WP at Loftus with high emotions

Back in '64

When Western Province go to Loftus Versfeld, fur is sure to fly. Certainly emotions will not be muted. It is a day to pick sides and do it with all your strength.

There have been many great moments of high feeling, but we are going to talk mainly about 1964. The emotions that day were strong but with antipathy rather than sympathy, which will be the overriding emotion this weekend.

There was the very first Currie Cup final at Loftus, back in 1946, the first Currie Cup encounter between the two unions – south come to north, gracious old traditionalists against the brash pretenders – and the new men won. What a match! It all hinged on one of the most notorious lapses in the history of South African rugby as Con de Kock, the handsome, bronzed, dashing Apollo of a fullback, came across to flykick the ball into touch to win the match and the Currie Cup for Western Province. De Kock missed the bouncing ball. Johnny Lourens gathered it and scored. Hansie Brewis missed the conversion but Northern Transvaal had won 11-9 – the first moment of Currie Cup climax for Pretoria, a joy it has never tired of.

You can talk about the day the Loftus crowd cheered when the announcer told them that Morné du Plessis was injured and would not play. You can talk about the forward pass from Breyton Paulse to Chester Williams.

There was a time when Western Province support at Loftus was big, like 60-40. That was when the Zoo Train would take the parliamentarians up to Pretoria at midyear and many of them would be Western Province people. This weekend, in the emotional wake of Ettienne Botha's sad death, there will be little Western Province support.

Western Province supporters stayed in the closet on 1 August 1964 when Western Province came to play.

Just a week before France had beaten South Africa at Springboks in the dingiest, scruffiest, most dismal test ever played in South Africa. And the whole nation roundly condemned Western Province for every aspect of that grim match. After all six of the side – the worst six, according to noisy, angry critics – came from Western Province – Lionel Wilson, Jannie Engelbrecht, Dave Stewart, John Gainsford, Mike Lawless and Doug Hopwood – especially Mike Lawless and Jannie Engelbrecht, bang Jan they called him. There was nothing much Frik, Mof and Stompie could do with that bunch around them!

It was not a Currie Cup final because there was no final that year but it would decide the outcome of the Currie Cup – and Northern Transvaal were hot favourites. After all they had beaten this weak-kneed Weepies 25-9 in a friendly – "friendly". There would be slaughter in the Loftus kraal on Saturday.

The kraal was packed for the rodeo.

Before the Province team went to the ground, they gathered around their captain, Doug Hopwood, in the Union Hotel. Never a man of many words, unlike the voluble Hennie Muller, Hoppie's message was simple: "Chaps, we haven't done much this season. Let's give it a full go today."

Just that.

Northern Transvaal scored first – a penalty by Martin Grundlingh. They scored second – a try by Stompie van der Merwe, and by the scoring of the day they led 6-0. Dave Stewart kicked a penalty and then disaster struck Western Province.

The ball was in touch. Jannie Engelbrecht went over to it and bent down to pick it up. Suddenly Louis Schmidt, the original Blue Bull, thundered into him from behind, thumping the elegant wing shoulder-first into the ground. He broke his collarbone. It was painful. Not that 37 000 emotion-charged people minded.

Western Province said things to Schmidt, but there stood Engelbrecht in fearful pain – bang Jan hurting. But Hopwood came up to him, looked intensely into his eyes and said: "Jannie, you are not going off."

There were no replacements or substitutes in this days. The sides would start with 15 players each but what fate befell them after the first whistle was a hazard of the game.

Engelbrecht stayed.

Half-time came soon afterwards and Engelbrecht wanted to go off to get it strapped but Hopwood said: "Don't go, Jan. Don't show them anything."

Engelbrecht, in pain, stayed, his right hand tucked into his shorts to stop some of the painful movement of the shoulder.

Then Wynand Mans picked up a bouncing ball and sent Gert Brynard away. Up to Grundlingh the left wing raced with Engelbrecht on his right. Brynard drew Grundlingh and passed to Engelbrecht. The ball from the left going right. Engelbrecht pushed his right hand forward to stop the ball and folded his left hand round it to draw it onto his body.

Those were the days before the "cricket catch" was allowed, when a fumble forward was a knock-on. Engelbrecht did not fumble and off he raced to the posts.

Getting the ball down was not easy but he lowered his body to the ground in a sitting position and grounded the ball for the try. Stewart converted and Western Province led 8-6.

André van Tonder dropped a goal to put Northerns back in the lead at 9-8.

At this stage the pain was excruciating and Engelbrecht went o Hopwood and said he could not take it any longer. He wanted to go off. Hopwood told him to stay. Engelbrecht stayed.

With two minutes on the click, Western Province won a scrum ten yards – they were yards then – from their line. Scrumhalf Dirkie de Vos broke round the blind past Schmidt, going right, Engelbrecht's wing.

De Vos passed to Engelbrecht 60 yards from the Northerns' line. Again in agony he caught the ball and off he raced, tall, head up. Ernst du Plessis chased him but Engelbrecht, ball in his right arm as the coaching manuals insist is right, under his broken collarbone, got to the line first and got his body down for the try. 11-9 to Western Province.

Frik dropped and missed. Grundlingh dropped and missed. Hopwood hoofed the ball down into Northerns' territory where Rooies van Wyk got a fumble and scored a try which Dave Stewart converted.

The final whistle went and Jannie Engelbrecht, brave bang Jan, went to hospital.

There is a little extra that should be mentioned. When that final whistle went, the Loftus crowd applauded. Jeers had become cheers of acknowledgement. The crowd applauded Western Province. The Loftus crowd did that.

It was Louis Schmidt's last match for Northern Transvaal.

It will be a different emotion this weekend. It will not be an anti-Western Province emotion at all. But it will be one of tight support for the Blue Bulls in a great huddle of grief.

The teams on 1 August 1964:

Northern Transvaal: Martin Grundlingh, Ernest du Plessis, Gerrie Bester, Elandré de Koning, Johan Fechter, André van Tonder, Dennis de Klerk, Fourie du Preez, Louis Schmidt (captain), Frik du Preez, Jumbo van der Walt, Stompie van der Merwe, Hennie Pretorius, Gys Pitzer, Mof Myburgh.

Western Province: Lionel Wilson, Gert Brynard, Dave Stewart, Wynand Mans, Jannie Engelbrecht, Mike Lawless, Dirk de Vos, Doug Hopwood (captain), Rooies van Wyk, Haas Schoeman, Andrew Janson, Tiny Naudé, Gert Kotze, Charlie Cockrell, Tiny Neethling.