Currie Cup semi-final history starts
The thrilling first one
The Currie Cup has been in competition since 1892. For nearly 50 years there were no finals. For nearly 80 years there were no semi-finals. Now they are a part of our lives.
In the beginning the Currie Cup was run as a tournament. The team ending top of the log won the Currie Cup. Then in 1939 there was a final for the first time when the teams were divided into sections, the winners of each section playing in the final.
As the 2005 Currie Cup approaches the semi-finals we shall recall some famous semis.
The Cup went on in various forms, sometimes as a league, sometimes in sections leading to a final and in some years not at all.
The first semi-final was in 1969. That year the provinces were divided into three sections. There was just one semi-final – Western Province against Boland at Newlands. What a match it was, a thrill a minute as the Bolanders, coached by Piet van Wyk, pitched into Western Province and were leading 11-8 till the last minute.
Thanks above all to their intense pack, Dawie de Villiers's men were ahead 8-3 at half-time. Flank Pietman Basson had scored a try and then left-wing Pierre Ackermann intercepted and ran 70 yards – they were yards in those days – to score. Harry Nowers converted. For Province Charlie Cockrell – a Cockrell and therefore a hooker – scored a try after Jan Boland Coetzee had fetched the ball in his characteristic way.
Early in the second half Nowers kicked a penalty and the Winefarmers led 11-3.
The change came when HO de Villiers started running from the back but that did not produce the next try. It came when Dawie de Villiers dropped a high kick by Mike Lawless and flank Preston Robertson footed on to score at the posts. HO converted. 11-8.
It was the third minute of injury time with one minute to play when the scrum went down on the Boland 10-yard line. Aubrey Luck put the ball in for Province and Cockrell heeled. Up came HO to take a pass from flyhalf Jannie Barnard. His burst gave Matie speedster Andy van der Watt an overlap. The wing sped down the left touch-line for a try in the corner. That made it 11-all.
From touch HO converted and the schoolboys rushed onto the field to jump on their hero in delight and then carry him off. It seemed that the whole crowd of 32 000 were on the field – such was the freedom of movement in those days when Newlands did not look nearly as pretty or as manicured but when lots, and lots of rugby was played on the famous ground.
The victory gave Western Province the right to play a rested Northern Transvaal team in the final. The lineal antecedents of the Blue Bulls won 28-13 on the day when ou Frik worked magic – the day of gedrop, geplace en gescore. But that's a story for another day.
The teams in that first semi-final:
Boland: Harry Nowers, Ela du Toit, Koos Visser, Klaas de Jongh, Pierre Ackermann, Hennie Nieuwoudt, Dawie de Villiers (captain), Mike Jennings, Bok du Toit, Pietman Basson, Jan du Toit, Johnny Joubert, James O'Kennedy, François du Toit, Dawid van der Merwe.
Western Province: HO de Villiers, Jannie Engelbrecht, Mike Lawless, Eben Olivier, Andy van der Watt, Jannie Barnard, Aubrey Luck, Kat Smith, Preston Robertson, Jan Boland Coetzee, André de Wet, Wouter Hugo, Gert Kotze, Charlie Cockrell, Tiny Neethling (captain).
Referee: Professor Tinkie Heyns
Just before the match, Koos Visser of Caledon took his boots out of his bag and found he had two right boots. Dave Stewart, the Western Province Springbok who ran Logan's, was found in the stand. Off he went to their store in Newlands to get another pair of boots, which he did and which Visser wore even though they were too big! Stewart at the time was a Western Province selector and helping Hennie Muller with the coaching of the team, doing the backs. Perhaps that is why the boots were too big!
The move which won the match, Stewart remembers, was a rehearsed one – code named Wales.
It was a match worth remembering for years and years. And every Bolander will be there will tell you that that scrum should have been given to them and not to Province and that Jan Boland had hooked the ball back with his hand any way and Boland would have made a better fist of playing Northern Transvaal in any case.
