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What Would Today's Players Think of This?
4 December 2014
Close your eyes and think of the green lawns of Twickenham, or Eden Park, or Ellis Park - or anywhere in modern times where test rugby is played. You would NEVER see mud like this. All you see these days is serried lines of mown greenery.
But this picture shows the conditions where so many famous rugby games up until perhaps the 1970s or 80s were played in. If it rained regularly grounds became 'heavy' but tour matches still went ahead. Teams learned to play 'wet weather rugby' or 'mud bath rugby.'
This picture was taken at Rugby Park in Whangarei in 1956 when the touring Springboks played North Auckland. The game was a critical one; South Africa had lost to Waikato in their first tour game just four days earlier so having a second loss would have been a disaster for their tour hopes.
South Africa beat the Northerners by just 3-0 in probably the worst conditions ever seen in a major match in New Zealand. The ground is now part of Whangarei Boys High School and is in much better shape these days.
Thank goodness for the advancement in understanding turf culture!
[And who is the injured player in the picture from that far off dramatic day?
Your guess is as good as mine.]
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Every day there is Rugby History 12 September 1981
Click to show A plane flies over a thrilling 'Barbed Wire Climax!'
Protests of all kinds against Apartheid on this cheerless day at Eden Park. But the Springboks go home losing to the ABs by 25-22.
A-Z of Rugby
Click to show CALIFANO, CHRISTIAN
CALIFANO, CHRISTIAN
Toulouse, Saracens, Gloucester, Auckland and France
72 internationals for France 1994-2007
A powerful, worldly member of the French forward pack through the late years of the 1990s and into the new millennium. At his best there was none who could better this hard-scrummaging prop forward and strong runner about the field. Which is ironic because he began his rugby as an overweight charger with little finesse. It was only after joining the Toulouse club that he fined down into a top rated forward who caught his national selector’s eye.
The thing about Califano is that while he was anchoring his club to three successive French club championship titles as a loosehead prop he was making his early presence as an international player as a tighthead. He had made his debut in France’s epic victories in New Zealand in 1994 when he played as part of a French front row against New Zealand’s redoubtable trio of Sean Fitzpatrick, Richard Loe and Craig Dowd.
Later Califano switched to his preferred loosehead as his test career blossomed and it was from that position that he went to South Africa in 1995 for the Rugby World Cup. He was also in the French team in 1999’s cup though by then back problems and the rise of new young French ‘bulls’ in the front row halted consistent progress.
After 1999 he traveled to New Zealand and had two seasons in Auckland playing in the Super 12 series.
His ability as a running, handling prop forward was never better exemplified than in 1996 when he scored three tries in one game against Romania. Has any test prop anywhere in the world bettered this? I doubt it.
In 2003 his career seemed over but he was recalled for several more games in 2007.
10 Questions to well known sporting people
Today's KQ Rugby Quiz
Which New Zealand sports broadcaster once described a tight tennis match as 'a Battle of Nutrition.'
What do you think?
Click here to show the answer.
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