The day the Boks humiliated the All Blacks at Eden Park
Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks have won every trophy on offer to them in rugby but there is a jewel they can add to their crown — a victory over the All Blacks at fortress Eden Park where they have not lost in 50 consecutive games.
The Boks play their arch-rivals in Auckland on September 6 and a week later in Wellington.
The New Zealand capital is a relatively happy hunting ground for the Boks but the same can’t be said for Auckland. To be fair, Eden Park is a burial ground for tourists, full stop.
The All Blacks' unbeaten streak there is a record for Test match venues worldwide. The Kiwis last lost a match at Eden Park in 1994 when France beat them.
Incidentally, that was the year when Ian McIntosh’s Springboks drew 18-18 with the All Blacks at Eden Park after having lost the two preceding Tests.
The Boks have won just one of 10 Tests at the venue. The sole victory was in 1937 and it is a grave injustice to that Bok side that very few people have heard of it.
So forgive me for the ensuing history lesson but you won’t be bored because no Bok fan can tire of tales of All Black embarrassment.
For scope and majesty, only the 35-7 defeat of the All Blacks at Twickenham in 2023 rivals the day at Eden Park when the Boks thrashed the All Blacks by five tries to nil.
The awe-struck Kiwis rated the 1937 Boks higher than any of their own previous All Blacks teams and bestowed on them the title “The greatest ever team to leave New Zealand’s shores.”
This match took place 50 years before the first World Cup final, which was played at Eden Park in 1987 when the All Blacks defeated France.
The match at Eden Park in 1937 was deemed to be the final of an unofficial world championship between the world’s two best teams.
To give context, the 1921 series between these teams in New Zealand had ended 1-1, the 1928 series in South Africa had ended 2-2 and the 1937 series was tied at 1-1.
The Boks had been in New Zealand for two months and won 16 of their 17 matches — they lost the first Test but won the second and the excitement for the tour finale was off the scale.
One of the stars of the tour was the magnificent centre Louis Babrow, the Danie Gerber of that era. Babrow but, was a devout Jew and the day of the match fell on a special Jewish holiday.
He reluctantly declared himself unavailable.
He eventually played after some ingenious reasoning by scrumhalf Danie Craven, who pointed out that while it would indeed be a sacred Jewish holiday in New Zealand on that day, the match would be over by the time it dawned in South Africa, and Babrow was, after all, a South African Jew.
There were 55 000 expectant Aucklanders crammed into Eden Park but they were soon silenced.
Babrow, playing with the zest of a reprieved man, scored two brilliant tries and three more came from his fellow backs.
The Bok tries were so well crafted that at the final whistle, the crowd rose and clapped the South Africans off the field.
The All Blacks were fortunate that kicker Gerry Brand had suffered a wretched day with the boot, missing four conversions and several penalty attempts.
The score was 17-6 with a try worth only three points at that time. By today’s scoring system, the margin would have been 27-6 while the five tries to zip were simply humiliating.
*** For more entertaining Springbok history read Mike Greenaway’s book The Fireside Springbok.