The 10 greatest hard men of Springbok rugby

By definition, anyone who has played for the Springboks is a hard man.

No-one who ever turned out for South Africa did so by being anything less than physically imposing. The stronger, the better.

Fronting up and physically dominating is a rite of passage for Springboks, who revel in going hard and heavy against rugged teams like the All Blacks and England.

For over 100 years Springbok lore has dwelled on the brutes who have worn the green and gold. A distinction must be made, however, between players who put their bodies on the line, as most do, and those who concentrate the minds of the opposition because of their disregard for pain and their mad thirst for combat. Bullies also don’t make the cut.

The perfect archetype would be a player like Schalk Burger; talented, intuitive, feisty, and above all fearless. Burger had no capacity for self-preservation.

Deciding South Africa’s 10 hardest men was a difficult assignment, not so much for whom to put in, but rather who to leave out. The original list was a long one and several of those who never made the cut would doubtless rank higher on other lists. What follows is strictly my summation and it is admittedly skewed towards players I saw in the flesh, number one notwithstanding.

I am indebted to co-conspirators Gerhard Burger (who, some say, was there when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it) and TV man Sean Everett, who threw several fascinating names into the pot and offered stirring endorsements.

The Boks’ top 10 hard men

1. Andy MacDonald
The Springs-born prop played for then Rhodesia and later South Africa, earning renown as the most feared prop on the local circuit in the 1960s. Legendary All Black Colin Meads said of him: “Andy MacDonald was probably the most imposing physical specimen we have lined up against.”

His legend grew when he shot and injured a lion that had been attacking the cattle on his farm in Zambia. The animal rounded on McDonald, who wrestled with the angry beast, even pulling on its tongue. The lion eventually died and MacDonald required 480 stitches for his injuries, which saw him lose part of his thumb and first finger.

“Andy was badly mauled by a lion when he went home after the 1965 tour,” wrote Meads in his book. “It would be a toss-up as to whose side I’d rather have been on.”

MacDonald and his wife were killed in an ambush just outside Bulawayo in the mid-1980s.

2. Schalk Burger
I once made the rookie error of asking coach Jake White whether Burger was ever intimidated on the field.

White’s disdain for the question was stark. “Schalk scared? You’re talking about Schalk Burger. Nothing scares him.”

Indeed, what made Burger special, apart from his instincts, was his relentless will. He’d pile into rucks with relish, unconcerned with the dangers posed by men playing with venom.

He once stated his belief that a rugby match isn’t a rugby match unless it “starts with a bang.”

What made Burger’s reputation worse was that he was a rugby schizophrenic: a raging psycho on the field, an affable, articulate bloke off it.

By all accounts, he was a chip off the old block: Schalk Burger snr also enjoys renown as one of rugby’s toughest customers.

3. Tiaan Strauss
Any man who spends his spare time grappling with wildebeest deserves respect.

Upington-born Strauss used to get his kicks by leaping off the back of a bakkie to bring the animals down.

Nicknamed “The Lion of the Kalahari” on account of his weekend exploits, he brought that mentality to rugby, too, where he carved out a reputation as a gifted and bloody-minded No 8.

“In my days, you could hit a guy and if the ref didn’t see you, you were okay,” he recalled in a television interview three years ago.

Not that he was a bully. But he sorted out more than a few.

4. Hempies du Toit
Impressive and immovable, Du Toit makes this list purely on account of his physical hardness.

When the might of a rugby team was measured by the strength of its scrum, Du Toit was always the lynchpin, a tighthead who embodied the belief that farm boys were naturally strong.

He could drive a tractor by the age of six. Several years later, he was as strong as one.

By today’s standards, his dimensions were modest – he weighed 105kg – but no-one ever got the better of him. The tragedy was that he played just five times for South Africa on account of the country’s polecat status in the 1980s.

5. Robbi Kempson
Kempson had the face of a choir boy and the nature of a serial killer.

Quietly spoken and dapper, the prop from the Eastern Cape had the qualities you needed for international rugby. Blessed with the best traps I’ve seen on a prop, he was far stronger than he looked and always kept the opposition “busy”. Better still, he never complained when he was sorted out.

A man to go to war with.

6. Butch James
James wasn’t just big for a flyhalf – a bruising 100kg and 1,85m – he was blessed with the Schalk Burger gene of being impervious to pain.

