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“The Wallabies’ plan for Bledisloe 1 is going to be simple. They are going to try and bash the All Blacks…” – Paul Cully, rugby columnist, Sydney Morning Herald.
Simple plan is right. Try insane, unless Cully was writing with his tongue firmly in his cheek. I blinked several times after reading it nonetheless.
If ever there was a lobbed incendiary device to fire up the All Blacks ahead of Bledisloe 1 this weekend, it was that statement. It will be writ large and plastered all over the All Blacks dressing room walls that day, you can count on it.
But no-one bashes the All Blacks these days and gets away with it, let alone a win from it. Rather the reverse; they have a track record in doing it over the years. ‘Do unto others what they better not do unto you’ – something like that.
‘All Blacks, thy name is hypocrisy.’
For example, there was a certain Jaapie Bekker, a rugged, feared 1956 Springbok prop who had packed down against recalled veteran All Black prop Kevin Skinner during the third Test in Christchurch.
In the first scrum up against Skinner, Bekker’s head sort of bounced and bobbed after packing down. Moments later he came away reeling, bloodied and emphatically ‘civilised.’
This was not surprising; Kevin Skinner was the former heavyweight boxing champion of New Zealand and needed only a few centimetres to throw a lethal punch. He later claimed he threw only one (at Bekker).
Jaapie Bekker (first from left, middle row) found himself bloodied and bruised very early. (Photo: S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)
Earlier, in the first lineout of the game, Skinner had given the same treatment to the other Springbok prop, Chris Koch – one punch was all it took (typically in ‘retaliation’ for something that had not yet happened).
The All Blacks won that infamously violent, injury-strewn match and then won the fourth game to become the only team to have beaten the Springboks in a Test series, ever.
It was a defining moment in New Zealand rugby and I remember it well. The whole country was ablaze – united – with rugby fervour. It was more like a war footing than a sporting contest. In a sense, it was also the moment the All Blacks laid down a marker that stands to this day.
But in hindsight, it was built on the biff – that is the truth of it. And I now believe in my advancing, more reflective years, the now late Kevin Skinner wrongly became a rugby legend for it.
The next to try and bash the All Blacks some 34 years later was one of Australia’s own; Wallaby lock Peter Fitzsimons. As a budding historian, perhaps he should have read his rugby history more closely.
He was promptly sent off – probably for his own protection – although I note with interest that Fitzsimons apparently believes the send-off was one of his finest rugby moments.
Kevin Skinner (back row, third from the left) ‘civilised’ the Springboks. (Photo: S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)
Go figure, not least because his rush of blood and wild haymakers left 14 mates on the field that day to defend themselves against the All Blacks.
I wonder though about Paul Cully’s choice of words – and I am an admirer of his rugby writing – especially in his use of the word ‘bash’. It’s inflammatory because imputes the illegal, unsporting use of fists.
VERB:
strike hard and violently.
NOUN:
heavy blow.
At the risk of being didactic, I wonder whether the word ‘smash’ is more appropriate given rugby union is a body contact sport.
“Let’s smash the All Blacks” is more in keeping with what the game is about – and it’s legal. It is also possible given the size of the present Wallabies forwards pack, not least of the rising, and exciting, young 135kg monster, Taniela Tupou.
Better though, why not simply outplay them – run them off their feet? Razzle-dazzle Wallabies rugby like they played at Athletic Park, Wellington, in 1964 on a golden, sunny afternoon when they beat – thrashed – the All Blacks 20-5 in one of the best games of rugby played anywhere, ever.
At the end of that game the Kiwi crowd, me among them, rose as one and uncommonly applauded the Wallabies in their vibrant gold-and-green strips from the field.
Just wonderful – and not a single punch thrown, so far as I am aware.