After getting the basic information about the Springboks, the South African rugby union team, now its time to know some of the interesting and hard facts about the team. Some of the facts are funny and some of them are not. So let us know about those facts.
Some of the Most Interesting Facts about Springboks
- Barry John of the British Lions was the first ever international player to be substituted and that match was played against the Springboks after the law was amended in 1968-69. Though, Keven de Klerk is the first ever Springboks replacement in an international rugby game.
- The first ever test win for Springboks was achieved on 5th September 1896 when they defeated the British Lions in Cape Town by 5-0.
- The first ever Overseas victory for the Springboks was achieved on 24th November, 1906 when they defeated Ireland in Belfast by 15-12.
- After adopting the name ‘Springboks’ Paul Roos was the first captain of the Springboks side in the year 1906.
- Chris Koch is the only Springboks player who has played for more than 3 decades!!
- In the history of 100+ years of the game of rugby no team has ever scored a hat trick against the Springboks team.
- The Springboks have never lost to Samoa, Argentina, Portugal, USA, Uruguay, Spain, Tonga, Namibia, Romania, Fiji, Georgia and Canada.
- Percy Montgomery is the first Springbok who played 100 test matches. He retired in the year 2008 after playing 102 tests and scoring 893 points.
- Hennie and Andries Bekker are the latest sets of 10 Father and Son duo who have played for the Springboks.
- Francois Pienaar became the first Springbok captain to lift the IRB World Cup Trophy in 1995.
- Danie Craven is the longest serving President of the South African Rugby Board – SARB. He first became president in 1956 and hold the post till he died in 1993.
- Tom Van Vollenhoven alias Karel Thomas Van Vollenhoven became the first South African Rugby player to score a hat trick on home soil. He did that in Cape Town during the 1955 tour of the British Lions.
- In East London in 2005, in a test against Uruguay, South Africa scored 134 points which is their highest score ever.
- Naas Botha and Percy Montgomery are the only Sprinboks players who have scored more than 50 conversions in tests.
