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Muller’s toughness conquered the injury that denied him part of 1995 glory

rugby26 June 2020 06:55| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Pieter Muller © Getty Images

With all the focus on the 25th year anniversary of South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup win this week, perhaps a thought should be spared for one of the more influential players of the immediate post-isolation era who was denied the chance to compete in the global tournament by a serious injury that could have ended his career.

Pieter Muller scored a try on his Springbok debut as the national team returned from sporting isolation by playing the All Blacks at Ellis Park in 1992. He played alongside the legendary Danie Gerber in that game and the centres were responsible for all three tries, with Gerber, then well into his 30s, crossing for a brace while Muller scored once.

A product of the Grey College rugby factory, Muller was just 22 when he made his international debut and achieved a lot at an early age. For instance, while some players go their whole careers without being part of a Currie Cup-winning team, Muller got his first feel of the coveted domestic trophy in his first season with the Sharks (then Natal) in 1992, just a few weeks after making his Bok debut.

That was the year Natal scraped home by the narrowest of margins in the Ellis Park decider against Transvaal, with home fullback Theo van Rensburg narrowly missing a late penalty that would have won the game for the hosts.

“I don’t remember too much about that game but what I remember was that Naas (Botha) had said after Natal’s win in 1990 (their centenary year) that it would take another 100 years for them to win the Currie Cup again so it was good to prove him wrong,” recalls Muller, who is now 51 and lives in Hout Bay.

FATE CONSPIRED AGAINST HIM

Muller's feel of domestic silverware should probably have been followed by a part in the Springbok World Cup triumph at that same Johannesburg venue three years later. The physical, imposing centre played in all South Africa’s test matches in the early years of the return to international action and was part of Kitch Christie’s first-choice team when he embarked on his first tour as Bok coach to Wales, Scotland and Ireland in 1994.

So Muller was part of the side that swept all before them before being upset by the Barbarians in the last game of that tour, and would have been very much in Christie’s plans. Alas, fate was to intervene, with Muller effectively breaking his neck in an early-season game between the Sharks and England A at the start of 1995.

“I lined up Paul Grayston, the England A flyhalf, from the wrong side and tried to hit him on the hip and mistimed it. I fractured two vertebrae in my neck and also tore ligaments in my neck. I remember the Natal physiotherapist at that time, Greg McKenzie, sticking needles into me afterwards. I was as white as a sheet.

“Greg told me I had broken my neck. I went to the specialist on the Monday and then I underwent an operation a week later. It meant I was out of rugby for the rest of the year, and there was a question whether I would play any top rugby again. I am not saying I would have played at the World Cup, but being ruled out like that was very disappointing.”

Instead of being part of the team that won the World Cup on that famous day, 24 June, 1995, Muller was a fan in the crowd.

“I was high up in the stands at Ellis Park, I was invited to come and watch the game by one of the corporates and I celebrated the win along with the rest of South Africa afterwards,” he says.

BUILDING BLOCKS

Muller says that he could sense that the building blocks for Bok success at that World Cup were starting to be put in place before he was injured.

“I was part of the team that went to Australia under the coaching of Ian McIntosh in 1993. We’d done really badly in our first season back (1992). I won’t say John Williams and them were bad coaches, but Mac, who replaced him, was more modern, he’d been to Australia and he had adopted the direct rugby approach that was being played over there,” said Muller.

“We lost the series against Australia in Australia 2-1 but we could easily have won that series. We won the first test and then the Aussies analysed the hell out of us and came back to win the next two. It could have gone either way, but they were deserved winners. They were world champions at the time though, and we had only just come back from isolation, so I thought we were doing well and had improved a lot from our first overseas tour, which was to France and England in 1992.

“Then in 1994, we went to New Zealand and lost a series there too. But the belief was always there that we could beat the All Blacks, no matter where we played them. They were close games, we lost the first two tests narrowly and then drew the third. We lost because we gave away stupid penalties and just did stupid stuff. It was small things that cost us.”

Muller believes it was the discipline and focus on fitness that Christie brought that completed the Bok road to redemption that McIntosh had started.

“Mac laid the foundation, but he was in charge at a difficult time and as Transvaal were doing well, some of those players took a while to buy into his game plan and methods. Eventually, they did, but ironically it was just as Mac was about to be sacked. I think that the Boks played McIntosh rugby under Kitch, what Kitch brought was the fitness element to take the team to the next level.”

MEDICAL CONDITION PLAYED ROLE IN NEXT MOVE

The neck injury that ruled Muller out of the World Cup year played a role in the next decision he made, which was to sign up for the Super League (Rugby League competition) that was due to start in Australia the following year. He says that immediately after the World Cup, which turned out to be the last rugby union tournament played under the old amateur status, he was being courted by two different parties.

