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John Thornet was the first captain to lead the Wallabies onto Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, 1300 metres above sea level.
The Wallabies didn’t cope with the rarefied air, losing 14-3.
That was 53 years ago, and the Wallabies have yet to win at Loftus in six starts.
So who were the Wallabies on duty since 1963?
1 – Jon White, 2- Peter Johnson, 3- John Freedman, 4 – John Thornett (c), 5 – Jim Miller, 6 – Ted Heinrich, 7 – Greg Davis, 8 – John O’Gorman, 9 – Ken McMullen, 10 – Phil Hawthorne, 11 – Jim Boyce, 12 – Beres Ellwood, 13 – Peter Jones, 14 – John Williams, 15 – Peter Ryan.
When South Africa was in sporting isolation and beyond, the Wallabies didn’t play their second game at Loftus until 1997, where they were hammered by a record 61 points to 22.
1 – Richard Harry, 2 -Michael Foley, 3 – Andrew Blades, 4 – Owen Finegan, 5 – John Langford, 6 – Matt Cockbain, 7 – David Wilson (c), 8 – Troy Coker, 9 – George Gregan, 10 -David Knox, 11 – Joe Roff 12 -James Holbeck, 13 -Jason Little, 14 – Ben Tune, 15 – Stephen Larkham.
The sequence started to take on a more regular pattern. The third visit to Loftus in 2001 was still a 20-15 loss, but a far better result than the last one.
1 – Nick Stiles, 2 – Michael Foley, 3 – Rod Moore, 4 – David Giffin, 5 – John Eales (c), 6 – Owen Finegan, 7 – George Smith , 8 – Toutai Kefu, 9 – George Gregan, 10 – Elton Flatley, 11 – Joe Roff, 12 – Nathan Grey, 12 – Dan Herbert, 14 – Andrew Walker, 15 – Matt Burke.
There were some major changes in 2005, but another 22-16 loss.
1 – Bill Young, 2 -Jeremy Paul, 3 – Matt Dunning, 4 – Dan Vickerman, 5 – Nathan Sharpe,6 – John Roe, 7 – George Smith, 8 – Phil Waugh, 9 – George Gregan (c), 10 – Stephen Larkham, 11 – Lote Tuqiri, 12 – Matt Giteau, 13 – Morgan Turinui, 14 – Wendell Sailor, 15 – Chris Latham.
In 2014, there was a points blitz, but still a 44-31 loss for the Wallabies.
1 – Benn Robinson, 2 – Saia Fainga’a, 3 – Salesi Ma’afu, 4 – Dean Mumm, 5 – Nathan Sharpe, 6 – Rocky Elsom, 7 – David Pocock, 8 – Richard Brown, 9 – Will Genia, 10 – Quade Cooper, 11 – Drew Mitchell, 12 – Matt Giteau, 13 – Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 – James O’Connor, 15 – Kurtley Beale.
It was back to the bad old days in 2012, losing 31-8.
1 – Benn Robinson, 2 – Tatafa Polota-Nau, 3 – Ben Alexander, 4 – Kane Douglas, 5 – Nathan Sharpe (c), 6 – Dave Dennis, 7 -Michael Hooper, 8 – Radike Samu, 9 – Nick Phipps, 10 – Kurtkey Beale, 11 – Digby Ioane, 12 – Pat McCabe, 13 – Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 – Dom Shipperley, 15 – Berrick Barnes.
Not an impressive record with 192 points to 95, but this Saturday the Wallabies will be looking for a third win on the trot in the Rugby Championship.
With the Boks having their own troubles, the time has come to break the 53-year drought. (Click to Tweet)