Throughout my rugby career I played four games against teams from South Africa including twice against the Boks at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, never being on the winning side. 
When my good friend and rugby player with Cambridge University, London Irish and Harlequins, Simon Cooke called to discuss his 50th birthday celebrations, an opportunity to at last reverse this trend emerged. Cookie decided the best way to celebrate was to go and watch the British Lions tour South Africa in 2009; originally we going to watch the 2nd and 3rd Tests but very soon other thoughts and ideas began to percolate. Before we knew it about 30 people had signed up for the trip of a lifetime including amongst others, former England rugby internationals David Trick, Jason Leonard, Rob Lozowski and the “straw man” himself, Peter Winterbottom. Instead of just watching rugby and enjoying all the “culture” SA has to offer on tour some bright spark came up with the idea of a reunion match between the Johannesburg Chiefs (who Winterbottom played for) and a “Peter Winterbottom international 15”...ie the boys on tour..!
We took this quite seriously and had a couple of warm up games in England before departing but, once on tour any semblance of discipline fell away with English legend Jason  “the Fun Bus” Leonard withdrawing, injured after a “training accident” involving tripping up leaving a bar!
So the game was scheduled for Thursday night between the tests, at altitude, on a pitch like concrete. Now as a kicker I was relishing the opportunity to watch my torpedo kicks travel for miles in the rareified atmosphere of the Highveld. I had genuinely practiced for weeks to get fit, catching and kicking everything. On the evening of the match I was out warming up for an hour before the game and the ball was coming off the boot like a dream..I was in the zone!
So as we prepared to take the field Captain Cooke calls us round for a last rallying cry and informs us of the rules of engagement recognising the average age of both teams was about 50..!!
-rolling substitutions ✔ï¸
-uncontested scrums ✔ï¸
-4 x 20 minute quarters ✔ï¸
...and NO KICKING..✖ï¸âœ–ï¸âœ–ï¸
All that practice for nothing and we were about to play in a game resembling more like rugby league..!!
So as a No.15 I had to play as virtually a third centre three quarter. And of course in the first few minutes their enormous Boer of a No.8 peeled off the scrum and comes running straight at me. Never known for my defensive qualities I shut my eyes, held tight and felled the giant, the ball spills out and we go up the field and score. Later in a close game we called a miss move and I was able to make a break and set away David Trick, officially the fastest man ever to play rugby for England, on a 50 yard run into the try line. We ran out winners 20-10 and I had my victory over the South Africans
We may have lost the Test Series 2-1, Cookie may have had two broken ribs and a punctured lung and I needed shoulder surgery on my return..but we won!
And maybe we’ll go back in 2021 and do it all over again..!
Memory added on July 13, 2021
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