France's 1958 coup de grâce
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:38
Fifty years ago France toured South Africa and achieved the unimaginable, becoming the first team to beat South Africa in a home series for 62 years.
It was as if Pandora's box had been opened and could not be closed. Beaten away, the Springboks now lost at home and, despite great feats from time to time, never regained the invincibility of those 60 years. Not even the World Cup put them on a pedestal so high above the rest.
The French of 1958 were just the third time France had been out of Europe on a rugby tour. In 1949 and 1954, the French had toured Argentina. This time it was South Africa.
France had had its baptism into international rugby in 1906 and had been part of the communion of the Five Nations. Then for a while it was excommunicated till, after the cleansing penance of World War II, it was allowed back into full communion. If that is the spiritual life of French rugby, then the 1958 tour of South Africa was its confirmation.
In some ways the South Africans found it a turbulent tour, these unyielding little men with a different language and customs, who wanted wine free, who threatened to ‘go ‘ome’, who urinated against a goal post during a match; artists who mixed flashes of genius with the red madness of brutality, and who, incredibly, won the series as they stood up resiliently against dour Springbok might and then were too clever for them. They changed play in the line-outs forever with their tapping and peeling.
Most of all they had a remarkable leader in Lucien Mias, the schoolmaster who became a medical doctor, the friendly man who never took a step back, the dedicated rugby player who, to ward off sinusitis, drank half a bottle of rum on the night before the second Test and marauded down the hotel's corridors.
Denis Delanne, the great French rugby writer, wrote of him: ‘This is a man who must be honoured some day with a statue in the offices of the French Rugby Union. With all due respect for the rules of amateurism, in South Africa he was worth his weight in gold. One dares not think what would have happened on the tour without this “superman” in heart and body.’
They were not a full French side. Maurice Prat could not leave his bakery in Lourdes as the pilgrims flocked to the shrine's centenary; Michel Crauste would not leave his sick wife; Henri Domec was injured; Michel Hoche and Claude Mantoulan were away on military service; and Amédée Domenech felt he could not leave his bar. It took an ambassador's intervention to get three soldiers leave to tour - André Haget, Jean Dupuy and Jean De Gregorio. They had initially been forbidden to go because `this tour will not have the status of national representation’.
The French came to a South African rugby regrouping after the defeats and subsequent player retirements in the wake of the 1956 tour to New
Zealand. Of the backs who played in the last Test in 1956, only Popeye Strydom played in the first Test in 1958. Of the forwards Bertus van der Merwe, Johan Claassen and Butch Lochner were the only survivors.
The French played 10 matches, won five, drew two and lost three. They scored 137 points, including 26 tries and conceded 124 points, including 17 tries. They won the Test series without scoring a single try.
The Tests
South Africa vs France, 3-3 at Newlands on 26 July 1958
The Newlands public were soon stunned, as were the Springboks, by the speed and unorthodoxy of the French backs who made South Africa's graceful swing passing look obsolete with their short, quick flicked passes, and the power and intelligence of their pack led by Lucien Mias and shored up by the Rock - Alfred Roqué.
The crowd laughed when pint-sized fullback Pierre Lacaze attempted his first penalty with the around-the-corner soccer kicking style. Today, of course, everybody kicks that way.
When flyhalf Kirkpatrick put a perfect up-and-under on the tiny fullback, the crowd could not believe their eyes when Lacaze, standing near the touchline, calmly leaped to head the ball into touch as the Springbok pack stampeded by!
At the end, nobody was really surprised that France had held South Africa to a 3-3 draw. Scrumhalf Pierre Danos, lofted a drop from behind a set scrum to make the half-time score 3-0 to France. Flank Butch Lochner went over for a try in the right corner after a diagonal kick by Jeremy Nel.
Playing to instructions in the first half, Kirkpatrick kicked good ball away incessantly to the displeasure of the crowd. It helped the French calm early Test nerves. For doing what he was told to do Kirkpatrick was dropped for the second Test.
Scorers
For South Africa:
Try: Lochner.
For France:
Drop: Danos
South Africa: MC Gerber, JC Prinsloo, JJ Nel, W Rosenberg, WL Fourie, AI Kirkpatrick, CF Strydom, GP Lochner, HJM Pelser, GH van Zyl, JT Claassen (captain), J Steenekamp, PS du Toit, AJ van der Merwe, AC Koch.
France: P Lacaze, H Rancoule, G Stener, A Marquesuzaa, J Dupuy, R Martine, P Danos, J Barthe, F Moncla, J Carrère, B Mommejat, L Mias (captain), A Quaglio, R Vigier, A Roques.
Referee: EA Strasheim (South Africa).
France vs South Africa, 9-5 at Ellis Park on 16 August 1958
The Springboks beefed up their pack with the inclusion of fiery Northern Transvaal flank Louis Schmidt and boisterous lock Jan Bull Pickard in an effort to clinch the two-Test series at Ellis Park with traditional ‘subdue and penetrate’ rugby.
It failed because Lucien Mias’s pack was a powerhouse unit that not only refused to bow the knee, but actually
took control.
In all South Africa made seven changes, France one.
After the French had beaten a strong combined provincial unit at Potchefstroom, perplexed Boy Louw asked skipper Johan Claassen why they had failed to dominate the scrums.
Claassen replied: ‘Oom Boy, they have a locking method that anchors them so firmly that you cannot move them.’ They also had an intimidating ‘meanie’ in prop ‘The Rock’ Roques, who was brought up in the tough underworld of Marseilles.
The Springboks scored when Jeremy Nel, who had replaced Kirkpatrick at flyhalf, tip-toed, finger on lips, through a drowsy French defence to send wing Lofty Fourie away to the try-line. Mickey Gerber converted.
The diminutive Lacaze snapped over a drop and kicked a penalty and Roger Martins added another drop goal.
Danos aptly coined the phrase: ‘Some players play the piano while others move it’. The French played it like Fats
Waller.
Scorers:
For South Africa:
Try: Fourie
Con: Gerber.
For France:
Pen: Lacaze
Drop: Lacaze, Martine.
South Africa: MC Gerber, JC Prinsloo, J Kaminer, AL Skene, WL Fourie, JJ Nel, TA Gentles, GP Lochner, LU Schmidt, DSP Ackermann, JT Claassen (captain), JAJ Pickard, PS du Toit, GF Malan, AC Koch.
France: P Lacaze, G Stener, R Martine, A Marquesuzaa, J Dupuy, A Haget, P Danos, J Barthe, F Moncla, J Carrère, B Mommejat, L Mias (captain), A Quaglio, R Vigier, A Roques.
Referee: CJ Ackermann (South Africa).
