Today in SA sports history: July 30
1891 — SA field a rugby team for the first time, taking on Great Britain in Port Elizabeth in the opening Test of their three-match series. The visitors scored two tries (one point each) and one conversion (two points) to win 4-0.
1896 — SA take on Britain in the first Test of only their second rugby series in history, and fail to score a point as they go down 0-8 (two three-point tries and a conversion) in Port Elizabeth. It’s SA’s fourth Test, fourth defeat and the fourth time they failed to score a point.
1929 — The SA cricket team are hammered by England by an innings and 32 runs in the fourth Test in Manchester, going down 0-2 in the five-match series. They were unable to contain spinner Tich Freeman, who took a fifer in each innings to finish the contest with a career-best 12/171.
1978 — Kork Ballington retains his lead in the 350cc and 250cc classes as he wins both events at the Finnish motorcycling Grand Prix in Imatra. He was way in front in the 350cc class, having won four of the seven events, with two second places. But in the 250cc he was only four points in front of Australian Gregg Hansford.
1997 — SA welterweight champion Peter Malinga knocks out Alessandro Duran of Italy in the third round to win the marginal WBU welterweight title in Agrigento, Sicily.
2005 — Roland Schoeman wins the 50m freestyle world championship gold in the second-fastest time of all time in Montreal. His 21.69 sec was five-hundredths of a second slower than Alexander Popov’s world record.
2005 — The Springboks beat Australia 22-16 in a Tri-Nations match at Loftus Versfeld. At one try, one conversion and three penalties apiece, the difference were the dropped goals kicked by fullback Percy Montgomery and flyhalf Andre Pretorius. It was the first time in seven years that SA had been Australia twice in a season.
2004 — JP van Zyl wins his second track world championship medal, taking bronze in the men’s scratch at the Manchester velodrome to add to the keirin silver he had won in 1997.
2011 — The All Blacks run in six tries to beat the Springboks 40-7 in a Tri-Nations match in Wellington. Captain John Smit scored SA’s only try.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.