PETER BRUCE: Hey Boks, think outside the box
Our tactics seemed to consist of the box-kick, which invariably fell into the opposition’s hands. Surely you change tactics when the ones you are using don’t work
I promise I’ll only do this once, but I have to write about the Rugby World Cup Springbok opening match against the All Blacks in Yokohama on Saturday. My dad, Harold, anchored off Yokohama in the HMS Duke of York in 1945 to witness the Japanese surrender in World War 2. The battleship was the flagship of the British Pacific fleet, such as it was at the time. The real action, the signing of the surrender, took place on the US battleship berthed next to the Duke, the USS Missouri. My dad was on watch as the signing took place. He saw it all.
Sadly he didn’t make it to this September but he would have been at the ground, watching the game in spirit. Like all of us, he would have been filled with Springbok pride in the first half of the first half. And like all of us he would have quickly recognised that sinking feeling when the New Zealanders, on their knees, at sixes and sevens, somehow managed to all realise at the same time that you have just made one tiny error — you fumbled...
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