Ken Borland

Having first met in a Test in Dunedin in 1921, which New Zealand won 13-5, the Springboks and the All Blacks will play their 100th match in the unlikely venue of Townsville, north-eastern Queensland on Saturday. The greatest rivalry in rugby has seen many historic clashes, but these are five memorable ones that perhaps pass under the radar …

August 6, 1994 New Zealand 18 South Africa 18 (Eden Park, Auckland)

The year 1995 is forever embedded in South African history due to the 15-12 triumph over the All Blacks at Ellis Park in the World Cup final, but much of the groundwork for that win was actually laid the year before when the Springboks toured New Zealand.

South Africa’s previous Test against the All Blacks had ended in an 18-18 draw at Eden Park on August 6, 1994, so the Springboks would have believed they could beat their great rivals back at home on the Highveld. Of course the ever-arrogant Louis Luyt was president of the SA Rugby Rugby Football Union then and had coach Ian McIntosh fired, by fax, for his supposed shortcomings after that match.

But the magnitude of the achievement is shown by that fact that, to this day, no visiting team has won a Test against the All Blacks at Eden Park, the 2017 British and Irish Lions coming the closest in a 15-15 draw.

It was only the fourth time since isolation that the Springboks had played the All Blacks and they outscored them two tries to zero as McIntosh’s direct rugby started to reap benefits. Unfortunately, the ill-discipline that plagued the tour cost South Africa a memorable win as they conceded six penalties. New Zealand were able to salvage the draw when hooker and captain Sean Fitzpatrick (who else?), tugged Brendan Venter’s jersey, provoking a wild swing from the fiery centre and the crucial penalty.

August 14, 2004 South Africa 40 New Zealand 26 (Ellis Park, Johannesburg)

Two Springboks have scored hat-tricks against the All Blacks – wing Ray Mordt in 1981 and centre Marius Joubert in 2004, and no New Zealander has returned the favour.

Joubert’s hat-trick came in an epic 40-26 win for South Africa at Ellis Park, Jake White’s team beating New Zealand for the first time in four years in front of a euphoric crowd of more than 60 000 people.

The Springboks started slowly and were 10 points down after the first quarter. But their set-pieces began to exert influence and some magical backline play by Joubert, Jean de Villiers, Breyton Paulse and De Wet Barry, with eighthman Joe van Niekerk producing a classic display of linking rugby, suddenly saw the momentum turned into a deluge of tries. Victory was sealed in the 76^th minute when Joubert jinked through under the poles for his third try. South Africa won the Tri-Nations the next weekend.

August 27, 2005 New Zealand 31 South Africa 27 (Carisbrook, Dunedin)

Since their return from isolation in 1992, the Springboks have only won 16 of the 62 Tests they have played against the All Blacks, so New Zealand’s dominance is clear and the greatest rivalry in rugby has become rather one-sided at times. But it still holds a special place in Kiwi hearts and South Africa still have the greatest winning percentage against the All Blacks of all opponents.

In fact, back in 2005, it was felt that the Springboks, under Jake White and John Smit, had reignited the old rivalry enough for the All Blacks to debut a new haka against them – the Kapa o Pango – rather than against the British & Irish Lions, who were touring that year too.

In a humdinger in Dunedin, South Africa’s hold on the Tri-Nations crown slipped as New Zealand snatched a dramatic 31-27 win. The lead changed hands seven times before another hooker, Keven Mealamu, broke the Springboks’ hearts by crashing over for a try with just four minutes of play left.

August 1, 2009 South Africa 31 New Zealand 19 (Kings Park, Durban)

On August 1, 2009, flyhalf Morne Steyn broke miscellaneous records as he kicked eight penalties and scored a try which he converted, all of South Africa’s points in a 31-19 win over the All Blacks at Kings Park in Durban. A second-half drop goal attempt hit the upright.

It was the first time the Springboks had beaten New Zealand on back-to-back weekends since 1976, following their 28-19 win in Bloemfontein seven days earlier.

John Smit was leading the Springboks for a world record 60^th time that day and the Springbok lineout was utterly dominant and flank Heinrich Brussow cleaned up on the floor. The home side also harangued the All Blacks with a swarming defence and scrummed and mauled superbly.

October 4, 2014 South Africa 27 New Zealand 25 (Ellis Park, Johannesburg)

Pat Lambie’s 55m penalty on full-time to beat the All Blacks 27-25 at Ellis Park in 2014 was a thrilling conclusion to a dazzling Test match that was full of intensity and side-to-side action, ending a 22-match unbeaten run for New Zealand, one short of their own world record, and giving Heyneke Meyer’s Springboks their first win in three years against their great rivals.

It came after a pulsating All Blacks comeback from 11 points down saw them take a 25-24 lead. The Springboks had thrown the ball around in the first half and scored three tries, but New Zealand came roaring back to make for a special Test match which saw South Africa find the balance between structured play and some cracking attacking bursts from turnover ball.

