1995 retrospective: The ‘Brains Game’ that nearly derailed the Boks

The impact Jonah Lomu’s steamrollering of England in the 1995 Rugby World Cup semifinal in Cape Town had on the sport globally is well known, but what is less well known is how the All Black behemoth nearly scared the Springboks into committing rugby suicide.

Let’s start with the first part, the one that those who follow or support the sport closely and know the history of the switch from amateurism to professionalism might know. Legend has it that it was when watching Lomu running over England’s Mike Catt in the Newlands semifinal on television that Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch decided to commit his Newscorp considerable riches to rugby union.

It was Newscorp who bank-rolled the Tri-Nations tournament that was rugby’s first big step into the professional era, with the end of amateurism being announced on the eve of the 1995 final between New Zealand and South Africa in Johannesburg. The new beginning grew legs with the start of the two Sanzar tournaments, the Super 12 (regional) and Tri-Nations (international) in 1996, with Murdoch’s Newscorp as the backer for the two competitions.

Lomu though didn’t just make an impression on Murdoch and his pals. He also made an impression on the Springboks, who were watching the semifinal in a Durban hotel after they had scraped into the final with a narrow win over France at a drenched Kings Park a day earlier.

LOMU SILENCED THE SA TEAM ROOM

According to one of the heroes of the final that followed, Japie Mulder, when I interviewed him for a book on another 1995 hero, James Small (No rules - The James Small Story), that will appear in the shops in a few weeks and is now available online, a nervous hush descended on the Boks as they watched Lomu running over England. And their coach Kitch Christie was quite panicky.

“I remember the silence that descended on all of us when we watched the All Blacks beat England in the semifinal on television,” recalled Mulder.

“We were still in our Durban hotel at the time, we’d beaten France at Kings Park in our semifinal the day before, but we hadn’t moved up to Joburg yet and we watched the semi in the team room.

“The room went dead quiet when we watched Jonah run over Michael Catt. It was an awesome performance. I think he scored three tries that day. The coach Kitch Christie wasn’t hiding his concern. ‘Jeepers boys, what are we going to do? We have a problem here.’ But James didn’t say much.

“He said ‘Don’t worry guys, we’ve got this.’ Then everyone left after the game and it was just myself and James. He came to me and said ‘Bush, I will make sure he always has to cut inside, we only have a problem if he is given space on the outside. I will keep on his outside, we have a problem if he goes around us because of his size and his strength, but I will make sure he always has to cut in. When he comes in then he’s your problem, you will have to look after him.’”

INSPIRING DOUBT IN THE COACH

History reflects that is exactly what Small, who died in 2019, did. But it could easily have turned out quite disastrously for the Boks as initially the coach wasn’t sure he wanted to back the game that had got the South Africans into the final.

In a book I wrote a decade ago on the Springbok post-isolation coaches, The Poisoned Chalice, some of the players related how Christie gave serious thought to completely changing the Bok game-plan in an effort to back X-factor and completely surprise a New Zealand team that would have anticipated a more pragmatic approach from the host nation.

When the Boks started their preparations for the final at Sun City, Christie apparently expressed a desire to see his players execute a fast, off the cuff style of rugby that had brought success against an Irish selection in Belfast on the November tour of the previous year.

I remember that game well - the Boks were really good that night, they raced to a score in excess of 50 points, and I can recall some people connected with the national cricket team being upset because of the line I had taken in my match report for what was then the Independent Group. The Proteas had just lost a test match unexpectedly to New Zealand in Johannesburg, and much was being made at the time that none of the SA batsman seemed capable of reaching 50.

So my report on the game started with the words “The Springboks last night did something the Proteas batsmen appear incapable of right now, they brought up a half century.”

OKAY FOR MIDWEEK GAME BUT NOT FOR A FINAL

The thing is though that the game was a midweek game towards the end of the tour. It had little riding on it, and of course Christie could at that point get away with just telling his players to go out and have fun. The pressure of a World Cup final would be an entirely different proposition.

Christie called the template he was thinking of employing in the final the “Brains Game” and it involved executing every move at double the pace, tapping penalties and running the ball deep from inside the team’s own half.

Does that sound like a good idea for a World Cup final? The players didn’t think so, even though Christie told them “We have the skills to execute this game plan.”

Brendan Venter, who went on to become a top coach himself, was one of the players I interviewed and he led the dissension at Christie’s plan. He argued that a loose game would play right into New Zealand’s hands, and future Bok coach Rudolf Straeuli supported him. Straeuli, who played off the bench in the final in order to accommodate Mark Andrews, normally a lock, out of position at No 8, warned that it would make the Boks look particularly stupid if they gave away soft tries in such an important game and in such a big occasion.

“I remember that very clearly; it was probably the only time that Kitch ever discussed tactics with the wider group, and not just with Francois (Pienaar) and some of the other Transvaal players he was close to,” recalled Venter at the time.

“He called it the Brains Game, and I remember how he sold it to us. He looked at Francois and said something about him having a law degree. And then he compared him to his direct opponent. Then he went through the rest of the group, pointing at Rudolf, who also had a law degree. His point was that we could out-think the All Blacks.

“But what his plan didn’t take into account was that the All Blacks had game-breakers like Glen Osborne and Frank Bunce in their team. They would kill us if we made mistakes, which we were sure to do because Kitch’s plan was all about quick lineouts and tap penalties.”

POOR TRAINING SESSION LED TO REVERSION TO PLAN A

Nonetheless the plan was adopted initially, and it was only after a particularly poor training session that Christie abandoned the idea. Venter reckons the players made sure that the practice didn’t go off well.

“The Transvaal players loved him so much that they didn’t have the heart to tell him his plan wouldn’t work,” said Venter. “I remember Balie Swart taking a quick kick that didn’t work out and the reserve team, of which I was a part, scoring. I think Balie might have done that one on purpose to show Kitch the folly of the plan. No one needed to say anything, we just reverted to Plan A.”

And Small and Mulder figured prominently in Plan A, with Small bravely and successfully standing in Lomu’s path, either stopping the man mountain, who sadly has also passed on, as has the other Bok wing that day, Chester Williams, or shepherding him inside where his mate Mulder, with a bit of help from the likes of Joost van der Westhuizen, took care of him.

At this time when refereeing is such a talking point, it is probably useful to note that had there been TMOs operating with technology in those days, the Boks would probably have been awarded what looks on the replays like a perfectly good try to the late Bok flanker, Ruben Kruger, and it might not have needed to go to extra time and the epoch-making drop-kick from Joel Stransky that won it for the nation.

At the time it seemed likely that would be the start of a succession of South Africa/New Zealand finals but fate has conspired otherwise, with Saturday’s massive clash in Paris being only the second time the two most historically rugby nations have collided in a World Cup final. Judging from the Bok selection announced earlier on Thursday, they won’t be employing a ‘Brains Game’, they will be going out to monster the All Black pack.

The biggest game in the World Rugby awaits 🇿🇦🆚🇳🇿

Who will lift the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday? 🤩#RWCFinal | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/akEVw770XE — SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 26, 2023