His influence with the team can be gauged by a remark made to me by one of the members of the present Springbok side: “When we play we like to feel that we are playing well enough to please Philip. It’s grand to play under him.”