KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
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'My God, look at the size of this man! Quick! Tell the other villagers we're going back to the boats!'
'The worst thing you can say about any bloke is that he doesn't drink, smoke or go to the races.'
...well it could apply to sport!;
'Lives of great men all remind us,
we can make our lives sublime,
and departing leave behind us
footprints in the sands of time.'
'Rugby has opened many doors for me and it widened my horizons. I am heavily indebted to the game. I repay that debt in 80 minute installments by playing with all my heart; hoping that I will never betray the game's true spirit.'
When asked to define the physical differences between those who play rugby, simply said; 'In rugby there are those who play the piano - and those who shift them'
In 1934 when the Welsh fullback Vivian Jenkins became the first fullback to score a try in a test match the 'Western Mail' newspaper in Cardiff headlined the next day; 'Is this good for rugby?'
'In sport don't ever look back - someone might be gaining on you!'
'Age is mind over matter; if you don't mind, it don't matter.'
When talking about a big hit, (and it could apply to a big kick); 'When it's in the slot, give it the lot!'
'Without spontaneity in any sport, you cannot succeed.'
'Before every game he played Willie Ofahengaue would pray. But it to us it was never clear whether he prayed for himself or for the safety of the opposition!'
'Ideas are easy to conceive, less easy to execute.'
'Live like you'll die tomorrow; farm like you'll live forever!'
'There are only two excuses you can use for missing rugby training - death and docking!'
'If you take big paces, you leave big spaces.'
And three new All Black caps; Connor, Wolfe and McKay conjure up a try in the very first minute in the first test at Auckland!
ATTENDANCE RECORDS
For many years the record for the largest crowd to watch a rugby international was the 95,000 that packed into the old Ellis Park ground in Johannesburg in 1955 to watch the first test between South Africa and the British Isles. There were also 95,000 present in Bucharest in May 1957 to see France play Romania, although it should be mentioned that the game was actually played as a curtain raiser to a major soccer match!
A record was thought to have been set at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in 1975, when it was reported that a crowd of 104,000 watched the Wales v Scotland international. However, in the end the official attendance was listed as 80,000.
The biggest total of people to watch a test match in New Zealand is the 61,240 who attended Eden Park in Auckland for the fourth test between New Zealand and South Africa in 1956.
For decades the record attendance for a test match in Australia was the 48,898 who came to see New Zealand play Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the third test of 1980. That total was impressive enough considering the lesser place rugby held in the hearts of the Australian sporting public at the time. However being twice world champions in the 1990s helped the upsurge in popularity of rugby union. Coinciding with the rise in rugby’s significance came the building of much larger sports arenas, most notably for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
The latest record total for crowds at a rugby test in Australia therefore also became the world’s best. At Stadium Australia in Sydney on July 15, 2000 with the Bledisloe Cup at stake the All Blacks and the Wallabies played in front of 109,878 fans. A year before on the same ground 107,042 had watched the same two teams in action.
At the other end of the scale, there have been many times when officials have been disappointed with the size of crowds that have turned out to see major rugby matches.
Easily the tiniest crowd to watch a significant rugby match would have been the few dozen people who stood about on the sidelines of Owl Creek Polo Ground in Glenville, in upstate New York, for the match between USA and South Africa in 1981.
To avoid anti-apartheid protesters and prying news media, the two teams traveled in secret to a destination which only a few officials knew about. They also had quietly scheduled the match to begin 24 hours ahead of its planned playing time, and goal-posts were only erected (by the players of both teams) five minutes before kick-off. When the teams ran on to the sloping, muddy and manure-smelling field, 60 state police leapt from unmarked cars to guard the event, but they cannot be claimed as boosters to the total attendance figure of 25!
Had there been a scoreboard at the ground it would have shown a final score of South Africa 38, USA 7. Perhaps this was the only international where there were more points scored than people attending.
One of the South African players in the game, Thys Burger, claims some sort of world record. He says he helped put up the posts; when the game started he acted as touch judge for a time, then he came on to play as a substitute and finished his day by scoring a try between them!
Who was known as 'The Olympic All Black" - and why?
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