TEST SURPRISE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21186, 5 November 1938, Page 16

TEST SURPRISE

British Team’s Win SPRINGBOKS RATTLED Writing of the final Test, Mr J. Sacks states that the result (a win for the British team by 21 points to 16) will do a lot of good—from a South African point of view—because it puts a timely rein on a Rugby enthusiasm that was in danger of growing to a frightening conceit, and from a British point of view because it gives the team a well-deserved lift. It was a game that will never be forgotten with so many thrills from start to finish as to baffle even an automatic calculating machine. If the game had gone on at the same pace and with the same succession of thrills I am sure there would have been more burst blood vessels on the stands than on the field, as the crowd were never given a chance to quieten down, and

were hot and cold with excitement in the most stirring Rugby Test we have ever seen in this country.

Judging by things said before the game I cannot get away from the impression that the Springboks thought they were certain winners and certainly they were not fired by the same keenness as had marked their Ellis Park display and then their tussle for the rubber at Port Elizabeth. On the other hand, the Britons were inspired by a desperate determination to make the most use of their last chance, and one could see it in their prancing from one foot to the other waiting for referee Pretorius’s whistle. And when it did so they followed up the kick-off and in the first minute were hammering away at our defences. Taming the Springboks There wasn't an inch of ground that didn’t have to be fought for, and the very same Springbok pack that had paralysed the Britons in the first Test at Ellis Park found themselves up against a stubborn pack as determined and even heavier than themselves. The reorganisation of the British eight, selected with an eye to taming the Sprinboks, was a great success. Graves in the front rank gave Travers, the Welsh hooker, splendid assistance, and Dancer, Walker, Hayne, Duff, and Waters all meant business. “Boy” Louw kept on taking scrums for lineouts, even though in the lines the Springboks had by far the better of matters, winning 14 to 8, but “Boy's” idea apparently was to wear the Britons down. Actually, however, the Springbok eight were the ones to be worn down in this gruelling part of the tussle, though none of us knew it at the time. In the first half Lotz got the better of Travers—not by much—and the Springbok backs up to five minutes from the interval, all except at fullback, where Grieve was in great form, looked better than the British back division, and there were anxious moments in plenty for the British defence. Hopeful Beginning The Springboks looked a winning side in the first halt. Harris and Craven started off much better than the British halves, Cromey and Morgan, who seemed nervous, Cromey dropping several passes. Our one worry was how the threequarters would go, for Lochner, the best centre in the country, was dropped out of the side that morning through a groin injury sustained at Port Elizabeth, and Freddie Turner had been brought from full-back to centre next to De Wet, with Williams and Bester on the wing and 22-year-old George Smith playing his first game for South Africa at full-back. But we were soon reassured on that point, for De Wet showed his best attacking form so far, while Turner struck the kind of inspired form that had made him so great a three-quarter in New Zealand, and he gave that bit of punch to the line that made it a dangerous force. The best player in the Springbok side in the first half was Tony Harris, who got his line going nicely or occasionally used the line with splendid left-foot kicks to get position. And he did excellent work on defence, too. He practically took on the whole side when |he broke soon afterwards; big hefty

forwards threw themselves at him, but he eluded them like a terrier eluding a herd of bulls, and out went the ball with the rest of the Springbok forwards and backs in support. The spectators couldn’t keep their seats and shouted themselves hoarse as the ball went from hand to hand.

The Springboks led by 13 to 3 at half-time, and after the change-over some of the forwards suggested to Craven that the game should be “closed up.” But he shook his head. ‘No," he declared, “keep it open.” And that second half became on of the most sensational in the history of Test football in this country. Both sides opened up the game, and the pace was electrical.

But it was the Springbok pack that cracked up first under the strain. Their packing became loose and their front rank opened up. The British eight pushed like steam rollers in the tight and worked like tigers in the loose, and it was the supremacy of the British pack that turned the scales. Nor was it the crippled Springbok three-quarter line that let the British side through to triumph in a magnificent uphill battle. It was the sudden striking of form by the fly-half Cromey that helped to swing the scales decisively. This quiet little clergyman, who had not even been included in the list of probables for the Port Elizabeth Test, suddenly struck up a perfect understanding with Morgan, who had partnered him in international games in Ireland, and he repeatedly broke past the scrum or found long touches that helped to keep the Springboks battling with backs to the wall. What a recovery for an international team that had been beaten decisively in two Tests, and was behind in the first half of the last Test. The scoring of 18 points in one half against a Springbok team is at the same time a record and a tribute to the lion heartedness of the British team. And the dramatic success of the Britons in this half was matched only by the thrills of the football. The rattled Springboks lost several chances time and again that might have saved the game, the fate of which was not finally sealed until the referee’s whistle ended the play. It needed the luck of the game as well as spirit and skill to turn the tables as they were turned here, but it was about time that circumstances did go in the Britons’ favour.

The game ended in a happy gesture when the crowd swarmed down from the stands on to the field. “Boy” Louw and Sherriff, two of the Springbok giants, brushed aside several players and spectators in order to grab Sam Walker, the British captain, and chair him off the field.