Great Tjol Lategan Dies
Tjol Lategan, a great centre in great times for South African rugby, has died in Stellenbosch at the age of 89.
He was the third oldest surviving Springbok after Piet Malan and Cecil Moss who were also Springboks in 1949.
He played in good years for Springbok rugby – the whitewash of the All Blacks in 1949, the five Test victories on the tour to the UK, Ireland and France in 1951-52 and the series win over the Wallabies in 1953 when he played in the first two Tests of the series, the second his only taste of defeat in 11 Tests. And yet he came close to not having a Test career at all.
Born in Stellenbosch, Lategan went to Stellenbosch Boys' High which was later called Paul Rood Gymnasium. In his last year he was too old to play for the 1st XV and so played for Van der Stel, the 'other club' in Stellenbosch, then a part of Boland. He played for them in 1944 and 1945 and when he went back to Van der Stel in 1950, they were back as a Western Province club.. Then after school in 1946 he went to Stellenbosch where he was regarded as an exceptionally fat, opportunistic centre. In 1947 he injured his knee but that was when Doc Craven joined the university staff and helped with the development of Lategan's damaged knee and that year he played for Western Province, as he did till 1952. In 1953 he was a (27-year-old) student at Tukkies and played for Northern Transvaal, then he went to Malmesbury and played for Boland before moving to Port Elizabeth where he played for PA Parks and Eastern Province. His playing days over at the age of 32, he took up coaching, first at his old club and then as an Eastern Province selector and coach. In 1968 he was the Eastern Province coach when they beat Western Province at Newlands, the scene of so much of Lategan's success and yet he would regard the Eastern Province victory on that August afternoon as his best Newlands experience ever.
His wanderings are not uncommon in professional days but in his amateur days they were about following the jobs and the chartered accountant was still to head to East London before returning to Stellenbosch.
In 1949, the All Blacks came to South Africa, and trials were held in Pretoria, after which a short list of 32 players was chosen, 12 of whom actually played in the Test series, only two behind the scrum. The centres were Floris Duvenage, Trevor Mills, Chum Ochse, Tjol Lategan and Robert Boyes. But it was a year that was not going well for Lategan. Not only was he dropped by Western Province but even the Maties dropped him to the second team.
On the Saturday before the first Test, the All Blacks played Western Province. On the Friday before the Test, the selectors under the chairmanship of Bill Schreiner met and chose their likely team for the first Test. But on the Saturday, the All Blacks, who by then had lost to Border and Eastern Transvaal and drawn with Free State and were looking vulnerable, beat a drab Western Province side 6-3. Lategan had not been chosen for the centres that day were Robert Boyes and Chum Ochse. The selectors were shocked and rushed off to Schreiner's club, the Olympic Sports club in Rondebosch for a quiet and secret meeting in the card room, and the team was changed. The only Western Province players who survived were Bubbles Koch and scrumhalf Ballie Wahl. But in came Lategan with lots of help from Craven who proposed him.
Schreiner objected, saying: If that man plays, I will resign as chairman of the selection committee. He has no defence."
But Craven spoke convincingly about his ability to defend and Lategan was chosen on a 3-2 vote, and proved Craven absolutely right.
Paired with Lategan was Floris Duvenage, a great player but then just short of 32 years of age. The Springboks won the Test 15-11, thanks to five penalty goals by Okey Geffin. After this the All Blacks went to Rhodesia where they played twice, losing the first and drawing the second. Playing for Rhodesia as the vice captain was Ryk van Schoor, a Western Province reject who had gone north for a job in the tobacco industry. He tackled bulges into the All Black backline and was chosen for South Africa though earlier in the year he had been rejected as a possible trialist. He and Lategan then formed a famous centre pairing in 10 consecutive Tests – a vast number in those days of few Tests. Lategan and Van Schoor became almost one word and there is a picture of the two of them titled Boet en Boet.
The two played in all five Tests in 1952-52, including the remarkable Springbok victories over Scotland (44-0) when Lategan scored a try and France (25-3). He nearly did not make the Scottish Test as the team had chosen 16 players. Dennis Fry would play if it was wet, Lategan if it was dry. It was dry.
The Wallabies came in 1953. Lategan, then at Tukkies, scored a try against them for Northern Universities, then a try in the first Test at Ellis Park and then a try against them for Boland whom they beat 14-13. But the Wallabies had an astonishing comeback to win the second Test. Lategan was injured in the Test and replaced by Daantjie Rossouw.
Lategan scored tries and was much imitated for the way he dived for the line – both arms outstretched, the right with the ball in the hand, the left with hand splayed to break his fall. Photographers would crowd down that end for this iconic picture which was also the subject of paintings. His most famous try is certainly the one at Ellis Park, a brilliant try as he accelerated through a gap. He was swamped by the crowd and offered a celebratory swig of beer. There were 70 000 in the ground that day.
Lategan was not a big man – 1,72m tall and 74kg. He was roughly the size of Cheslin Kolbe who is 1,71m tall and weighs 80kg. There is no way that Lategan, for all his skill and speed, would have been a centre in today's rugby where centres are bigger than the loose forwards of Lategan's day.
He was called Tjol all his life and he did not need a surname. It was enough to say Tjol as it was to say Morné, Naas or Bismarck. But he was born Marthinus Theunis Lategan in Stellenbosch on 29 September 1925. He died in Stellenbosch on 8 Match 2015, survived by his wife Trudie, three sons and a daughter, nine grand children and three great-grandchildren, a quiet and modest man.
