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)
Richard Islip
Roar Rookie
The Wallabies will break the drought. The Boks have picked a plonk side....go figure. When will they grow a set of balls, and break free of endless interfering by politicians, shocking administration, straight jacket selection, dumb selection, bring back the past selection, and inadequate, amateur coaching.
Jeff
Guest
If you think David that your column proves that the current Wallabies are a far better unit than the six who have lost at Loftus - you do not advance that claim anywhere in your column. And to compare this woeful Wallaby team to the 2001 team is an insult to everyone's intelligence.
PiratesRugby
Guest
With Mumm at 6 and Foley at 12, the drought will continue.
Blinky Bill of Bellingen NSW
Guest
Hasn't Sir Ted labelled this the worst Wallaby team ever? f true it should be a close win for the Boks. I happen to believe in the team and reckon they'll account for the Boks fairly comfortably.
David Lord
Expert
Simon, read my last two pars again, seeing the Wallaby squad for Loftus hadn't been named, and still hasn't surfaced.
Gurudoright
Guest
Is the Spanish team ready to beat the Wallabies the next time they play. The Wallabies have only played Spain once, back in 2001 for 1 win from 1 attempt. This was the Wallabies line-up Australia: M Burke; C Latham, D Herbert, N Grey, J Roff; S Larkham, G Gregan (capt); N Stiles, M Foley, B Darwin, J Harrison, D Giffin, O Finegan, G Smith, T Kefu. I think I'm ready to write for the roar?
Simon
Guest
David, how could you expect anyone to think that your article/list of players was written for that reason? Firstly you haven't named (copy and pasted) the current team so that the reader could compare it against teams of the past, nor have you provided any of your expert insight into why this weekend will be any different to previous encounters.. I guess using the old ctrl-c ctrl-v was just an easy way for you to reach your 250 words though..
David Lord
Expert
Congratulations MIssing Link, you are indeed the missing link. You are the first Roarer to see my column is not just a list of players, it was to prove the current Wallabies are a far better unit than the six who have lost at Loftus. Thankfully Missing Link, you have vision, not tunnel vision.
Missing Link
Guest
We have a better team than in 2012, contrary to what a lot of people say or think and we are going to beat the Springboks on Saturday night.
Tim Reynolds
Roar Pro
A smidgin of analysis as to why the Wallabies have lost every game in Pretoria, and why they might break through this time, might justify the article and its heading. But just providing team lists and scores is about as interesting as reading the phone book.
Buzzard
Guest
The decay in Australian Rugbys tight 5 coincided with his career, it`s no surprise why we were soft manhandled and useless ..Him and Al " I eat grass " Baxter were the main culprits....
jameswm
Roar Guru
Well - you see, David has a gentle and subtle way of dealing with criticism, the softly softly approach - as you can see.
Brumby Bill
Guest
I came crashing to the end of this article looking for the second half. David, do you have any thoughts of your own, perhaps any insights that could elevate this from a list to an article?
Paul
Guest
Quit while you are behind Buzzard 27 played, 6 wins. 24%. Not dissimilar to historical average of the entire AUS V NZ record of 26.75% and better than recent history since the 2000's, the period in which he played.
Buzzard
Guest
Certainly the tight 5 was soft as butter in 2010
Buzzard
Guest
He does have a horrendous record though overall v the All Blacks.. 35 played 6 wins 1 draw and 28 losses .. 18.07 % win percentage..
Buzzard
Guest
6 WINS ?? Is that all ?? Out of how many tests ??
Paul
Guest
Actually I sold him short, it's 6 wins. 2002 also.
Simon
Guest
David if I wanted to just know the team lists from the past 5 decades, I could've just searched Wikipedia like you probably have. Give us more in the article, tell us why we lost, tell us who could've been picked that maybe would have increased our chances of winning, tell us some obscure information about the games that would be interesting to read. Now that would be a trip down memory lane and would improve my sporting DNA, this copy and paste job misses the mark by a long way..
Paul
Guest
5 wins 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010 Also, his record against the Boks is a 56% win rate. Well above the team average of 43%