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Danie Craven wasn't the first to specialise with this halfback's pass - but he was the best!
Danie Craven did it best
16 August 2014
Is this the best photograph ever taken of a rugby dive-pass? If it's not then show me a better one. This is the great Danie Craven playing for South Africa v New Zealand in the third test match of 1937 at Eden Park in Auckland. Some old historians claim Craven 'invented' the dive-pass for a halfback in the 1930s but in fact it was first used to best effect by an earlier Springbok half, by the name of Dauncie Devine - in the South African team which played New Zealand in South Africa in 1928.
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Every day there is Rugby History 20 June 1987
Click to show All Hail David Kirk and the World Champion All Blacks!
By a 20-point winning margin over France the All Blacks become the first winners of the William Webb Ellis Trophy. A great day for the game worldwide!
A-Z of Rugby
Click to show ALCOCK, ARNOLD
Guy’s Hospital and England
1 international for England 1906
Arnold Alcock was a ‘one cap wonder’ whose one game for his country came about in rather unusual circumstances.
Alcock was a useful enough club player for Guy’s Hospital who, it is insisted, never had aspirations at all of becoming an international. Imagine his surprise when he received in the mail an official invitation to play for his country against the touring 1906–07 Springbok team.
Alcock was initially shocked but then felt honoured and on the great day of the game he duly turned up at Twickenham all set to play. Upon seeing him, the secretary of the Rugby Union realised that the man before him was not the man the selectors had thought they were getting. Apparently they had chosen L.A.N. Slocock of Liverpool, and only by a typing error did Alcock receive his invitation to play. By then, of course, it was too late to summon Slocock from the north, so Alcock took the field for England. By all accounts he played sensibly and tolerably well. However, it was not a major surprise when Alcock was not invited to play for England again. Slocock was. In fact, Slocock went on to play the next eight internationals.
Arnold Alcock later had a distinguished association with the Gloucester club, for which he was president for nearly 50 years.
10 Questions to well known sporting people
Today's KQ Rugby Quiz
Name the NZ player who captained the All Blacks to a test match win; then also captained a team to beat the All Blacks within a year?
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4 October 2014 (11 years ago)
boone
Great shot of a great man.I had the pleasure of meeting him in 1991 during a trip to South Africa. I was staying with a family in Cape Town and jokingly suggested I would love to meet Mr Craven. They looked him up in the phone book,rang and he said come out to Stellenbosch University, where I spent an hour chatting to him in his office. A cherished memory as he passed away not too many years later.