50th anniversary of the 'Betoger' tour

This December will be the 50th anniversary of the most chaotic and disastrous rugby tour in Bok history. A tour where we lost to England and Scotland, and drew with Ireland and Wales.

Oddly, the next year in 1970 we beat NZ in a home series by 3 matches to 1, with 2 dominant  wins and 1 close one. We had some great players around that time....HO de Villiers, Gert Muller, Frik, Jan Ellis.

So what happened in the UK?

Most of you have probably read about the protests, which were epic. Or heard Gehard Vivier's  passionate commentary.....'smyt die ding van die veld af'. I was there for the match against Cardiff and the loss against England at Twickenham..an experience, particularly at Cardiff.

I went up from London by train and some Welsh family friends arranged a ticket. The abuse at the Boks was ugly. Eventually I'd had enough of the fellow behind me and asked him why he came to watch if  he didn't want the Boks there.....massive brouhaha for and against, with some rugby types telling him to cork it.

Amusingly on the train back some Afrikaans girls, who had seen the scene from a distance and thought I was a betoger, laughed at my plight. I shook them by responding in the 'taal' .....and we had a nice natter all the way back to London.

As a young chap I was incensed by how the Boks were treated and the hostility towards the country so shortly after all the men in my family had fought in WW2. But 50 years on it almost seems like a 60s thing.....passionate, loud, long haired, unruly....but not really nasty by today's standards.

Thanks for sharing Mozart, there is nothing like watching test rugby live!I  have been very privalaged to get to a lot of games & if we overcome Wales on Sunday I'm off to Japan for the final. If the poms pull of an unlikely win I hope to make it 8 out of 8 as I have never seen us loose to them. I have the upmost respect for NZ but take delight in beating the English... Something to do with my grandfather who fought against them in the Boer war before being imprisoned in Bermuda. Go bokke

Agreed BBF.....these rugby tests are memorable. It's hard to remember the last Soccer WC....but each RWC is seared into the brain.

I hope you get to go to Japan BBF,  it should be a great experience...go Bokke!

mozart due you recall the Classen's tour to NZ late 70's early 80's.

That was even worse than the British Isle fiasco.

With respect to you comment on the fallen and your family I HEAR YOU as well. Many a SA family paid dearly during that period as did mine.

Today I often reflect back on the past and cannot for the life of me understand how we (the human race) have lost our moral compass and descended into walking zombies, respecting nothing and no one.

Tragic but true and very troubling.

As amateur players back then they weren't afraid to get involved in sorting things out.Mannetjies Roux kicked one demonstrator's backside and threw a rugger ball at another's head.
Also one night before a game the demo's were singing outside the hotel keeping the team awake and a group of players went out and bashed a few.

23 games and lost the opener to Oxford University at Twickenham.

AJH I  lost contact with our  rugby in that late 70s/early 80s period....I was in the States and there was literally no way to see Bok rugby. On values I'm with you, every day brings some new low in common sense and decency.

One of the shocking things in the last few years was the complete lack of interest in the 100 year anniversary of WW1. It was almost completely ignored and yet no generation of young men has ever been asked to make bigger sacrifices in a Western country. Their experiences are hard to even comprehend.

With respect to South Africa, we got very little thanks from the Brits.  It always irked me watching BBC's World at War....Oz, NZ, Canada, India were always mentioned, but somehow South African suffering was less worthy because of Apartheid, which wasn't even in existence during WW2, and I'm guessing because of the dislike of the Boer, stemming from the Boer War.

I vaguely remember the Mannetjies incident MR. Imagine if that happened today....you think a red card?

@Mozart....great read and well written...thanks for sharing...cheers and GO BOKKE!!!!

I was on the wrong side of history in 81 ,my cousins and I couldnt understand why we couldnt just watch the rugby .Now I realise just how wrong we were to give even tacit support to apartheid .