By all accounts (and there have been many in the last week), Pat Lambie enjoyed a very good international career, playing 56 Tests, going to two World Cups and scoring 153 points for the Springboks. But there are many excellent judges who believe South African rugby still never got as much out of the Sharks flyhalf as they should have.

Despite a fine record of delivering when it mattered most, as well as performing at a level of consistency that all the great flyhalves have, Lambie only made 22 starts for the Springboks and was seldom given a decent run of games in which to establish himself. In fact, Lambie only once started five Tests in a row and that was at fullback in 2011, from the last two games of the Rugby Championship through the World Cup.

In his favoured position of flyhalf, Lambie never played more than three games on the trot in the number 10 jersey, on the end-of-year European tours of 2012 and 2014.

“Pat was an exceptional rugby player and as the dust settles on his premature retirement and people reflect back, I think many will realise he was the one that got away. No Springbok coach really made him his number one, nailed his flag to the mast and said Pat is my number one flyhalf. But we saw it in Super Rugby and Currie Cup finals that Pat was at his best in important games.

“He wasn’t picked consistently enough, even though he never let the side down, and then they moved him between fullback and flyhalf when he should have just been at flyhalf. It’s a great pity and it was disappointing, I know Dick Muir always said we must just put him in and play him when we were assistants together with the Springboks,” current USA coach Gary Gold, a member of the Springboks’ coaching team from 2008-2011 and head coach of the Sharks between 2014-2016, told Saturday Citizen.

As former Springbok captain and inside centre Jean de Villiers attests, Lambie was the sort of player a coach and team could rely on week after week.

“Pat would always just get the job done, he had that ability to perform under pressure, as that massive kick against the All Blacks showed. He was a fantastic player and his personality came through on the field in that he stayed calm in the big moments. He was the biggest gentleman in world rugby but he still performed with authority, he could leave his mark on the game.

“He was the sort of flyhalf who could dominate and control the game. I’ll never forget the 2010 Currie Cup final and his brilliant performance against us [Western Province] that showed his class. On two end-of-year tours we played 10 and 12 next to each other and we only lost one game, showing that Pat could really get the job done in difficult conditions,” De Villiers said.

And yet Heyneke Meyer, the Springbok coach who took over in 2012, binned Lambie to the bench at the start of the 2013 international season and again for the 2015 Rugby Championship.

Meyer has spoken warmly this week about his appreciation for Lambie’s talents and his personality in the team space, but he did perhaps let slip why he was reluctant to fully trust Lambie.

“As we all know, he wasn’t the biggest rugby player ever [1.77m, 86kg], but he had a serious all-round game and that included a very solid tackle and commitment. He would put his body on the line 100% of the time, never shied away from the contact side of things, and was safe under a high ball as well.

“Pat is way up there with the best talents I ever coached, but I will say this without any doubt at all: there was no better human being in my Bok squads. Wherever he has gone in the world professionally, he has quickly come to be considered one of the most likeable guys in the fold. I never coached a guy with better manners than him,” Meyer told Sport24.

That Lambie is a top-class human being is a recurring theme when speaking to people who know him well. Former Springbok captain Gary Teichmann had a different relationship with the Michaelhouse product as CEO of the Sharks, but is just as effusive in his praise.

“Pat is a guy with incredible ability but easy to deal with. He says it as it is, there’s never an angle with him, and it was always a very easy conversation with him – he’s all about honesty and transparency,” Teichmann said.

But more than that, he was a phenomenal rugby player, with the well-travelled Gold comparing him to a legend of the game like Jonny Wilkinson.

“Pat was potentially our Jonny Wilkinson, he probably has the same dimensions and Joel Stransky and Dan Carter were also not the biggest flyhalves. What Wilkinson did for England, I believe Pat could have done for South Africa because he’s a similar player and personality,” Gold said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-rugby-sport/2072068/the-inconvenient-truth-about-pat-lambie/

A single miss in an otherwise top-class kicking display by Pat Lambie cost the Sharks victory as they went down 26-28 to the Reds in their opening SuperRugby match in Brisbane on Friday.

Lambie missed a penalty three minutes from full-time that would have snatched a fortuitous victory, given that a Reds team that played with 14 men for 20 minutes outscored them by four tries to two.

With Lambie earlier kicking six-from-six, the Sharks enjoyed a 26-18 lead with 16 minutes remaining, but a poor finish to the game saw them concede two tries.

The Sharks made a great start with a try in the second minute when the Reds were throwing passes around and flyhalf Quade Cooper dropped the ball, outside centre Lukhanyo Am pounced and a quick interchange with wing Kobus van Wyk then put flank Jean-Luc du Preez away to storm over the tryline.

Lambie’s conversion made it 7-0, but the Sharks were unable to threaten the Reds’ tryline again in the first half, largely because they had to make do with a tiny proportion of possession, their failure to hang on to the ball for long periods meaning they had to do most of the defending.

