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Gavin Rich's Weekend TV Pick: A good reason for a riotous celebration

rugby05 June 2020 08:02| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Nick Mallet and Gary Teichman © Gallo Images

As post-match rugby celebrations go, it is hard to imagine too many occasions in the post-unification era that the Springboks enjoyed themselves as much as Nick Mallett’s team did at the James Joyce pub in Paris in November 1997.

The celebration was for the record 52-10 win over France at the old Parc des Princes stadium earlier that day, a game that was to signify the end of the long history of matches between the Boks and the French at that venue as France prepared to take over Stade Francais as their new headquarter.

It was a crazy game and a crazy celebration, as indeed it should have been as the win reflected the turning of a big corner for the Boks at the start of what was to become a record equalling 17 match unbeaten run. You can watch an hour long documentary on that winning patch between late 1997 and the end of 1998 in Rugby ReLive: 17 Unbeaten, which will be screened during the course of Saturday on SuperSport 1 and SuperSport 5.

STAR BOKS SPOKEN OUT OF RETIREMENT

It was a heady time for Bok rugby and for their coach Mallett and captain Gary Teichmann. The last mentioned was in fact one of several prominent Boks, with Mark Andrews, Andre Joubert and Henry Honiball being the others, who were poised to retire from international rugby when Mallett took over.

That quartet had endured a particularly miserable time under the coaching of Carel du Plessis, with the Boks losing a series they should never have lost against the British and Irish Lions earlier that year, and they’ve all confirmed subsequently that they had all officially retired. According to Andrews it took some persuading from Mallett over coffee at the Elangeni Hotel on Durban’s beachfront to change the players’ minds, something that Mallett himself confirmed when I interviewed him for The Poisoned Chalice, my book on the post-isolation Bok coaches, in 2013.

“A lot of the top players were uncertain (about continuing their careers), but I asked them to commit to the Springboks and to make themselves available for the end of year tour. They all eventually did, with the exception of Andre Joubert, who said he was coming back from injury and wasn’t sure he could make it,” recalled Mallett.

“I told Juba that I thought he was a really great player, but that he must understand that it would probably be a very successful tour and that the player who replaced him might do well. If he did, I would find it hard to drop him afterwards. Juba said he understood.”

MONTY PROFITED FROM JUBA’S DECISION

The man who did profit from Joubert’s decision to be unavailable for that tour was Percy Montgomery, who had made his international debut against the Lions in a position - outside centre - that he was most emphatically unsuited to. Mallett gave Justin Swart the first opportunity to stake a claim when the Boks played their first game under his watch against Italy in Bologna on the start of that end of season tour, but Swart was injured in the game and it opened the way for Montgomery to slot into a position he was much better suited to.

The comparison between the Montgomery we saw on that tour and the one we had seen in the series against the Lions under Du Plessis’ coaching was like comparing chalk to cheese, and it was the same with the Bok play overall. The Boks had sounded off the short Du Plessis coaching era with a resounding win over Australia in Pretoria, but most of the Boks who played in that game will refute any contention that it was a case of Du Plessis, who went into the job with no coaching experience, getting it right.

Mallett had been impressed with the Bok performance on the way to humiliating Australia 61-22 and when he met with Teichmann at the start of his own tenure he asked the skipper what aspects of the Du Plessis game he and the players wanted to retain.

“Gary surprised me with his response. He told me to change everything. He told me the players had taken it upon themselves to play it their way at Loftus,” said Mallett.

PLAYERS WARMED TO MALLETT’S COMMUNICATION SKILLS

After the confusion they felt when Du Plessis was coaching them, the players quickly warmed to Mallett’s communication skills and his willingness to put the players first, something that he had started as Bok assistant coach to Andre Markgraaff when he spoke his fellow management members into sitting in economy class and letting the players fill the first class seats on a flight to Argentina.

Andrews was to fall out with Mallett later in his career, but when Mallett first took over he was the best coach the experienced lock had ever played under.

“He was brilliant. You could engage with him. You could have a debate with him. He was a combination of Kitch (Christie) and Mac (Ian McIntosh) in the sense that he was both technical and inspirational. He was simply phenomenal,” recalled Andrews.

With Dick Muir proving an inspired choice as a creative inside centre in what was to be his only test match tour with the Boks at the end of a career where he never got the national recognition he should have, the Boks swept all before them on that 1997 tour.

OPPONENTS PICKED UP ON BOK TURN-AROUND FROM LIONS TOUR

The phenomenal turnaround was enjoyed by the Boks and their supporters, but also recognised by one person who was intimately involved in the Bok defeat at the hands of the Lions earlier in the year. The last test match of the tour was against Scotland in Edinburgh, and Jim Telfer, an assistant coach under Ian McGeechan on the Lions tour, was the Scotland coach. He spotted me at a press conference held in the build-up to the Murrayfield game.

“Ach, I see we have South Africans in the room,” he said.

Afterwards he came over to chat and told me that some of the selections and tactics the South Africans had employed against the Lions had been nothing short of crazy.

“But I see you guys have sorted yourselves out and are now playing to your strengths,” Telfer was quick to add.

And he was right on both counts. The Boks hammered Scotland, accumulating 68 points in doing so and Montgomery notching a personal point scoring record in the process, just as they had England at Twickenham the week before that and of course France in Paris before that.

FOUNDATION LAID FOR SA’S FIRST TRI-NATIONS SUCCESS

It was a great foundation for what was to follow, with the Boks picking up the Tri-Nations for the first time en route to equalling the record for consecutive test matches won, falling short just in the last game of the year - against England at Twickenham.

There were some notable achievements along the way, including an excellent win over the All Blacks in Wellington, the first post-isolation success for the Boks in that country, and the great come from behind win over the Kiwis in Durban, where the Boks recovered from a 23-5 deficit to win by one point. Then there was the Joost van der Westhuizen masterclass against the Aussies in what became the Tri-Nations decider in Johannesburg.

“When we won the Tri-Nations for the first time, in 1998, it was the undisputed highlight of my career,” remembers Teichmann.

“Everything came right that year. Nick Mallett, the new coach, started the resurgence. He was a revelation after Carel du Plessis, who was a nice guy but was just a bit out of his depth because he was appointed while having no coaching experience behind him. Nick brought new energy. With him everything was clearly set out. He was a strong coach and had an immediate impact on the team.

“That impact was borne out by the results of that first end of year tour in 1997. After losing to the British and Irish Lions earlier in the same year, here we were in Europe, winning all the games comfortably and breaking a few records along the way. We ended 1997 in a much happier space than we had been and in 1998 started in similar fashion. It was a very enjoyable time.”

*You can see for yourself what Teichmann was referring to in Rugby ReLive: 17 Unbeaten, a documentary that will be shown on SS1 and SS5 at various times on Saturday, starting at 6am.

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