Twice in a lifetime

There have been 52 years and 51 deciders since I worked on my first Currie Cup final and it says a lot for the lasting mystique of the Golden Grail of South African rugby that the 1970 final remains my most memorable.

Against all odds Griqualand West made it to that year’s final against mighty Northern Transvaal; Griquas’ log-topping position meaning the match was to be played in Kimberley at the rickety old De Beers Stadium.

The city was abuzz with expectation and having recently returned from the Argus Cadet School in Johannesburg to start my career as a reporter on The Diamond Fields Advertiser I was caught up in the excitement and build-up.

On the Friday I went to the airport to report on and photograph the arrival of the Northern Transvaal team, snapping one of Frik du Preez weighing himself on the big baggage scale.

Ironically it was as a photographer that I would attend the next day’s final. Tony Ball, then sports editor of the DFA, did not have a press box ticket for me, but he did have a photographer’s pass. On the DFA we took the photos, developed the film and printed our own pictures to illustrate our stories so with my Pentax and the office’s 200mm zoom lens the touchline became my office for the day.

Griquas were not given a chance of upsetting a Springbok-laden Northern Transvaal but what transpired, in close-up, was action so vivid, so explosive, so thrilling, so moving that it remains burned into my memory in clear focus – unlike some of my photographs! (I kept the negatives and some of the images here are of the events recorded on those black-and-white strips of film).

The action that close is bone-jarring; sometimes my own as I tripped over the legs of spectators lining the touchline. A loud crack signalled a key moment in the game. Griquas lock Jannie van Aswegen had punched his opponent Johan Spies and he went down poleaxed. The Northerns players swarmed angrily around Van Aswegen, but the Griquas did as coach Ian Kirkpatrick had promised and did not stand back in a flurry of swinging fists.

Order was restored by referee Ben Calitz (in those days not even a thought given to sending Van Aswegen off), but after that the Griqua lock had a target on his back. He needed attention many times, but saw out the match, and in the post-mortems the theory was put forward that Griquas had won because of the punch, because Northerns had started playing the man rather than the ball.

A surprising aspect of going through the photographs is how sparse the crowd really was. Apart from the ancient De Beers stand the only other seating was on temporary scaffolding structures or on the field itself.

Caught up in the action, though, I felt as though there were myriads present and the noise deafening – especially when the Griquas rocked the Pretorians with two superb tries by right-wing Buddy Swartz.

Swartz, a UCT student whom the Griqua selectors had overlooked until a practice outing against Free State immediately before the final, scored spectacularly; one after a break by centre Koos Waldeck and the other after Mannetjies Roux crash-tackled fullback Tonie Roux to dislodge the ball.

For his second Swartz got home by diving straight over the top of a crouching Tonie Roux, touching down almost on the same spot in the right-hand corner.

Northerns turned the vice however and a try by Frik du Preez and two penalties by fullback Chris Luther put them ahead – trumping Swartz’s two three-point tries and a single conversion by Piet Visagie. Visagie, so often the match-winner for Griquas, had a heavily bandaged leg and kicked poorly which meant flank Peet Smith was handed the ball for the historic long-range penalty that made it 11-9 to Griquas, unleashing unbridled joy at the ground and spiralling into the biggest celebrations Kimberley had ever seen.

At the end I sat down on the field, near Buddy’s Corner, and waited for the crowd to disperse. Roux had been carried off the field laughing and crying at the same time and an old man with a long beard knelt down in the in-goal area and patted the grass where Swartz had scored: “God die rooinek,” he said, “God die rooinek… nie net een nie, twee… net hier.” Tears streamed out of his eyes and left streaks on his beard. When I left he was still there patting the ground.

What a day it was for Kimberley, what a week, what a year, what a time. The Currie Cup won by Roux and his bunch of heroes was displayed in one of the windows of the SA Perm building in Kimberley’s main street and for weeks afterwards there would be a knot of people on the pavement just admiring it, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

And now Griquas are again in a Kimberley final – who would have thought it? Significantly and appropriately against fellow “outliers” the Pumas – a team who used to be known as South Eastern Transvaal and who have never previously reached a Currie Cup final.

Both teams set up this game for the ages by travelling to the home grounds of bigger and better-resourced opponents.

Special memories of a glorious time for the city with a hole in it came flooding back when Griquas last Friday again pulled off the improbable by beating the Blue Bulls at their Loftus Versfeld fortress. And when on Saturday the Cinderella stardust was spread around Bloemfontein as the Pumas beat a much-vaunted Free State it meant the Currie Cup Final would once again be staged in Kimberley.

There has been some churlish comment that the Currie Cup is devalued (which it might be given that the royal quartet of the Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions were caught up in the URC and fielded make-shift teams in the Currie Cup) but don’t tell that to the Griquas or the Pumas.

For the wearers of the unique peacock-blue-and-white hooped jerseys and pink-and-grey jerseys, Saturday will be the most significant day of their lives and their Currie Cup final will take on all the import of the storied ones that have gone before.

Just being in the final is a fine achievement for Griquas coach Pieter Bergh and his much-underrated counterpart Jimmy Stonehouse and the moment of a lifetime for their players. May their memories also stretch to 52 years and may SA Rugby take heed of the magical aura of the Currie Cup – it is a gift that keeps giving, a competition in which Springboks are bred.

On 26 September 1970, Griqualand West beat Northern Transvaal 11-9 to win the Currie Cup.

The teams were:

Griqualand West: Tos Smith, Buddy Swartz, Mannetjies, Roux, Koos Waldeck, Kat Myburgh, Piet Visagie, Joggie Viljoen, Soon Nel, James Combrinck, Braam Fourie, Piet van Deventer, Jannie van Aswegen, Gert Scheepers, Peet Smith, Denys Vorster.

Northern Transvaal: Tonie Roux, Frannie Alberts, Andre van Staden, Piet Brand, Chris Luther, Johan van Blommenstein, Piet Uys (capt), Mof Myburgh, Gys Pitzer, Ronnie Potgieter, Polla Fourie, Johan Spies, Frik du Preez, Louis Muller, Fourie du Preez.

Referee: Ben Calitz

FOOTNOTE:

The Currie Cup has an historic Griqualand West connection. When the first British team under W.E. “Bill” Maclagan toured South Africa in 1891, included in their baggage was a splendid gold-plated cup given to Maclagan by Sir Donald Currie, owner of Union-Castle Lines, the shipping company whose liner, the Dunottar Castle, that transported the team to South Africa, with instructions that it be presented to the team that put up the best performance against the tourists. By common consent this team was Griqualand West and their representative took possession of the “Sir Donald Currie Cup” at a farewell lunch held aboard the Garth Castle at the end of the tour. Griqualand West then carried out the instruction of Sir Donald by handing over the gold trophy to the SA Rugby Board to be the prize in an annual interprovincial competition.