Cooper and Lambie traded two penalties each to make the score 13-6 at the half-hour, but Van Wyk then turned village idiot and tried to take a quick lineout inside his own 22, an isolated Curwin Bosch conceding a scrum. The Reds forwards drove strongly and eighthman Scott Higginbotham dotted down through the pile of bodies for the home side’s opening try, Cooper’s conversion levelling the scores at 13-13.

Lambie snuck a penalty in the last-minute of the first half, thanks to lock Ruan Botha twice putting great pressure on Reds scrumhalf Nick Frisby, for the Sharks to lead 16-13 at the break, and the visitors showed hitherto unseen control in the opening exchanges of the second half, dominating territory and hanging on to the ball much better.

Lambie succeeded with a 43^rd-minute penalty to stretch the lead to 19-13, but Queensland centre Samu Kerevi struck back with the first of his two tries six minutes later.

Running with great power and awareness, he burst through a gap between scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and Am, to score after the Reds chose a scrum under the shadow of the poles instead of a kick at goal. Cooper failed with an easy conversion attempt, which allowed the Sharks to hang on to a slender one-point lead.

With referee Nick Briant suddenly remembering that there is no tolerance for neck-tackles this season, Reds lock Kane Douglas was yellow-carded for pulling at Beast Mtawarira’s neck in the 57^th minute.

With a lot of the Reds muscle gone, the Sharks understandably went for rolling mauls when awarded penalties, but there was no accuracy in their first couple of attempts, but eventually eighthman Tera Mtembu rumbled over in the 61^st minute after the Queenslanders disintegrated.

Lambie converted for a 26-18 lead, but they were to score no further points as they seemed to lack a clear plan in the final quarter.

Kerevi is a particular threat in this Reds side and he muscled over from close range again in the 64^th minute, but the killer blow was landed by his midfield partner Duncan Paia’aua, who ran an excellent line back inside, cutting straight through before replacement scrumhalf James Tuttle finished strongly.

The result was a sharp reminder to the Sharks of the accuracy that is required to win overseas – they simply made too many errors in discipline and decision-making, although a losing bonus point was some reward for the competitiveness they showed.

Mtawarira was full of energy in the front row, Du Preez was a force with ball-in-hand and Am was exciting at times in the backline, but the overall Sharks performance was not good enough to earn victory.

Scorers

Reds – Tries: Scott Higginbotham, Samu Kerevi (2), James Tuttle. Conversion: Quade Cooper. Penalties: Cooper (2).

Sharks – Tries: Jean-Luc du Preez, Tera Mtembu. Conversions: Pat Lambie (2). Penalties: Lambie (4).

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-rugby/1438777/clumsy-sharks-fluff-their-lines-at-vital-moments/

Pat Lambie and Cobus Reinach have endured a wretched time when it comes to injury in recent SuperRugby seasons, but Sharks backline coach Sean Everitt said on Tuesday that the team are excited about being able to field a top-class halfback pair in this year’s campaign.

“That’s where we’ve fallen short in the last couple of years, losing Pat early and then Cobus being unlucky in the last few years, means they have missed a lot of SuperRugby which is never easy for a team to lose their first-choice halfbacks. And SuperRugby is not really the sort of tournament you want to breed youngsters in, that’s more for the Currie Cup, and we’ve also had no Frans Steyn.

“But the youngsters are important and they’ve been working hard, because Pat has to rest at some stage. Innocent Radebe and Benhard Janse van Rensburg have done well and Curwin Bosch can play flyhalf as well.

“Cobus will certainly provide some x-factor, he’s an opportunist, but he does the basics well and has a good boot too. He’s been here a long time, he knows the systems well and he delivers on the field,” Everitt said.

While experience at nine and 10 will obviously be cherished by the Sharks, they do have a herd of youngsters challenging for backline places and that has pleased Everitt as well.

“The youngsters have a lot of enthusiasm and since losing JP Pietersen, Willie le Roux and Odwa Ndungane last year, the Currie Cup bunch have grown considerably. They’ve certainly played themselves into contention and that’s exciting.

“We have Kobus van Wyk on the wing, although we will look at him at centre if we have problems there. But Lukhanyo Am has done well in the Currie Cup and has had good preparation, so we’ll be looking to build up his combination with Andre Esterhuizen.

“Jeremy Ward is obviously a good signing because he was one of the top age-group players in his position [centre] last year and we mustn’t forget Johan Deysel from the Leopards, who played in the 2015 World Cup for Namibia. It’s time to move on and these guys have what it takes,” Everitt said.

But there is also the presence of veteran French fullback Clement Poitrenaud and Everitt said he would play a leadership role in guiding the young backline.

“Clement is definitely in contention for selection in the match-day 23, he has a lot of experience having played 47 Tests. We have a young backline, so he will be good for us, leading and helping those guys. He’s very popular amongst his team-mates, his English is quite good and he has a good sense of humour. Most importantly, the guys admire his skill-set,” Everitt said.

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-rugby/1428003/sharks-holding-thumbs-their-dynamic-duo-keep-fit/