Blast from the past: Boks hop to victory against England

Today in SA sports history: January 7

1954 — The third edition of the Dusi canoe marathon ends in a dead heat, with defending champions Ian Player and Fred Schmidt crossing under the Athlone bridge alongside Ernie Pearce and Bob Templeton, a pair of Pietermaritzburg artisans — all of them in K1s. Their time was one day, 12 hours and 41 minutes. Pearce and Templeton went on to win for the next three years.

1961 — Doug Hopwood, one of SA’s top eighthmen of all time, scores the only try of the match as the Springboks beat England 5-0 at Twickenham. His try was converted by his fellow loose forward legend, Frik du Preez...