A reliving
of the
glory days
THERE'S nothing like a gathering of rugby men to recall the glory days in a well-lubricated fog of bonhomie, recall and scurrilous commentary. So it was in Umhlanga last week.
Sitting there on a restaurant verandah is Chris Klopper, Grand Old Man of Natal rugby, now aged 91, who kicked the points for us to draw with the All Blacks in 1960 – an early sign that this province was on the up and up. Sitting with him is Trix Truter, Springbok and Natal winger from a slightly later era when Natal were truly on an upward trajectory, Trix combining wonderfully with the great flyhalf Keith Oxlee for the inside flip pass. All three played their club rugby for Durban Collegians.
The occasion is the 80th birthday of Keith Parkinson, who played hooker for Natal and Durban Collegians and went on to become president of the Natal Rugby Union, where he had the pleasure in 1990 of watching Natal beat Northern Transvaal at Loftus to win the Currie Cup for the first time, and this in the NRU's centenary year. He later became a Springbok selector.
Parky, it turns out, has the same birthday as Adolf Hitler. But he doesn't let the dubious distinction get him down. And quite right too, it's silly to draw false parallels. He ran the NRU much more like Stalin anyway.
Quite a crew of former players are there from far and wide – mainly Durban Collegians but from a sprinkling of other clubs also, at least two of us from Maritzburg Collegians to lift the tone somewhat.
It's quite a bunfight as you can imagine. The stories come thick and fast. Piece de resistance concerns Parky himself – the time he finished a Currie Cup match at Loftus with a broken arm.
It was the days when replacements for injury were not allowed. If you left the field, that was it. Your side played on, one man short. Against Northern Transvaal that was fatal.
Parky played on. Every scrum somebody would lift his arm over his prop's shoulders so they could go down. Agonising stuff. Real heroics.
Parky finished the match and as soon as it ended they rushed him to a Pretoria doctor, who was all bedside manner and sympathy.
"You're a bloody fool, man! I could be amputating your arm right now, not setting it in plaster!"
Beers, lunch, wine, story upon story. Memories of colourful characters who are with us no longer. The great Fint "Jungle" Jackson (prop for Natal and Durban Collegians) who had a habit of dropping in unexpectedly. A wife hissing indignantly at a dinner party: "Who invited Jungle? He's eating the potatoes like peanuts!"
A great get-together and a tribute to Parky, who also presided in this province over the transition to professional rugby. In a way it was also a get-together of a vanished era when club, provincial and national rugby were so closely intermeshed. Those days are no more.
But, oh boy, what fun last week. The spirit lives on. When you get home at 6 pm, you know it's been a lunch of note.
Late flash: Parky got home OK, managing to do so without breaking any arms or legs.
Tailpiece
Rugby is the only sport where 14 men and a hooker get together.
Last word
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
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