Black South Africa united behind '74 Lions ..now we are one united

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, May 24, 2009 | by PAUL JONES

THE men who helped shape the Springboks team plotting to bring down the Lions this summer have revealed the debt they feel to the tourists' legends of the seventies.

Springboks coach Peter de Villiers and Bernie Habana father of Boks superstar Bryan - were black teenagers in apartheid-ridden South Africa when Sunday Mirror Sport columnist Phil Bennett and others became their lifelong heroes.

But it was not just the brilliant rugby played by Bennett, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Andy Irvine, Ian McGeechan, Fran Cotton, skipper Willie John McBride and other Lions of the 1974 tour which inspired black rugby fans.

A documentary to be screened tonight by BBC One Wales also reveals it was the way the Lions physically battered the all-white Boks with their infamous 99 Call that set pulses racing for people living under oppression.

The 74 Lions were the greatest rugby team ever to come out of Europe. They played 22 gruelling matches over 15 weeks - more than double the nine this year's Lions will face and didn't lose a single one of them.

They outscored the Boks by 10 tries to one in winning the Test series 3-0 and it would have been 4-0 if they had not been controversially denied a try in the last minute of the fourth Test.

Instead, they had to settle for a 13-13 draw. But by then the Lions had cemented their most significant legacy - destroying apartheid's myth of white supremacy.

De Villiers- who became the first black coach to take charge of the Springboks last year - was a 15-year-old kid when he was taken to watch the Lions 35 years ago.

He says: "I drew energy from what they did. They inspired me. I wanted to be closer to them and touch them in order to gain more inspiration.

"But there was a fence between us and the players and so you couldn't do that. But I adored the style of rugby they were playing and it was watching them that would later make me decide to go to Wales to learn how to coach."

Also watching as a 16-yearold was Bernie Habana, father of Bryan, the most famous black player in rugby and last year's World Player of the Year.

Like de Villiers, Habana was behind a cage in the small, segregated non-white section of the crowd.

He recalls: "Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams - these guys were absolute - heroes to me and my friends.

"I feel the same way towards the 74 Lions as people in South Africa feel towards Bryan now. They were inspirational.

"At that time the Springboks did not represent the whole of South Africa - just a small, powerful minority. That's why we cheered for the Lions.

"We were sick and tired of being beaten up. There was an almost euphoric feeling of them going into battle for you."

Of the 99 Call - the Lions defence policy of fighting with the nearest Springbok whenever a teammate was under attack - Habana says: "That 99 Call resonated with me, because I truly believe the way to stand up to people who bully you this way is to band together.

"To see JPR Williams fighting for you - with his long hair flowing under his headband - was incredible. He was a doctor but doctors in South Africa just didn't look like that.

"When the Springboks found the Lions fought back the silence of the crowd was deafening. It showed that Sampson had his hair cut. He wasn't so strong anymore. It was indicative of change."

The Lions clinched the series, 3-0, with a 26-9 victory over the humiliated Boks at Port Elizabeth on July 13, 1974.

The match was remarkable for three things: the brilliance of the Lions' back play which culminated in two tries from the electrifying JJ Williams, the massive punch-up involving every player on the field after the Lions called 99 during the second half, and the wild celebrations in the black section of the crowd when Williams scored his second try in front of them.

Bennett says: "What will live with me forever is JJ scoring in front of the black section.

"As he touched down, they were going nuts and turning somersaults. We ran over to congratulate JJ and a few of us, including Willie John, raised our fists to them in salute.

"I don't know whether it was right or wrong - and I still don't know whether we were right to be in South Africa at that time - but we knew what the feeling was all about in the stadium that day."

Most sports teams had stayed away from South Africa in the seventies - following the worldwide policy of isolation.

But by going and humiliating their hosts, the Lions rammed home how far South African sport had fallen.

Apartheid would survive for another 20 years, but the Lions hammering forced the country to consider its implications.

Former Springboks No.8 Morne du Plessis- who went on to win the World Cup in 95 as the Springboks' team manager - insists: "The impact of sport and particularly rugby in this country is profound.

"For our team to take a drubbing, reasons were sought. I think we all came to a conclusion that part of the reason that we'd fallen behind was isolation."