A short, pithy expression in Afrikaans says it all: “Kyk hoe lyk hy nou!” Suitably adapted, this little phrase aptly sums up the prowess of the Pumas – the Argentine national rugby team – from the whipping boys they once were to today’s formidable side which is giving the world’s established teams such a run for their money, and I like to think it was a South African who started them on their way.
Let me take you back to my school years at Durban High a lifetime ago.
Truth be told, I hadn’t given much thought to the old school since Hashim Amla became the latest in a long line of DHS old boys to win national cricket colours.
But floating back out of the mists of time, after the Pumas’ brave efforts against the Springboks, came two figures of my era – Mike Attlee and Izak van Heerden.
Mike was headboy and captain of rugby in my second or third year and the other (Izak) is a name older rugby fans will recognise immediately.
Mike, I believe to this day, was headed for Springbok rugby honours until a family tragedy caused him to quit rugby in his prime and give his life to the Lord, while Van Heerden went on to become a world-renowned rugby coach.
Both, alas, are long gone.
Mike, a fellow boarder, was a truly outstanding scrumhalf and he and his half-back partner, flyhalf Ian “Ginger” McKenzie, were so well thought of they were elevated straight to the senior Natal team (now known as the Sharks) immediately after they left school.
I have reported on hundreds of rugby matches in this province for various newspapers and I don’t remember too many scrumhalfs employing the dive-pass.
The nuggety Mike was a past master at this manoeuvre, and also the reverse pass when he would completely flummox unsuspecting opposition teams by flinging out long, back-of-the-hand rockets to a flying McKenzie, who would run on to them and put his back-line away at top speed. Try time!
Izak’s tactical genius wowed the rugby world when he coached the Argentinians to world prominence a few decades ago.
As a teacher and senior rugby coach at Durban High in my time, he played a big part in the careers of many a DHS boy including the nurturing of Mike’s remarkable flair.
He was our housemaster and had rooms at the end of one of the verandah dormitory corridors, taught Latin and Afrikaans, and doled out pocket-money once a week –1 shilling and a tickey for third formers, 2 shillings and a tickey for fourth formers, 3 shillings and a tickey for fifth formers and 4 shillings and a tickey for six formers.
The tickey, as my generation will remember, was a little silver coin which was replaced by the 5 cent coin in 1961 and was meant for DHS boarders as church collection on Sundays.
You could get a good couple of scoops of ice cream and a dollop of strawberry syrup in a tall glass for a tickey in those days and a short back and sides for sixpence!
Three times a week during rugby season, Izak would get the rugby-playing boarders out on the field at the crack of dawn for a training run.
At the end of the session, Mike would often ask me to stick around and take a few passes and for the next 20 minutes or so, he would position himself and throw reverse and dive passes to me as I ran in from different angles. Just as well I had good hands but boy, did my 15-year-old midriff take a pounding from all those powerful pin-point throws !
Izak, a prisoner of war during World War 2, was a burly, bespectacled man who always wore a tweed jacket and a silk bow-tie.
He was a formidable teacher with a witty manner, a sharp temper and a repertoire of ripe language which he used freely in both the classroom and on the rugby field.
For the years I was at school, he always said grace in Latin at the boarder masters’ table before presiding over the meal.
That grace I can still remember word for word – after all it was said several times a day for the full four years I was at school.
Izak brought to the DHS First XV a flair and panache unmatched by any other Natal school of the time.
His brand of rugby was admired far and wide and led ultimately to his appointment as chief coach of the Natal provincial side (Tommy Bedford was of that era, remember him?) where he pioneered the “tight-loose” play and where his strategies of the modern high-speed, high-intensity forward-backs inter-passing game so beloved of the All Blacks are still in use today.
He was quoted by Kitch Christie, coach of the 1995 World Cup winning Springboks as “truly light years ahead of his time”.
As a result, whenever Natal played – win or lose – full houses were always assured.
Not being a rugby Springbok though meant Izak was passed over as coach to the national side because it was wrongly assumed at the time that good players and good coaches were one and the same.
An unsung genius at national level in his homeland, he was pounced upon by the Argentinian rugby authorities who knew very well what he was capable of and he went on to forge a long and happy relationship with that country, the fruits of which are evident today.
With the progress since made by the Pumas, he would have been a proud man had he been alive today.
He returned to teaching and DHS after his rugby coaching days were over, where one sunny morning the “guru with the golden touch” as he was known, dropped dead in his office at the age of 63.
A rugby field at the school is named in his honour.
It was a privilege to have known both men.
