In November 2001, another rugby Eddie, this one Butler, the former Wales and British Lion back rower, opened his piece on the England-Springbok match for The Observer thus:
“Finding themselves up against the largest herd of beef ever put out on a rugby pasture, England turned cold-blooded butcher for the day. It wasn’t a slaughter, but it scattered a fair amount of southern hemisphere pride over old HQ. This was not the prettiest of games, but it was gripping and brutal and delivered a loud message. England can mix it with the biggest and the best.”
Fifteen years later, Eddie Jones said that he would treat Saturday’s Test against South Africa a little like the Rumble in the Jungle. England would be the dancing power of Muhammad Ali against the big-hitting George Foreman. There was no rope-a-dope, but he put the Boks on the ropes, stretching that large herd of beef from one side of the Twickenham pitch to the other until they puffed and huffed and had their house blown down. South Africa’s massive pack, perhaps one of the largest herds of beef ever seen on a rugby field in 2016, were bested by the man who helped guide them to the 2007 World Cup.
At the end of 2001, the Springboks had Harry Viljoen as their coach and Bob Skinstad as their captain, the former a manager who liked to experiment and the other one of the most sublimely talented loose forwards to wear green and gold. It felt like an exciting time to watch the Boks.
Viljoen wanted to shake things up. He gave Test debuts to Butch James, Conrad Jantjes, Adrian Jacobs and Joe van Niekerk. He employed Michael Byrne, a catching and kicking coach, and Les Kiss, the Australian defence guru.
He had his critics. He had not coached for three years before being appointed in the aftermath of Nick Mallett’s engineered sacking. His last job had been with the Stormers in 1998, and it hadn’t gone well. Piet Olivier, president of the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, had not wanted him as the Bok coach, believing that the faction from the south of South African rugby had insisted he be appointed. Olivier called him the ‘little mannetjie from Hermanus’. He gave Kiss, a rugby league man, his first major coaching job.
Kiss remembers Viljoen fondly. Speaking to the Courier Mail last year, he said Viljoen wanted to marry the Boks’ obvious brawn with some brain. “Harry was a visionary. He wanted to change things and he’d seen the great job (former league international) John Muggleton had done with the Wallabies when they won the 1999 World Cup. He came over and spoke to me and a month later I had the job.
“I was cleaning out some old stuff and I came across a diary I’d been keeping at that time. I wrote down my thoughts when I was sitting on the plane crossing the ocean on the way to Johannesburg and it was like, what the hell am I doing here?, but the last thing I wrote was, back yourself, be honest, be authentic, give what you can and see what happens.”
After 11 Tests, Kiss left the Boks and had a six-year spell at the Waratahs. He joined Ireland in 2009 as an assistant coach. In his first year with Ireland, they won the Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years. He is now director of rugby at Ulster.
I spoke to him just before that 2001 end-of-year tour, Kiss said that he felt the Boks had all the talent in the world, but needed to work on their skill-sets and to play with a little more thought.
That tour of Europe was a difficult one for the Boks.
They lost to France in a match played in a bitterly cold Stade de France. They beat Italy in Genoa. For some reason, Kiss and the assistant coaches sat next to me in the press box. As I remember, he nicked my pen and wore my gloves during a match that showed some faint hope of progress.
Then came London. Viljoen went for brawn in the pack. He needed a win, the critics were growing louder and louder.
He reverted to Bok type. He picked Ollie le Roux, John Smit, Willie Meyer, Victor Matfield, Mark Andrews, Andre Vos, AJ Venter and Bob Skinstad his captain. Lukas van Bjilon, Andre Venter and Corne Krige all came on in the 67th minute. Dean Hall was on the wing, Braam van Straaten was at 12. It was a team full of head-on, bashing intent.
The Boks were 9-6 down at halftime. It was an old-fashioned game, but England played it better than the Boks. Their brawn standing up to the onslaught while Jonny Wilkinson kicked over 21 points. The herd had been bested. Fifteen years later and not much has changed.
The Star