SAMVOZA Veteran Mark Holder recounted his experiences from 1979
RUGBY
We were given the choice to go to rugby practice or do PT with the rest of the company. It was not fun PT, and I had played rugby my entire high school career. I had played for our school's first team, and during the six months before my call-up, I played rugby for Rand Leases under 21, so it was definitely rugby practice for me. I was selected to play against one of the town's teams, and I made the third or fourth team. This was VERY different.
If you think about the 'real men' in the Western Transvaal and Free State: these are the guys that wear two pairs of shorts in winter when it is very cold and carry the sheep on their shoulders into the shed to be sheared.
The men of the Northern Cape would not be seen dead in the second pair of shorts and they carry their cows on their shoulders into the shed to be milked.
There was one large individual who was on me the whole game. If I touched the ball he was there; he just seemed to be everywhere, and boy could he tackle... Sometime in the second half, I saw an opportunity to get something back. He was waiting for the ball to be passed to him and I was lined up for the crash tackle of the game.
The ball was passed and he got me and the ball at the same time. I bounced, the ball stayed and he just kept on running. When I got up and dusted myself off, the right side of my face was numb and everything looked like it was in a green haze. My left side was fine but green haze on the right. This lasted a few days.
After the game, we were chatting and I asked: "Where do all these enormous men come from, I see a few in the town but not so many at the same time?" and the one guy commented, “Ons is ‘n bietjie dieper in...”
That week we got the good news, we had a 7-day pass and then to the Border.
No more rugby against the Cement men, what a blessing.
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