He earned a reputation for his kamikaze tackling, but the point was that he was unafraid to get physical. Anyone who dared to stray into his channel inevitably paid the price. James was one of world rugby’s few flyhalves – Jonny Wilkinson was another, so too Henry Honiball – for whom tackling was a pleasure.

If his technique was occasionally out of whack, no-one ever entered his space with the confidence that he’d emerge in one piece.

7. Bakkies Botha
If you like your locks big and stroppy, Botha was your man.

He might have been figured as a bully, but that label was inevitable: few were bigger than the hulking Springbok who, years after his retirement, loves his reputation as a Springbok enforcer.

His career was pock-marked with incident, a head butt here, a punch there, a natural consequence, perhaps, of a man who only ever played on the edge.

No-one ever niggled with Botha, knowing full well that he appeared to play with a screw loose.

8. Andre Venter
Whenever Venter arrived in a foreign town or city while on assignment for the Springboks, his first question to the hotel front desk was: “Where is the gym?”

Venter, a flanker, wasn’t a big believer in nutrition, but he loved the weights rack and appeared to be hewn from rock.

He played 66 times for South Africa and was never less than outstanding in every one of those Tests.

Even now, confined to a wheelchair due to a degenerative disease, his upper body is as muscular and as intimidating as ever.

9. Beast Mtawarira
Beast by name, beast by nature.

Loosehead props aren’t generally scrum anchors, but it’s difficult to recall a tighthead ever giving Mtawarira the once-over.

Built like an oversized pit bull, the Zimbabwe-born prop played a gazillion first-class matches and never once appeared to be going through the motions. He played hard, ran hard, scrummed hard. Always.

His humbling of Phil Vickery all those years ago is the stuff of legend surpassed only by the pounding he put on England in the 2019 World Cup final.

A great hard man, no less.

10. Ruben Kruger

Kruger was first noticed in his early teens playing at Grey College, mostly because he was the only 14-year-old with hair sprouting from his chest.

He wasn’t especially big or tall but had a preternatural feel for the loose forward’s job. Kruger would clatter into players fearlessly and then scramble for the ball with a disregard for his hands (or his head).

Kruger was universally respected and was one of the pillars of the World Cup-winning team of 1995, regarded for both his talent and his frightening bravery.

Subs bench:
Francois Pienaar:
Bone-hard and unflinching.
Kevin de Klerk: A meneer among men.
Duane Vermeulen: Under-appreciated. And rock-solid.
Bismarck du Plessis: Busy. Bristling. Bruising.
Corne Krige: Wore his scars better than anyone.

Honourable mentions: Johan le Roux, Moaner van Heerden, Uli Schmidt, Chris Rogers, Eben Etzebeth, Willem Alberts, Joost van der Westhuizen, Malcolm Marx, Jan Lock, Johan Ackerman, Ashley Johnson, Henry Honiball, Juan Smith, Tommie Laubscher, Pieter Muller, Morné du Plessis, James Dalton, Wahl Bartmann, Rob Louw, Gert Smal, Schalk Burger snr, Burger Geldenhuys, Mannetjies Roux, Boy Louw, Jan Lotz, Ebbo Bastard.

I was given the impetus to write this after a piece in last week’s London Sunday Times where the estimable Stephen Jones and former England No 10 Stuart Barnes picked their all-time top 10 hard men of rugby. 

Stephen Jones’ greatest hard men of rugby: 1 Wayne Shelford (NZ), 2 Jacques Burger (Namibia), 3 Gerard Cholley (France), 4 Mike Teague (England), 5 Sean Fitzpatrick (NZ), 6 Del Haines (Wales), 7 Ron Glasgow (Scotland), 8 Brian Lima (Samoa), 9 Andre Venter (South Africa), 10=  Terry Cobner (Wales) and Mike Fry (England).

Stuart Barnes’ greatest hard men of rugby: 1 Gareth Chilcott (England), 2 Gerard Cholley (France), 3 Jonny Wilkinson (England), 4 Graham Price (Wales), 5 Eben Etzebeth (South Africa), 6 Wayne Shelford (NZ), 7 David Pocock (Australia), 8 Richie McCaw (NZ), 9 Scott Gibbs (Wales), 10 Jim Telfer (Scotland).

 

 

3 thoughts on “The 10 greatest hard men of Springbok rugby

  1. Amazed no one mentioned Adri Geldenhuys. Legendary ep hardman, played books in 92, then went to France where his ability to ‘settle’ on field disputes earned him the nickname of ‘the golden fist of Bordeaux’

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