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Bill McLaren of Hawick passed away on the 19th
of January and rugby lost one of its greatest servants. Bill was
popularly known as the “voice of rugby” and this moniker was an apt
description for somebody who like a Picasso created a vivid flowing
canvas of the happenings on the field.
Growing up in the seventies and eighties in South
Africa there was very little access to television and international
sport, especially rugby. The television only made its appearance in
the mid seventies and live sport as we know and watch it today was a
taboo. Unless of course it was the Currie Cup.
Saturdays meant “braaivleis” and rugby with the
country firmly divided between Northern Transvaal or “die Blou
Bulle” and Western Province. Yes there were the Banana Boys (Natal)
and “die Rooibontes” or Transvaal and even the Free State managed a
victory in 1976 but enlarge it was all about North vs South. Sports
isolation was at its peak.
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