Danie Craven

Short Biography

Danie Craven has been dead for 13 years. Lest anybody forget the greatest man in South Africa's rugby history and in case some do not know why the Craven Week is named after him, we give a short biography.

Nobody has made a contribution to rugby of such variety and intensity as Danie Craven did – and nobody will, not with the changed workings of professional rugby.

Craven played for and captained the Springboks when they were at their best, the masters of the rugby world in the Thirties. Not only did he play but he did so in several positions. In tests he played at centre flyhalf, scrumhalf and eighthman In a tour match he also played fullback.

He played for South Africa first at the age of 20, before he had played provincial rugby, and he was in competition with the great Pierre de Villiers for the scrumhalf berth.

He became a national selector. He managed and coached the Springboks. He became the president of the South African rugby Board in 1956 and was the executive president of SARFU when he died in 1993, in an unbroken presidency. He was a member of the IRB during that time and on occasion its chairman.

He was the one "white" sporting leader to meet with the exiled African National Congress in Harare, Zimbabwe, thus incurring the wrath of PW Botha's apartheid government. Rugby thus started on the path of politically acceptable unity before any other sport in the country. But then for the last 12 or so years of his life he went about South Africa preaching the gospel of racially mixed sport. "We can change South Africa on the rugby field," he said. He was a passionate rugby man and a passionate South African.

Craven's grandfather was a Yorkshireman on his way to Durban to catch a ship to return to England when he stopped at farm near the small town of Lindley in the Eastern Orange Free State,. He fell in love, stayed and never returned to Yorkshire. Danie Craven's father fought against the British in the Anglo-Boer War when his mother was interred in one of Britain's notorious concentration camps.

From Lindley Craven went to Stellenbosch University and its influential rugby mentor, Oubaas Markötter. Craven's regard for "Mr Mark" never diminished, nor did his love for Stellenbosch where he died and is buried. If Stellenbosch was all right, South Africa was all right.

Markötter had a powerful influence on South African rugby. He took one look at Craven at a practice in 1929 and said: "I'm keeping this one for South Africa." He was primarily a scrumhalf, not, as is often believed, the inventor of the dive pass though he developed it.

Craven then went on the 1931-32 Springbok tour and played in three of the four tests. He did not miss another test after that till he retired at the end of 1938, after playing in 16 tests, a huge number for the time. He was captain in four of those.

The 1931-32 Springboks won all four of their tests. In 1933 the Wallabies played five tests in South Africa. The Springboks won the series. Then came 1937. The Springboks won the two tests in Australia and then set off for New Zealand and serious business.

Springboks and All Blacks had met in two series before – drawn in 1921 and drawn in 1928. The All Blacks had never lost a series at home. The Springboks had not lost a series since 1896. This series was billed as a world-title contest.

In those days the players ran the team. Vice-captain Craven was one of the five leaders – along with captain Philip Nel, Gerry Brand, Lucas Strachan and Boy Louw. They dropped Nel for the first test and Craven captained the team at flyhalf.

It was a poor decision. Craven played poorly and the All Blacks won 13-7. Craven went back to scrumhalf, Nel went back to lock and the Springboks won the second test 13-6, which left all to play for in the third test. The Springboks were magnificent at Eden Park, scoring five tries to nil to win 17-6.

Craven was named one of the five players of the year in New Zealand and the team was often referred to by New Zealanders, not altogether jocously, as the best team ever to leave New Zealand.

The series against the Lions followed in 1938 and then war broke put in which Craven had the rank of Lt-Colonel.

He coached the Springboks to their 4-0 series win over the All Blacks in 1949, then the 1951-52 Springboks on their victorious tour of Europe, then in the victorious series against the Wallabies in 1953 and the drawn series against the Lions in 1955.

Then came the tour of 1956, Craven's last as a team manager and coach. The All Blacks led 2-1 going into the final test. The sides scored a try each but the boot of the late Don Clarke was telling and the All Blacks won 11-9.

Heartsore Craven addressed the Eden Park crowd over the round, standing mike and said: "It's all yours, New Zealand."

Craven had by then been elected president of the SA Rugby Board. His 37 years in office became increasingly difficult as politics became a bigger and bigger issue. First South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth. Then the nations of the world found apartheid increasingly abhorrent and boycotts bit into rugby. That the Springboks played at all from the late Sixties on was probably due in the main to the personality and efforts of Danie Craven.

In the midst of it all he managed to earn three doctorates – in social anthropology, psychology and physical education – and have an honorary one bestowed on him. He attempted a rewrite of the laws along with Hermas Evans of Wales and Harry McKibben of Ireland. He wrote numerous books on rugby – on coaching, history and biography. And he did not stop coaching Stellenbosch University till he was 80 years of age.

He was a giant of a man.

Fact File

Full name: Daniel Hartman Craven
Born: Lindley, 11 October 1910
Occupation: schoolmaster, soldier, university professor
Died: Stellenbosch, 4 January 1993
Clubs: Stellenbosch, Albany (Grahamstown), Garrison (Pretoria)
Provinces: Western Province, Eastern Province, Northern Transvaal
International career: 1931-38, 16 tests, 38 matches in all