How the 1956 All Blacks deployed a boxer to rough up Springboks

THE South African media covering the Springbok trials in 1956 could not believe their luck when the juiciest of stories landed in their laps.

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You have to picture the scene. A pack of rugby reporters are in a lounge at the Avalon Hotel in Cape Town, awaiting a news briefing, when two brawling Springboks crash through the doorway.

It was the meanest lock enforcers in Springbok rugby, Salty du Rand and Jan Pickard, and Sunday Times writer Norman Canale had the job of separating the two. The colourful Canale would dine out on the episode, saying it was a good job that he had spent most of his career covering boxing.

Witnesses say that a Du Rand worse for liquor was the aggressor and Danie Craven later made him apologise. The two shook hands in front of the rest of the players, but this scuffle divided a Bok squad about to depart for a series with the All Blacks.

To give some background... In 1956 two of the biggest rugby personalities were the Northern Transvaal captain Du Rand and arch-rival Pickard, the Western Province skipper. They were the figureheads of an enormous north-south divide in provincial rugby.

Another significant factor was that in this post-World War 2 era, there was a split between English and Afrikaans rugby players because most of the former volunteered for the British army and the majority of the latter did not.

Both Du Rand and Pickard had a good shot at captaining the Test team, more so Du Rand, who had 15 caps to Pickard’s two.

Also, Du Rand’s robustness was ideal for leading from the front against an All Blacks team on a war footing after losing 4-0 in South Africa in 1949.