SA vs Canada: Battle of the Boet remembered

The two teams are set to meet at a Rugby World Cup for the second time in the enclosed Kobe Misaki Stadium, 24 years on from that night, which became one of the most infamous in RWC history.

On Tuesday 8 October, under a roof in Kobe, the occasion is the final Pool B match of the competition for both teams. The Boks need to win to guarantee quarter-final qualification.

In 1995, under clear Eastern Cape skies, the occasion was the final pool match for both teams. And the Boks needed to win to guarantee quarter-final qualification. Hopefully, the comparisons end there.

The old Boet Erasmus Stadium in Port Elizabeth was the venue for the spiteful encounter belying PE’s moniker as the “Friendly City”. Even then, some 15 years before it was finally decommissioned, the venue was a ramshackle collection of stands that had seen better days.

But it could always produce a good atmosphere and that night, with the World Cup in full cry and the competition heading to the knockout stages, the “Boet” was heaving.

The smell and smoke of grilling boerewors laced the air and beery fans sang and bantered good-naturedly. On the field though, things would not be as friendly and happy.

Leading up to the match, the Boks had trained twice in the evening at the stadium, to replicate match conditions. And twice while they were going through their paces, the floodlights had tripped.

During a practice session players shrugged and got on with it, thinking that the problem would be sorted by match day.

Both teams took the field, lined up and sang the anthems. The lights went out. There was a power failure and the floodlights tripped. Players trudged down the tunnel and fans sat the in the dark, no smartphones to illuminate their surroundings. Cigarette lighters came out to provide some light relief.

Nervous laughs and predictable, “you haven’t paid the electricity” bill jokes, gave way to rising unease as the prospect of the match being abandoned became a possibility.

For the players, it was even more confusing. There might have been regulations for a situation like this in the small print of the tournament handbook somewhere, but for two sets of teams fired up for a big contest, there was only confusion.

“It was chaos,” the late Bok scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen recalled in his autobiography, Joost for Love and Money.

“We went back to the changing room, but nobody knew what was happening. Some of the players coped with the delay better than others, but it was still tense.

“Other results in the group meant it was still possible for us to be eliminated if we lost to Canada.”

Van der Westhuizen and his teammates were eventually called out 45 minutes later. The lights were on and Irish referee Dave McHugh was able to start the match.

From the outset, the match bristled with friction. Canada had a reputation as a niggly team that enjoyed the odd punch-up. This being the amateur era, there were no video officials and instant reviews of indiscretions. The odd punch was as much a part of the game as scrums and lineouts.

The game’s governing body, the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby), had started to clamp down on foul play though. Their tougher stance would hurt Bok wing Pieter Hendriks and hooker James Dalton in the aftermath of what became known as the “Battle of Boet Erasmus”.

Throughout the match, there were off-the-ball skirmishes as the Boks turned the screw. Coach Kitch Christie wanted the team to play the percentages and keep Canada pinned deep in their territory. That’s what they did.

But with the match in the bag at 20-0 and 10 minutes to play, Canada’s frustration erupted and the Boks’ discipline failed.

Hendriks made a late hit on the Canadian right-wing Winston Stanley and fullback Scott Stewart attacked the Bok wing from behind in retaliation.

Dalton, no stranger to a fracas, raced in to defend his teammate and in an instant it looked like a scene from an Asterix comic when the Gauls pummel the Romans. Arms and legs were flailing in all directions, attached to players from both sides.

Eventually, a form of order was restored, McHugh sent Dalton and the Canadian duo of captain Gareth Rees and prop Rod Snow off the field. He didn’t actually show a red card, as that protocol didn’t exist at the time.

The consequences for Dalton were immediately apparent. There was an automatic 30-day suspension for being sent off and the Boks only had three games left – at most. He was in tears as he trudged off knowing his tournament was over.

In the hours following the match, Hendriks fell foul of the citing panel, in those days comprised of the Rugby World Cup directors, and he too was ejected from the tournament.

Hendriks’ despair was also an opportunity for the Springboks to recall Chester Williams, who was injured when the squad was initially named. Having recovered from a knee injury, now five weeks after the initial unveiling, Williams returned to the Bok squad.

Canadian rugby played a small part in paving the way for perhaps the most socially significant moment of the tournament because Williams was the only black player in the team.

Had Hendriks remained in the squad, Williams would never have scored four tries in the quarter-final against Samoa.

The Battle of Boet Erasmus also had ramifications later in the tournament. Before the semi-final against France in Durban, a deluge threatened to have the game called off. The pitch was probably unplayable but had referee Derek Bevan called the match off, France would’ve advanced because of their superior disciplinary record.

Dalton’s red card and Hendriks’ citing and the subsequent suspensions for both could have derailed the home team’s march to immortality.

Somehow Bevan allowed the match to take place and the Boks advanced to the final where they beat the All Blacks in extra time.

Bevan’s decision to allow the semi-final to take place in treacherous conditions was his to make. It’s never been made clear if he was pressurised into the decision.

But subsequent suspicions were raised when former SARU president Louis Luyt presented Bevan with an expensive watch at a ceremony after the final a week later. According to Luyt in his autobiography Walking Proud, his peers had voted Bevan as referee of the tournament, which was why the gift was given.

All these subsequent events might have been easily forgotten if the Boks’ first encounter against Canada had been a humdrum win without controversy.

It’s unlikely that Kobe will serve up anything similar on Tuesday. But nearly a quarter of a century on from Boet Erasmus, Canada could again form a little piece of history if the Springboks go on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup. DM

Kick-off is at 12.15pm (SA time).