Wide open spaces, warm weather all year round, meat cooked over flames, an over-reliance on fossil fuels, a problematic past, an innate faith in the natural athleticism of its citizenry, a fanatical obsession with sports. South Africa and Australia might be separated by more than 10 thousand kilometres of Indian Ocean, but in cultural terms at least, they’re practically neighbours.
Bigger foes are found on the rugby field. The All Blacks loom largest for both, and the historical baggage left over by the English means that losing to the Red Rose can prick like a thorn, but there is something sibling-like in the rivalry between the Springboks and the Wallabies.
“It’s the similarities, more than the differences, that drive it,” says Clyde Rathbone, the former Wallaby wing with 26 Test caps who captained his native South Africa to glory in the 2002 Under-21 World Cup. “Once you get on the field, though, it’s a collision of polarising rugby theories. For me growing up it was always the blunt trauma of the Springboks against the guile of the Wallabies.”
In South Africa, rugby is a quasi-religion and has long been used as a political tool. During apartheid the National Party wielded the sport to assert its racist ideology. Later, Nelson Mandela held up the Springbok emblem as a unifying force. The national team’s successes or failures remain tethered to the state of the nation. And when confronted with adversity, fervent passion drives the players forward.
In Australia, though, union is consigned to a fringe status. Coaches seldom have their pick of the best athletes. Innovation and enjoyment are not just buzzwords but survival mechanisms. Without them the Wallabies would have withered on the vine.
“One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Australia was how players would talk back to the coaches,” says Rathbone, who left Durban to join the Brumbies in 2003. “It wasn’t like that in South Africa where it was a lot more disciplined, sometimes even draconian. In Australia it was a flatter hierarchy which I think fostered more creativity. They were just as competitive but it didn’t feel like it was life or death the way it did back in South Africa.”
Like most South Africans who grew up during the country’s sporting isolation in the 1980s, Rathbone had an unwavering belief in the indomitability of the Springboks. From 1933 to 1971, South Africa had beaten Australia 21 times with only seven defeats. The team had similarly positive records against every other side. When they emerged back onto the world stage in 1992 they were given a reality check, losing to four different countries across five Tests, including once to Australia by a score of 26-3 in Cape Town.
A year later, South Africa toured Australia and lost the three-Test series 2-1. When the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, pundits not blinded by their patriotism gave Francois Pienaar’s Springboks little hope of beating the defending champions on the opening day of the tournament.
“I’ll never forget it,” Rathbone says of the Springboks’ 27-18 win in Cape Town. “I reckon that game shaped a lot of young fans in both countries.”
Rathbone recalls the “heartache” he felt when Stephen Larkham kicked his first ever international drop goal in the 1999 World Cup semi-final to knock South Africa out. Four years later, they were teammates when Rathbone settled in Canberra.
“It was surreal,” he says. “Like any proud South African, I used to curse these players. But then you share a dressing room with them and you see the similarities in our cultures. There are differences but they’re so subtle. I never felt like an outsider.”
His assimilation was aided by his Under-21 coach, Jake White, the 2007 World Cup-winning coach with South Africa and still the only non-Australian to lead the Brumbies. Under White, the “Baby-Boks” would mimic the Wallabies and Brumbies on the training field.
“There wasn’t a single thing we did that wasn’t pulled directly from those teams,” Rathbone says. “That shows the mutual respect. We recognised that they were thought leaders at the time.”
On the field, the rivalry endures. Australia’s 25-17 victory in Adelaide on Saturday extended their post-reunification advantage to 33 wins to 27 alongside three draws. But some of the sheen has been scuffed off.
Both nations are now tracking on divergent paths. The top South African franchises have moved north to Europe and the Springboks may follow. Rugby Australia no longer leans on its great southern comrades as successful World Cup bids and borrowed money from World Rugby has helped keep the lights on.
Whatever happens in the future, and as we navigate through the game’s most competitive age, let us savour and protect this great union of two contrasting philosophies forged from the same raw materials. It would be a shame if sibling rivalry morphed into apathy.
