It is the afternoon of Saturday September 17 1955, and it is a day Border rugby fans have been looking forward to for months.
Your name is Hilllmar Puchert and you’re a strapping 19-year-old lock forward playing out of the Cambridge Rugby Club and have had the rare honour as a teenager to be selected to play for your home team against the touring British and Irish Lions.
The match starts in about 25 minutes and you are sitting in the changingroom at the Border Rugby Union ground with your fellow teammates.
You are a bundle of nervous energy as you listen intently to the coach who has a sharp temper and is using a repertoire of ripe language to harangue you and the team on how to make history by beating the tourists.
On the grandstand above you and packed into the ground is a record crowd of more than 18,000 people, including 3,500 children, who arrived at the ground in 2,280 motor cars, buses and trains from all over the Eastern Province and Transkei and have taken up every vestige of accommodation available in East London to see you play.
Later, the cChief tTraffic officer, Mr “Ginger” Coetzee, will congratulate motorists for their patience as not a single incident was reported to him in dispersing the avalanche of motor vehicles after the game.
And Hugh Robbie, secretary of the BRU was equally delighted at the behaviour of the record crowd, saying they were “exemplary” all day.
It is history now and has become part of Border rugby folklore forever that your team — from the lower echelons of SA South African rugby — pulled off the biggest upset of the Lions tour by beating them 14-12, thereby becoming instant heroes and leaving a legacy which is still talked about with pride to this day. And Hilmar, you were part of it.
Just before the kick-off on that gorgeous late spring afternoon, with only a light south-westerly breeze ruffling the proud flags of both sides, it was announced that the visitors would were field nine tough-as -teak players who had participated in at least one of the three Test matches already played. Indeed a massive compliment to Border rugby.
Of course, the Lions were well aware that Border had beaten the All Blacks 9-0 a few years previously, and they certainly were not taking the home side for granted.
For starters, they had selected a pack of forwards who weighed on average 200lbs 90kg per man.
Included in this formidable side were Welshman Bryn Meredith the hooker, widely regarded as one of the finest forwards in the world at the time.
He was judged the outstanding forward of the match, winning seven “tight heads” and was tireless in the rucks and mauls too.
Among the backs was the England scrumhalf, Dickie Jeeps, with his cannon-ball pass.
Unfortunately, the captain, Robin Thompson, was rested for this match as was the Irishman Tony O’Reilly on the wing.
O’Reilly was later to become a millionaire businessman and to be inducted into rugby’s Hall of Fame.
Legendary Welsh flyhalf Cliff Morgan was still recovering from injury and also unavailable.
Among the Springboks in attendance that day were former Springboks, HD “Duke” Metcalf (1903 Springboks vs Britain in SASouth Africa), HG “Bert” Kipling (1931-32 tour of Britain) and CB Jennings, who was the manager and coach of the Border team. for that historic match.
He played one Test match in 1937 against the All Blacks in Wellington.
He represented Border in the Currie Cup competition while still at school and the main rugby field at Dale College, his alma mater, is named after him.
At the match too, was the incomparable Basil Kenyon, a former Border player who made his Springbok debut in the fourth Test against the All Blacks in Wellington in 1949 and was elected captain of the touring Springboks to England, Ireland and France in 1951, where in the match against Pontypool, he injured his eye so severely that he never played rugby again.
By all accounts it It was a great match, with thein which the Bulldogs’’, whose 14 points coming came from a converted try and three penalties to the Lions’ 12, who scored three unconverted tries and a penalty.
Border’s solitary try was spectacular and came just before halftime when in what was regarded as the best play of the day, flyhalf “Peewee” Howe collected a loose ball on his own tryline and after a series of bewildering passes between forwards and backs which covered the entire length of the field, flank Koos Bahlman took the last pass and dotted down. for a memorable try — the only one scored by the home side. in the match.
The Lions, however, replied with an equally dazzling try shortly afterwards when Howe, attempting a clearance kick skewed the ball into the hands of the quick-silver Lions’ centre Phil Davies who sprinted 55 yards to score under the cross-bar. The easy conversion was missed.
A Remember a try was worth 3three points in those days, a penalty three 3 points and a conversion two 2 points.
It must be said though, that the Lions were complete rubbish in the kicking stakes by fluffing three relatively simple conversions and having what looked a perfectly good try disallowed by referee Ken Carlson.
According to the match report, flyhalf Doug Baker looked as if he had dotted the ball down moments before he was shouldered off the ball by Buks Marais, the Border fullback.
Nevertheless, you, you, Hilmar and the team brought honour to the your province by deservedly winning the match 14-12.
You personally received justified acclaim from the reporter covering the game as one of a number of outstanding players on the field.
In his report he wrote, ”Puchert excelled in both the tight and line-outs and also showed pace and determination in the loose.”
Today you are 91 years old and livof age ing at Kennersley Park retirement complex in Bonza Bay. after a well-lived lifetime which has slipped away all too soon since that memorable game of rugby 71 years ago.
You have lived a courteous and humble life — qualities which I think you will agree were bestowed in part upon you by having participated participating in that great game of rugby with its character-building game of rugby 71 years ago.qualities
Alas Hilmar, you are the only man still alive of that fine bunch of young men who did duty that day and brought acclaim to unsung Border rugby.
On that long ago day your magnificent team vanquished the powerful rugby team from across the sea, who lost only five matches and drew one out of 25.
Not mentioned in any of the previews or reports of the match though was it disclosed that Neil During, a Queen’s College teacher and first choice flyhalf, playing out of the Swifts union with headquarters in Queenstown (Komani), had withdrawn from the match and Peewee Howe moved from centre to flyhalf, allowing the Buffalo Club’s “Sas” De Wet to be drafted in to the centre position.
So on behalf of Border’s rugby-loving fraternity Hilmar, we congratulate you on your continued good health, impressive age and accomplished rugby career. We wish you a long and happy retirement with your memories of the days when Border rugby was a force to be reckoned with.
The teams on the day were:
British and Irish Lions: AG Thomas, F Sykes, J P Quinn, W P C Davies, A C Pedlow; DGS Baker, R Jeeps;, W O H Williams, (capt), BV Meredith, T Elliot, DS Wilson, EJS Michie, TE Reid, JT Greenwood and RJ Robins.
Border: Buks Marais (Stutt), Tony Viljoen (Swifts), Bobby Cooper (Old Boys), “Sas” De Wet (Buffs), “Cowboy” Saunders (Hams), “Peewee” Howe (Hams), Robin Wylie (Swifts, “Bull Edwards (Swifts), “Babe Luppnow (Camb), Ollie Gordon (Camb), “Boet” Ackermann (Hams), capt, Hilmar Puchert (Camb), “Koos” Bahlman (Hams), “Snowball” Smit (?) and “Chappie”Moll (Old Boys).
