Springbok No. 390 learnt his rugby barefoot on a Karoo farm and began his Stellenbosch career in the under-19 FF side. Hannes Marais was 21 when the number became his.
Marais was born on 21 September 1941 and grew up on Spreeukloof, a farm outside Somerset East. His first year of school was at a farm school, and Gill College in Somerset East felt cramped after the open veld. Hansie Lategan later called him the barefoot lad of Spreeukloof.
At Gill, maths teacher Cecil Coppens coached him and prepared him mentally for matches. Danie Craven later did the same job at Stellenbosch.
Marais went to Stellenbosch to study agriculture, meaning to become a vet. An injury in 1960 meant he had to start in the under-19 FF side and work his way up into the Maties first team.
Hannes Marais, Springbok tight-head prop
“I was used to starting at the bottom.”
He tried hooker, then flank. Craven called him over, asked his weight, and Marais said more than 230 pounds. Craven moved him to the front row because that was where he believed he would make his mark.
Danie Craven, Stellenbosch rugby legend
“True enough, that is where he started showing his real worth.”
Chris Schoeman wrote that Craven’s conversion worked and Marais never looked back. He made the Stellenbosch first XV in 1962, then Western Province and Southern Universities, and the Springboks the next year.
Lategan described a man who was not very tall but “Boerseun-sterk”, with a pair of square shoulders. Marais played the loose-forward game before he moved to prop, and that gave him good hands. In the agriculture class with Rooies van Wyk and Albie de Waal, every blow he took as a Western Province player became a “coffee class” the next day.
Springbok No. 390 made his debut on 24 August 1963 at Ellis Park, playing tight-head against Australia. The Springboks lost 9–11 and he was dropped, along with other teammates who had played poorly.
Back on campus, everyone who had wished him luck now mocked him. The joke was that he had played two Tests at once: his first and his last.
He answered against Wales at Kings Park on 23 May 1964. Marais scored his only Test try in a 24–3 win, and the second chance became a career. Springbok No. 390 went on to play 35 Tests, 11 of them as captain, and led the 1971 tour of Australia that ended without a loss.
