It Was Sixty Years Ago Today

SIXTY YEARS ago today, on 30 April, 1960, the modern age of rugby union football really began – when South Africa played Scotland, in Port Elizabeth, in the first match of what was then known as: “A short tour.”

Prior to this opening game in a three-match tour, which lasted, from departure to return home less than a fortnight, rugby tours had been lengthy affairs, lasting at least a month and incurring a minimum ten-match schedule.

Gordon Waddell - captain on the ground-breaking tour

By cutting back to just three games, and only one Test, Scotland broke the mould, and set the template for an increasing number of tours in the future.

The thing which made the short tour possible was probably the introduction of inter-continental travel by jet airliner. This made is far-easier for teams to travel, no more lengthy sea voyages to South Africa or Australiasia.

The Scotland selectors named a 21-man squad for the tour. This squad was announced on 24 March, and it read:

Back Three – Ronnie Chisholm (Melrose), Arthur Smith (Ebbw Vale), Ronnie Thomson (London Scottish).

Centres: Ronnie Cowan (Selkirk), Ian Laughland (London Scottish), Tom McClung (Edinburgh Academicals), George Stevenson (Hawick).

Stand-off: Gordon Waddell (Cambridge University, Captain).

Scrum-halves: Brian Shillinglaw (Gala and KOSB), Eck Hastie (Melrose).

Props: Hugh McLeod (Hawick), Brian Neill (Edinburgh Academicals), David Rollo (Howe of Fife).

Hookers: Norman Bruce (London Scottish), Bob Tollervey (Heriot's FP).

Locks: Hamish Kemp (Glasgow High School FP), Franz ten Bos (Oxford University).

Back rows: Brian Edwards (Heriot's FP), Oliver Grant (Hawick), Ken Smith, Charlie Stewart (both Kelso).

The joint managers were Wilson Shaw (Glasgow HSFP) and Charlie Drummond (Melrose).

Between selection and the team leaving, Laughland and Smith had to pull out through injury, joning Ken Scotland, who had exams at Cambridge University, in the ranks of the unavailable to tour. Laughland was replaced by his fellow London Scot PJ Burnet, with Will Hart of Melrose coming in for Smith.

The two late call-ups would each receive their single Scotland caps in the Test match, against the Springboks, which opened the tour in Port Elizabeth.

The Scots flew out on 23 April, and for the Test match, which opened the tour on Saturday, 30 April, the teams were:

South Africa: MC Gerber (Eastern Province); JP Engelbrecht (Western Province), IA Kirkpatrick Griqualand West), JL Gainsford (Western Province), RJ Twigge (Northern Transvaal); DA Stewart (Western Province)' FW Gerike (Transvaal); DN Holton (Eastern Province), AJ van der Merwe (Boland), MJ Bekker (Northern Transvaal), JT Claassen (Western Transvaal), PB Allen (Eastern Province), DC Van Jaarsveldt (Rhodesia captain), GH Van Zyl (Western Province), DJ Hopwood (Western Province).

Scotland: RWT Chisholm; AR Smith, PJ Burnet, GD Stevenson, RH Thomson; GH Waddell (Captain), RB Shillinglasw; HF McLeod, NS Bruce, DMD Rollo, FH ten Bos, JWY Kemp, DB Edwards, W Hart, TO Grant.

Norman Bruce went over for the opening try, converted by Arthur Smith, but, a Van Zykl try, converted by Gerber, squared the match by the interval.

The out-weighed Scottish pack competed well in both tight and loose, but, in the second half, Springbok scrum-half Gerike, who had set-up Van Zyl's first-half try, twice repeated the move, breaking from scrum possession to score one try himself, then setting up another for Van Zyl.

Springbok skipper Van Jaarsveldt then completed their scoring with a 50-yard solo score. Two Gerber conversion had the home team 18-5 ahead, but the Scots had the last word, with Arthur Smith touching down and converting to complete the scoring.

From the coast at Port Elizabeth, the tourists climbed onto the high veldt for match two, against Griqualand West in the diamond town of Kimberley.

Geordie Stevenson and Oliver Grant, two of the Hawick contingent had been injured in the Test match, while it was deemed necessary to give the remaining players a run-out.

The Scotland team for this midweek match lined-up:

Chisholm; Smith, RC Cowan, T McClung, Thomson; Waddell, AJ Hastie; JB Neill, RM Tollervey, McLeod, Kemp, ten Bos, Edwards, Hart, Stewart.

Ronnie Cowan, the 18-year-old dropped a goal.

The tourists won this match by ten points, 21-11, scoring three goals, one try and a dropped goal, to a goal, a penalty goal and a try. They had gone ahead through tries from Edwards, Cowan, Smith and Thomson, with Smith converting two and McClung one, while, in an impressive debut, 18-year-old Ronnie Cowan dropped a goal.

The effects of the 4000 feet-plus altitude told in the Scots in the last quarter, but, by then they had done enough to secure victory, with Arthur Smith's 85-yard run for the final Scottish try a highlight.

The third and final game of the tour sent the tourists to Johannesburg, to face Eastern Province. Jo'burg is even higher than Kimberley and, again, the effects of altitude told on the Scots towards the end. However, once again they had done enough to secure victory, by an emphatic 30-16.

Arthur Smith was Scotland's main man, scoring a hat-trick of tries and adding three conversions for 15 opoints under the scoring values of the time.

On the opposite wing, Ronnie Thomson scored two tries, with Cowan and Chisholm also touching down. Hamish Kemp made good use of the altitude to land an outrageous 45-yard dropped goal, while the McLeod, Bruce, Rollo front row made hay, with Norman Bruce taking six against the head against a big South African eight for whom scrumming is a religion.

Smith was carried off the field shoulder high at the end. Everyone was under the assumption the game would be his last outing in a Scotland jersey. Thankfully, the man who had so-emphatically announced his arrival on the international scene in “Arthus Smith's Match” - the 14-8 win over Wales in 1955, which ended the terrible 17-game run of defeats, had a change of heart.

Arthur Smith - carried shoulder-high from the field

He kept on playing for two more seasons, taking his tally of Scotland caps to 33, before finally signing-off by captaining the 1962 British Lions back in South Africa.

The SRU considered the trip a great success, the only down-side was the belief things might have gone better had they acclimatised on the high veldt, before going to sea level – a practice which is now followed by most touring sides to South Africa.

We might not have won the Test match, but, cutting the losing margin from 44 points, the last time the sides had met, to 8, must be seen as a distinct improvement.

That improvement continued, when the sides next met, at Murrayfield in January, 1961, the Springboks saw their winning margin cut to seven points and, next time round, in April, 1965 – when it was the Springboks turn to make a short tour, of Ireland and Scotland, Scotland finally beat them 8-5.

David Rollo was the only Scottish survivor from the Port Elizabeth Test, although Ian Laughland played, as did Eck Hastie, while Davie Chisholm, younger brother of 1960 full back Ronnie, scored the match-winning dropped goal for the Scots. Three Springboks, Engelbrecht, Gainsford and Hopwood survived from the 1960 match.