WILLIAM WEBB ELLIS AND HIS TROPHY

Webb Ellis Trophy
(Image : WRNews/SA WP)

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011

For South Africa, the Rugby World Cup started in 1995. Prior to that, we were excluded for reasons that had nothing to do with rugby or the players, and since South Africa had ranked for almost a century among the world’s leading rugby playing nations, the real games only began when the tournament came to this country. The favourites that year were the reigning world champions, Australia, and they came to the first match against the Springboks as the only team in the tournament to have remained unbeaten in 1995. Names like Campese, Lynagh, Horan and Little were commonplace in one of the most glittering line-ups the tournament has known. If there was an Achilles heel, it lay in the fact that the team was laden with veterans, and they might not have quite been the players they were when they demolished the All Blacks in the semi-finals at the 1991 version at Dublin’s Landsdowne Road. I was there that day, and the Wallabies were awesome. It wasn’t surprising when they rolled England in the final, nor was it surprising, given their “seniority”, that the Boks thumped them 27-18 at Newlands in 1995.

South Africa’s bid to become the first country in the world to retain the William Webb Ellis trophy starts this weekend, and there’s a bit of déjà vu with the Springbok team of 2011 and the Australians of 1995. Like them, we are the reigning world champions, and like them, we have a massively experienced team, indeed, the most capped group of players ever to attend the World Cup tournament. And like those Aussies of yore, it’s probably fair to say that Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, John Smit, Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana are not quite up to the game they were able to put on when they last hoisted the trophy in Paris in 2007. No fewer than 10 of them are north of 30. The lead-up to this year’s tournament tells us their form is not the same, and yet there is one stock difference between South Africa now and Australia in 1995. That lies in the fact that our performances going into this year’s tournament have been anything but inspiring, though the suggestion is that we’ve kept our best game until last, and that other sides might have peaked already. Even if it were not so, we’d have to be telling ourselves that, otherwise there’d be little purpose in attending, and so we’ll have to wait for the next few weeks to find out.

As matters stand, the international rankings consider New Zealand and Australia to be ahead of us, and deservedly so. There is nothing about the Northern Hemisphere sides to prompt the belief that the Cup could find a new home in that direction, but knock-out tournaments of this sort have been known to produce the unexpected. Who could believe that the All Blacks, who have undoubtedly been consistently the best team in the world for the past two decades or more, have not lifted the trophy since 1987? That, we guess, is all we need to know in trying to find a winner, and that breathes hope into the sails of every country in attendance with a pretence for the Higher Things In Life. The mind games started long ago: it’s time for the real games now.

TRIPPI : AN EXPLANATION

Charley Trippi - Second from right
(Photo : Nate Fine/NFL)

LEGENDS : CHARLEY TRIPPI

Replying to our article. Johann Rupert responds :

“The name Trippi also confused me - I said to Gaynor that it sounded like a ballet dancer. Having Googled it some years ago I found the source, a combination of Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana!”

“Extract from The Georgia Bulldogs by Shane Hannon”

Still regarded by many as the greatest all-around athlete ever to don the red and black, Charley Trippi almost spent his life as a coal miner in a small town of Pittston, Pennsylvania.

That was the destiny Trippi, the son of a coal miner, faced before he was spotted by the late Harold “War Eagle” Ketron, who had played for the Bulldogs in the early 1900’s. After graduation, Ketron ran Coca-Cola bottling plants in Western Pennsylvania, where he always kept an eye out for athletic prospects.

At Pittston High School, nobody thought much of the skinny 160-pound kid with wavy black hair, but Ketron had a gut instinct about Trippi’s potential as a prize halfback and he offered the 19-year-old a scholarship to Georgia. Boosters could do that in those days.

“I owe a lot to ‘War Eagle’ Ketron,” said Trippi, who is retired but still resides in Athens. ‘“He watched me play high school and took a great interest in my welfare. I was very fortunate to get a scholarship offer - I wanted to get out of that area. I couldn’t visualize mining coal eight hours a day for the rest of my life.”

“I had dozens of offers and a lot of pressure to go to other schools,” he said. “But I’m a man of my word, and I had told Mr. Ketron that I was going to Georgia, and I was not changing my mind.”

One trip to California was like a dream for Trippi and for most of the Bulldogs, who had never been out West. The team dined with some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, including Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth and Errol Flynn.

“Each player sat between two stars,” Trippi said. “I drew Susan Hayward and Barbara Britton.”

Days later, Trippi got chills when he took the field on game day. It wasn’t surprising considering the Rose Bowl crowd of 90,000 was more than four times the population of his hometown.

Trippi was a major factor against UCLA. With Sinkwich nursing two badly sprained ankles, No. 62 carried the rushing load and gained 130 yards and was named the game’s outstanding player.

World War II interrupted the playing career of many college athletes, including Trippi, who served close to three years in the Air Force before being discharged. He returned to Sanford Stadium for the final six games in 1945.

“Of course, you’re disappointed because the war destroyed what you planned to do in your career,” Trippi said. “But everyone else was in same situation. You just had to recover after it was over and pursue again what you had started.”

The transition wasn’t as easy for Trippi because coach Butts had implemented a new offensive system while he was away - switching from the single wing to a T-formation. It took Trippi a while to get the feel of the new offense, but he learned to like it because it gave him more opportunities to throw the ball, something he did well.

In the season finale against Georgia Tech in 1945, Trippi set an SEC record for passing yards in a single game at the time (323) and also gained 61 yards rushing for a total of 384 yards total offense, which was another SEC record at the time.

The junior capped his war-shortened season by helping the Bulldogs to a 20-6 win over Tulsa in the Oil Bowl. Trippi completed a 47-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and then ran back a punt for a touchdown. The 68-yarder is still considered one of the most spectacular plays in Bulldog history as Trippi “practically touched both sidelines,” completely reversed his field at one point and ran over two Tulsa tacklers who had him trapped.

“I ran on instinct,” Trippi said of his style. “Occasionally, I would reverse my field or go against the grain because it came natural to me.”

Trippi has been honored many times over the years. He was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. He is also one of only four Bulldog players to have his jersey retired.

“Life has been good to me because of sports,” Trippi said. “I feel very fortunate that my dreams came true.”