You said it Bob
by Dan Retief 03/02/2008, 20:13
Bob Skinstad must have known something when he talked about the stars being aligned for the Springboks’ 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign.
In my wrap-up to the Boks triumphal march though France I referred to Skinstad’s prescience and now a correspondent – one of five verified readers of this column! – has reminded me of the striking coincidences linking South Africa’s two World Cup triumphs in 1995 and 2007.
Thanks to Johan Wagner of Cape Town for spurring an entertaining line of thought. Here are some of the uncanny similarities. I look forward to see what others there might be.
Both teams…
Had Os du Randt at loosehead.
Scored 15 points in the Final; but did not score a try.
Were coached by English-speaking coaches who themselves were not Springboks. (Kitch Christie and Jake White).
Played in the same pool as the defending champions; and beat them comfortably. (Australia and England).
Had highly-charged and controversial matches against Samoa.
Had flyhalves who went to Maritzburg College. (Joel Stransky and Butch James).
Had No8s who normally played at lock. (Mark Andrews and Danie Rossouw).
Had tighthead props who were more comfortable at loosehead. (Balie Swart and CJ van der Linde).
Had Natal/Sharks fullbacks, who had previously played for other provinces. (Andre Joubert and Percy Montgomery).
Had Northern Transvaal/Bulls scrumhalves. (Joost van der Westhuizen and Fourie du Preez).
Had Transvaal/Lions outside centres. (Japie Mulder and Jaque Fourie).
Had a (so-called) player of colour and national heroes in the No11 jersey. (Chester Williams and Bryan Habana).
Had a left-wing who scored four tries against Samoa. (Williams & Habana).
Had provincial lock mates in the 4 & 5 jerseys. (Kobus Wiese & Hannes Strydom of Transvaal and Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha of the Bulls).
Had a Free Stater in the No7 jersey. (Ruben Kruger and Juan Smith).
Had a Pienaar from Bloemfontein. (Gysie and Ruan).
Those are what I’ve managed to come up with. Looking forward to hearing from the numerologists to see if there was anything in the numbers or was it just that the stars were aligned? Let’s hear from you.