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Springboks Fit But Very Weary
Team Reaches Auckland, Several hundred people, mostly women and children, greeted the South African Rugby team yesterday on its return to Auckland for the match against the Maoris at Eden Park on Saturday. The crowd waited patiently outside the Royal Hotel and applauded and cheered each of the two busloads of players as they arrived from Whenuapai.
There was a special cheer for Dr Danie Craven. The Springbok manager, his clothes crumpled and unpressed, looked distinctly weary and showed obvious signs of the strain he has brone throughout the tour. If anyone has lost sleep over the Springboks’ form, it appears to have been Dr Craven.
He waved to the crowd and met each of the waiting Auckland Rugby Union officials with a warm smile and a hearty handshake. “I’ve met you somewhere,” he said to a bystander. Dr Craven paused
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also to exchange a few words in Afrikaans with Mrs D. Ford a former Cape Town woman now living in Mt Roskill.
No Banter This Time
The Springboks, loaded down with bags, souvenirs and coat hangers, filed quietly into the hotel. They looked fit and well, but there was none of the good natured banter and exuberance evident when the team arrived in Auckland at the start of the tour.
“How about a song,” someone called to the captain, Basie Viviers. The team’s leading vocalist smiled. “I can’t sing,” he said, “I’ve lost my voice.”
Autograph hunters were barred from the hotel. Several dozen boys and girls clutched autograph books and looked hopefully at any reasonably athletic man departing and entering the hotel. One small ball, bolder than the rest, made a dash into the hotel foyer, but was quickly routed by an idiginant |
porter.
The look retreating boy cast at the porter greatly amused the South Africans.
Only One Desire
“What are you going to do this afternoon?” a husky South African was asked. He managed a wan smile and pointed upstairs. “Sleep,” he said. “that’s what I am going to do this afternoon.”
Each member of the team received a folder prepared by the Auckland Rugby Union on arrangements for the last 14 days of the tour. This showed three official functions and several that are optional. A liaison officer said the South Africans were “done to a frazzle” and were pleased that Auckland was giving them so much free time. |
