Oldest Bok reminisces about a life well spent

JACK MILNER

Pictured:  Dr Cecil Moss with Carel du Plessis who played under him at both club and national level.

Now, at the age of 90, the doctor might be slowing down a little. “On the first night of Rosh Hashanah I won’t be able to go to shul because I’m not happy to drive at night. I’ve also got a very bad back, and it’s a bit arduous for me to stand. Nights are beyond me these days.

“My late grandfather was a rabbi and my father was very religious. I try to lead a reasonable life and not do naughty things.”

His mind, however, is as sharp as the proverbial razor blade and only recently Moss released a book called “Doc Moss, My Life in Rugby!”

Moss only played four matches for the Springboks and they were against the All Blacks in the 1949 series. He ended his Springbok career with an unblemished record of four wins although, with his customary humility he says: “All of our games were at home and we had a very good team. The scores were very close; there were no easy wins.”

He played those tests under two captains who are legends in Springbok history, Basil Kenyon and Felix du Plessis, father of another Bok captain, Morne.  

A man to whom Dr Moss was very close, Dr Danie Craven, always used to say – albeit tongue-in-cheek – all successful Springbok teams needed a Jewish player. If that was the case one can see why the 1949 team was so successful – it had two!

“Okey Geffen was also in that team but of course he was a top forward from Transvaal and I was a Western Province wing, so we had a great rivalry. Later I got to know him better and of course, he was a very nice man.”

Moss feels the public perception about Craven was very wrong. “In terms of SA rugby he was a great man. He was one of the reasons teams would come and play in South Africa, even during the boycott years. They knew he had one love: rugby.

“He had a strong personality and could be very dogmatic. But I found him to be honest and he would listen to differing opinions. He was very pro-South African in the international world and of course, very pro-University of Stellenbosch locally!

“He was always very good to me. He was my mentor and I got on very well with him. I later coached the University of Cape Town and he was at Stellenbosch, so we also had a great rivalry.”

Moss says his interest in rugby started when he was “a little Jewish boy in Muizenberg. We used to run a lot on the beach and I attended SACS so I played at school level. When I went to university I continued to play and when I was in the army I played for 6^th Division in Italy. When I came back I finished my medical degree and then went to Natal to complete my internship. It was then I was called up to the Springbok team.”

He continued to play provincial rugby until 1951 but found it difficult to balance his rugby career with his medical career. He was in private practice. He then went to England for six years to study anaesthesiology.

He was out of the loop for all those years, but when he returned, fate took him into coaching. “It was one of those strange things. I came back from England, had nothing to do with rugby, but Dr Louis Babrow was chairman of our university club in Cape Town and they had a team going to Rhodesia. He told me that neither he nor the coach could go and would I take the team up.

“I had a brother who was a gynaecologist in Salisbury so I decided to go. We had a very successful tour and when I came back I was offered the job to coach the university team. 

“We had a very strong team. I had players like H.O. de Villiers and Roy and Ian McCallum. After I had been appointed varsity coach, I was appointed coach of Western Province. Later, when Wynand Claassen had that disastrous tour of New Zealand, I was asked to coach the Springboks.”

He was the Bok mentor from 1982 to 1989 and in that period, the Boks only played 12 Tests, but won 10. “They were all ‘guest’ teams in those days as there were no officials Tests. But the whole essence of being a good coach is that you had to have good players.

“We had a great team. Naas Botha was at his peak and then we had Danie Gerber, who to me is probably our best player ever. Carel du Plessis was also in that squad. One also must remember that all our games were at home.”

It is the size of the players and the physicality of the game that for Moss has changed so much in recent years. “We had backs who weighed 110 pounds (50kg), now they have to weigh 190 pounds (86kg). The contacts and collisions are much harder and more physical and as a result the players have to be fitter and stronger.

“Doc Craven always said once rugby turned professional the game would never be the same again. It has become a job.

“We did it out of love. There was no question of money but there was always a great spirit.”