It isn’t often that a team will draw on something that happened 50 years ago for inspiration, but in the case of the DHL Stormers it makes complete sense that the coaches have tried to educate the players about what happened when Western Province played the All Blacks in 1976.
It was at Newlands and not at Friday night’s venue, the DHL Stadium, and the calls ringing out from the terraces would have been “Prooovince” rather than “Stormers”, but that was the last time the Cape premier team met New Zealand in a tour game. And it went well for WP that day, with flyhalf Robbie Blair, having missed several kicks earlier in the game that would have given his team a comfortable lead, kicking a conversion from the touchline to win the game 12-11.
It came before the start of the four-match series between the Springboks and the All Blacks and at a time when South African rugby was desperately trying to find confidence and rediscover self-respect after the Springbok mauling at the hands of Willie John McBride’s British Lions two years before that. So it was a very important victory, not just for WP but for the rugby public at the time (noting, of course, that the Boks for obvious reasons didn’t have the support of the whole country like they do now).
With the All Blacks' tour to this country in 1996 not including games against the top provinces, that game that ended in bedlam and joy for the hosts was the last meeting between the two teams.
Of course, not even the Stormers’ senior statesman, Deon Fourie, who will celebrate his 40th birthday late next month, was alive then. But head coach John Dobson, born into a family so steeped in WP tradition, would have been there on the day, and it is part of the fabled history of a union that has now transitioned into becoming a professional club.
PLAYERS HAVE SEEN CLIPS
According to assistant coach Rito Hlungwani, the players were given a presentation on what happened on that day back in 1976 as part of the drive to motivate them for the immense challenge that awaits them on Friday night, when they host the All Blacks in the first game of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.
“I am good mates with Bossie Clarke Junior (who also played for WP) and we had a conversation this weekend with Bossie Clarke Senior, who was involved in that game and scored one of the two tries (the other was from the other wing, Chris Pope),” said Hlungwani.
“That win was famous for this club, so it was mentioned to the team a few weeks ago. We watched a couple of clips, so it is something our players have been made aware of. We have reached out into that kind of depth, in terms of who played in that team, how we won, who scored the tries.
“It is something we have tried to educate the team about (for inspiration) and it was very nice to speak to Bossie senior about it. It is something we are aware of and we are really proud of.”
AWARE OF IT BEING A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY
Fourie said it was too long ago for the team to be channelling the events of that day in the final stages of their buildup to Friday’s game, but the fact that it was so long ago has made the players more aware of what a privilege it is for them to be playing in this game.
“I wouldn’t say we are channelling it as lots of things have changed, but for me it brings home what a rare opportunity we have,” said the man who was the de facto Springbok team leader in the closing stages of the World Cup final win over the All Blacks two years ago.
“That happened 50 years ago, so this isn’t even like a World Cup, which comes around every four years. The gap between these games has been 50 years, so we don’t know if this kind of opportunity will ever come again so we need to make the most of it.”
ONLY FRIDAY WILL TELL IF STORMERS ARE CONTACT READY
The biggest challenge facing the Stormers is the imperfect timing of the game. They haven’t played since they lost the Vodacom URC semifinal to Leinster in early June, and have only been back in training for three weeks, with their pre-season starting earlier because of this game. Fourie says the once-in-a-lifetime chance of playing the All Blacks, something he feels 80 to 90 per cent of the Stormers team may never get to experience with the Boks, makes the sacrifice worth it.
At the same time, he acknowledges the challenge implicit in effectively starting the pre-season with a game against the mighty All Blacks. He says there’s been more contact than usual for such an early stage of the pre-season, but only Friday night will tell if it has been enough preparation for a game of this magnitude and against a team of the quality of New Zealand.
“What is fortunate for us is that the Currie Cup side is here and we have been training against them,” said Fourie.
“Usually when you are training defence or attack you start with a shoulder check, but then someone inevitably gets angry and you end up with what feels like a full-blown game. So some of the guys have had a lot of contact and also mauling and scrumming going into this game. But you can’t really replicate the proper impact of a game in training even if you try. So the only way to be properly ready for game contact is to play a game. And for us, the first one is on Friday night.”