Daniël Hartman Craven, the Springbok scrumhalf who later led South African rugby for 37 years as its president, was born 116 years ago today, on 11 October 1910, on Steeton Farm outside Lindley in the Orange Free State. He played 16 Tests, coached 23, and ran the game in this country until the day he died.
From his Test debut in December 1931 to his death in January 1993, Danie Craven was a player, selector, coach or president of South African rugby for 61 unbroken years. Nobody in the sport has held the field that long, in that many roles.
Who Was Danie Craven And How Did He Start?
Danie Craven was Springbok number 219, a scrumhalf picked for South Africa before he had played a single Currie Cup match. He was 21, a Stellenbosch student, and he made his Test debut on 5 December 1931 against Wales at St Helen’s in Swansea. South Africa won it 8-3.
That selection ran against every convention of the time. His Western Province debut only arrived the following season, which made him one of the earliest Springboks chosen without provincial rugby behind him.
The tour was Bennie Osler’s Grand Slam campaign. Craven played in the wins over Wales, over Ireland by the same 8-3 scoreline, and over Scotland at Murrayfield by 6-3, where he scored the first of his two Test tries. South Africa lost one match on the entire 1931-32 tour.
Why Was Danie Craven’s Playing Style So Rare?
Craven was known for two things: the dive pass and his ability to start a Test in four different positions. Between 1931 and 1938 he won 12 of his 16 Tests, playing scrumhalf, flyhalf, centre and eighthman at international level, plus fullback in a tour match against Queensland.
The dive pass is what older men describe first. He was rated one of the finest dive-passers the game has produced, throwing himself full length behind the ball to get it away flat and fast.
The versatility mattered more than it would now. There were no replacements in that era and specialisation was everything, so a man who could cover half a team sheet was close to unheard of.
Provincially he moved with his work. He was part of the Western Province side that shared the Currie Cup with Border in 1932 and again in 1934, he played for Eastern Province, and in 1938 he became the first captain of the newly formed Northern Transvaal union.
How Did Danie Craven’s 1937 Springboks Win In New Zealand?
South Africa took the 1937 series in New Zealand 2-1 after losing the opening Test, with Craven captaining from flyhalf in the defeat and then switching back to scrumhalf for both wins. It is the tour that built his legend.
He started the trip in Australia, beating the Wallabies 9-5 at flyhalf and then 26-17 from eighthman. Then came the Tasman crossing and the three Tests that decided the tour.
- First Test, Wellington, 14 August 1937: New Zealand won 13-7, Craven captaining at flyhalf
- Second Test, Christchurch, 4 September 1937: South Africa won 13-6, Craven at scrumhalf
- Third Test, Auckland, 25 September 1937: South Africa won 17-6 to take the series
That side is still widely regarded as one of the greatest touring teams ever to visit New Zealand, a verdict handed down in the country that is hardest to please on the subject.
A year later Craven captained South Africa in all three Tests against the British Isles tourists, winning 26-12 at Ellis Park and 19-3 in Port Elizabeth before losing the dead rubber 16-21 at Newlands. According to the World Rugby Hall of Fame record of his career, he won the toss in all three using a lucky gold ten-shilling piece given to him by the Mayor of Johannesburg.
The Newlands Test on 10 September 1938 was his last. He was 27, the Second World War arrived the following year, and South Africa did not play another Test for 11 years.
Craven The Springbok Coach: Unbeaten Until 1953
Craven was appointed national coach in 1949 and the Springboks won his first ten matches in charge, going unbeaten until 1953. He coached 23 Tests in all and won 17 of them.
The run opened with a 4-0 whitewash of the touring All Blacks in 1949. The 1951-52 tour of Britain and Ireland brought a Grand Slam of the Home Nations and a win over France on top of it.
The later years were tighter. The 1955 series against the British Lions finished two-all, and on the 1956 Australasian tour his side won three Tests but lost the New Zealand series 3-1.
His academic career ran alongside the whole of it. Craven became the first professor of physical education at Stellenbosch University in 1949 and held the chair until 1975.
He completed three doctorates: ethnology at Stellenbosch in 1935, psychology at Pretoria in 1973 and physical education at Stellenbosch in 1978. The university later added an honorary doctorate. Somewhere in there he picked up the only title anyone actually used, Mr Rugby.
Why Did Danie Craven Meet The ANC In Harare In 1988?
Craven flew to Harare in 1988 to negotiate a single, non-racial rugby body with ANC leaders including Thabo Mbeki and Alfred Nzo, at a point when contact with the organisation was a criminal offence under apartheid law. He went against his own government to do it, and he came home with an agreement.
Four years later that agreement produced SARFU, with Craven and Ebrahim Patel as co-presidents. Three years after that, South Africa won a World Cup as one nation.
It was not a late conversion. In 1964 he launched the national schools rugby week that carries his name, and the World Rugby Hall of Fame credits it as the first non-racial schoolboy competition in the country. The week opened fully across the colour line in 1980, when Craven insisted on it.
What Danie Craven Left Behind
Craven led the South African Rugby Board from 1956 until the 1992 unification and stayed at the head of the game as co-president until his death, 37 years in the chair. He joined the IRB Council in 1957 and chaired it in 1962, 1973 and 1979.
He was not a universally loved man while he did it. He was disliked in the North, where he was blamed for Western Province players being picked ahead of Northern ones, and he was no favourite in Western Province either, where he was seen to put Stellenbosch above the province.
“As a child, I always used to think he sounds like a difficult old man with too many rules and stuck-up regulations! But when I grew up, I realized how important it is what he did for rugby. As of today, everybody thinks they know everything!” – 🎙️Jay
He had a dictatorial streak, a dry sense of humour and an unusual ability to read the men who played for him. He had also said from an early age that he wanted to spend his life improving the relationship between the races in whatever way he could.
He wrote several books, including his autobiography Ek Speel vir Suid-Afrika, Danie Craven on Rugby and Springbok Story 1949-53. He died at Stellenbosch on 4 January 1993, aged 82, and the schools week he started still carries his name.
