Book Review: First of the Pumas
Do you know who gave the Argentinian national rugby team its nickname – the Pumas? And do you know that the name has stuck even though it was inaccurate?
If you read Hans Saestad's latest book on the first Argentinian national team to tour South Africa in 1965, you will find the answers.
This is Saestad's sixth book on rugby tours, part of his excellent effort to cover all tours in and out that have not been written about. One if the first Argentinian team to tour abroad, the 1965 team to Southern Africa, nicknamed the Pumas. It came and went with some limited interest but the real rugby interest at the time was the unsuccessful Springbok tour to Australia and New Zealand. The Pumas' tour is glossed over – in South Africa, that is, but not in Argentina where those Pumas are heroes.
It has been my good fortune to meet Ronaldo Foster, who played for False Bay in the Western Province for a while, the late Doctor Eduardo Poggi, who kicked around the corner at a time when South Africans ran in straight and kicked with the toe, Eduardo Espana of Rosario, who is called Gringo because he speaks English and the cheerful journalist Nicanor Gonzalez del Solar, nicknamed Mafuta. The Guillermo Alonso drove me many kilometres to the Pucará Club to meet Marcelo Pascual, the big centre who scored a famous try against the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, a match which I attended.
That day is a red letter day in the history of Argentinian rugby. The have huge respect for South African rugby, dating back to Fairy Heatlie, who played for both South Africa and Argentina, the 1933 Junior Springboks and other South African teams and the work of Izak van Heerden who prepared them for this tour and guided them along it.
The book is timeous for 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of that epic tour which brought Argentinian rugby into the spotlight.
The book is bilingual. There is a complete Afrikaans text and a complete English text.
They played only two provincial sides – South Western Districts and Boland – and also Rhodesia and Southern Universities. For the rest they played Country District teams, including South West Africa Country Districts and South African Country Districts, Of these 15 matches, they won 10, drew with Border Country Districts in Queenstown and lost to Rhodesia, Northern Transvaal Country Districts in Petersburg, South Western Districts and SA Country Districts. But there was also the Junior Springbok match at Ellis Park on 19 June 1965, a day to remember. Apart from the Pumas' victory at Ellis Park that day, Australia beat the Springboks in Sydney.
There are small profiles of the Pumas and a match report and teams for every one of the 16 matches. There are newspaper reports and information from programmes.
If you are interested in South African rugby history you will want this book, as the information it contains is nowhere else in such a handy form.
Title: Die Oorspronlike Poemas/First of the Pumas
By Hans Saestad
Published by Hans Saestad
118 pages
Soft cover
2014
Illustrated throughout, partly in colour
The book is obtained from the author whose e-mail address is hanz@absamail.co.za. It costs R240 per copy postage excluded.
By Paul Dobson