“After the World Cup, Francois (Pienaar) and them came with the Packer stuff, the rebel alternative to the established rugby systems at that time. At the same time, my agent Jason Smith had links in Australia and England, and he sounded me out about the Super League that was about to start in Australia,” says Muller.

“I went to meet the guys from Super League, but at the same time, Francois asked me to meet with him. It was quite bizarre in the sense that I went to meet the guys from Super League in the same hotel that I met with Francois and those guys. It was just in different rooms.

“In the end, I decided to go with Super League because what was being offered by Francois and them (the World Rugby Corporation, understood to be underpinned by Australian television mogul Kerry Packer) wasn’t concrete. And my neck situation also played a role. Because of the seriousness of my injury, the unions were reluctant to look at me.

“Even in my negotiations with the Sharks, I was very low down when it came to the contract I was being offered because of the risk. So it was a financial decision for me in the end, although I also wanted to experience the challenge of playing League and seeing what that was about.”

LEAGUE TOUGHENED HIM UP

It didn’t really work out for Muller and the other South Africans who were enlisted for Super League, which included Christian Stewart, Tiaan Strauss, Andy Marinos, Warren Brosnihan, Andrew Aitken and a few others. Firstly, there was the contractual spat that eventually scuppered Super League, and then there was the fact that initially, the League coaches were reluctant to back the union players and throw them into the deep end in a code that was alien to them.

“We did play a couple of League games, but mostly in the second teams of our clubs. They weren’t confident about sending us up too quickly, and then it was all stop and start because of the court cases that were happening off the field,” recalls the former Springbok star.

“One week we would play, but the next week we wouldn’t because there was another court case. It was all bits and bobs, and it turned out to be quite short term, we spent three months training for the season and then three months playing. I remember playing against Heinrich Fuls, another Bok centre, once, and Andy Marinos made the Bulls first side. But we didn’t play much.”

What his experience in League did do though was toughen Muller up mentally, not that he really needed it, for what was to come - which was a starring role in South Africa’s first Tri-Nations winning campaign under the coaching of Nick Mallett in 1998.

“The most notable difference between rugby union and rugby league at that stage was that rugby league was fully professional and the whole environment was professional. When we were over there we realised rugby union wasn’t properly professional yet. We’d come to work at 7.30am and leave at 5pm, it was a big adjustment to make to what we were used to.

“Physically and mentally it was also very tough. The Aussies always wanted to try and push us down. They kept telling us we were weak etc, that we weren’t tough enough for rugby league. They’d make us tackle the biggest and toughest guys there. It was very hard. But it was good to come through and what it taught me was that when I came back to rugby union there was no need to fear any opponent, no matter who he was. You could deal with anyone who was in front of you.”

TRI-NATIONS TRIUMPH PINNACLE OF HIS BRAVE COMEBACK

Muller certainly did that in 1998, where together with his provincial teammate Henry Honiball, he formed a pretty impregnable and hugely physical flyhalf/inside centre axis for Mallett’s winning team.

“Nick brought a lot of belief to the Boks when he became coach and coming back from League my confidence was up and that made it easier. When you have a good team around you and good players, and the right environment, it is easy to do well.”

Muller reckons the 1998 comeback win over the All Blacks at King’s Park was an example of the confidence that was the hallmark of that team.

“We were down something like 23-5 at halftime and Nick was crapping us out, kicking boots around and swearing at us like Alex Ferguson supposedly did at times in his career as manager of Manchester United,” recalls Muller.

“We actually had no confidence at halftime, and I remember thinking that it was going to be a tough second half. But then something clicked and the confidence suddenly came flooding back. We came back to win the game.”

The Boks carried that confidence into the Tri-Nations decider in Johannesburg a week later, a game that was effectively a final and partly made up for Muller missing the 1995 World Cup.

“We just had so much confidence by the time we got to that game, both from winning like we did the week before in Durban, coming back from being well out of it, and from having won both our games on tour to Australia and New Zealand before that. We would have beaten any team on the planet that day.

“The game itself I don’t remember that well in terms of specifics, but what I do remember is that we dominated them physically, and when you do that to the Aussies, and cut down the time and space for them to play, you have game won. I remember Joost being outstanding, overall it was a good total game performance from us.”

For Muller, that was the pinnacle of his brave and determined comeback from the injury that prevented him from being a part of the 1995 triumph and which threatened to end his career. He moved overseas to play for the Cardiff Blues in 2000 and only ended his career there in 2004. So effectively, he played on for almost a decade after the injury that would have broken a lesser man.

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