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When the British Lions left South Africa in 1968, their coach was asked to name the best player from all the provincial teams the Lions had met. When he said the name "Joggie Jansen", the South African interviewer asked incredulously, "Who?" Well, two years later the whole of South African knew who "Joggie Jansen" was. They found that out on 25th July 1970, when New Zealand took to the field in the first test against South Africa at Loftus Versveld Stadium, Pretoria. Following an unbeaten record in their 10 tour matches leading up to this first test, the All Blacks were expected to win comfortably. The Springboks had lost several games on their recent tour of Britain and the squad lacked self-belief. But nobody had told Joggie Jansen, the 22 year-old Springbok debutant from the Orange Free State. If you thought the young university student would have had trouble calming the butterflies in his stomach in first international match, against the mighty All Blacks, you couldn't have been more wrong! Joggie took to test rugby like a duck to water! The capacity crowd had rarely seen anyone as committed run as hard into contact as Jansen did from the first whistle. Only five minutes of play had elapsed when Joggie indelibly wrote himself into South African rugby folklore. As All Black flyhalf Wayne Cottrell received the ball from a set scrum, Jansen hurtled into his midriff with an astonishingly powerful, textbook tackle, which knocked him yards backwards and left him prostrate on the pitch.
At a time when his team-mates were looking for inspiration, Joggie had provided it. The crowd roared and the Boks never looked back, going on to win 17-6. Jansen's debut sparked newspaper reaction of "a star is born" hysteria, and his name was never out of the papers for the rest of the series. In the second test Jansen scored his only international try, running powerfully at the New Zealand defence to force himself over the line in the combination tackles of All Blacks Brian Lochore and Graham Thorne. The destroyer-in-chief's second great tackle of the series occurred in the dying minutes of the fourth test. The All Blacks appeared to be finishing strongly in a closely poised match, when Jansen demolished Gerald Kember the All Black's fullback with a monster tackle which made him spill the ball as he flew backwards. The turnover resulted in a thrilling try for the Boks and the series was theirs. Jansen went on to play a total of 10 tests for the Springboks, frequently turning defence into attack with his powerful tackling. After the Springboks 9-18 loss to England at Ellis Park in 1972, the Bok selectors over-reacted in the opinion of many experts and disposed of half the team, including Joggie Jansen and fellow star, Piet Greyling. Joggie continued to play brilliantly for Orange Free State but was never again selected for the Springboks. Jansen's famous tackle is still celebrated as one of the greatest moments of Springbok rugby and Joggie is talked of in awed tones wherever and whenever old Springbok fans gather. (Malcolm Finch)
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