Durban

You know, open the batting.

Look, he made the 48 in the second innings in Durban and they won.

Things looked a lot different at that point.

But when you lost the series from that point and when the guy you brought into open failed the way he did in the second innings, second test which you lost by an inning and you sent him home saying, nah, we don't need you anymore.

Makai, you can almost dismiss.

Let's not even count it.

It was a great win in Durban.

So, three out of four test matches, proper test matches, you've lost.

peeped it I'm like

So this girl I was like friends with her You know But not only was I friends with her Like she did insoles very well She's like one of the best In the game you know She did what? Insoles Yes insoles So now we're in Durban I'm like I don't trust the people In Durban to do my hair So come let's go together you know, please do my hair, so on and so forth.

And then accommodation, like, what am I supposed to do? I'm like, no, you can sleep in my room.

Like, it's okay.

Where did we go? Miss Cafe? Were you there as well? Of course, I was there.

Of course, I was there.

We went to News Cafe Then we went to Love Yeah Right In Durban Yeah So now fine In the AMs My friend and I Book a flight Because we're like Because the network Drove there to Durban We're like Driving is going to be A bit of a problem Let's just fly So now we booked a I don't know why Maybe it was The cheapest flight We booked a 6 or 7 AM flight We get back to the hotel At like 4 or 5 We get there, now we're just like, we're putting everything into the bag.

Mind you, we're like sloshed.

That was a great meeting.

From day one in Durban, this Test match is seen to be heading towards a climax and we get it and we are privileged to speak to the Captain of Australia, Pat Cummins.

Pat, great to see you.

Before we get into this Test match, you've played in a lot of Test series.

I've been loving this side of the game for bloody ages.

Today's guest is John Plumtree, all the way from Durban.

Now, Plums, as he is known, has had a lifetime in this game as a player and as a coach, and has gone right around the world with the coaching journey.

Two Curry Cup titles and a Super Rugby final with the Sharks, South African Coach of the Year, Hurricane Super Champion, All Black Coach.

the X's and O's of the game what I remember about you is just who you are and how awesome it is to catch up and those are the special bits about this game particularly isn't it the people side of the game

yeah I think I don't think you really, when you retire from coaching or when you finish your coaching or when you wind down as a coach, if you like, you don't really reflect on trophies as such.

You reflect on the people that you've worked with, whether they were fellow coaches or players that you you know you had a connection with through you know a period of time and and those players don't forget you and know they bump into you or you bump into them and there's always a hug and a laugh and that's that's really neat you know because at the end of the day really the coaches that you coach sorry the players that you coach you know there's a big normally big generation gaps so you're quite different lots of different ways aren't you but Manon who's here in Durban at the moment you come over to help the Sharks a little bit with some of their younger players and mentoring them.

And, you know, I caught up with him a couple of times.

But the Cape and Natal couldn't agree on common import tariffs on goods shipped to southern Africa from abroad.

Natal wanted lower tariffs to handle more goods in Durban, while the Cape colony wanted to protect its own goods by imposing higher tariffs.

The Free Trade Agreement broke down when Natal bypassed the Free State and built a railway line straight to the goldfields from Durban, which broke the terms of the deal.

A year later, in 1889, new Free State President Francis William Reitz met with Transvaal President Paul Krier at a Potsdam conference and signed a trade and political agreement.

Transvaal agreed to block a rail connection from the south or west, i.e. from the Cape or Natal, without the consent of the Free State, which meant any line built from Cape Town to Johannesburg would have to cross Free State territory.

In exchange, the Free State promised to block any line being built north from their territory to Johannesburg, which safeguarded Creel's plans to lay a line between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay.

By 1890 there were three railway lines aiming at the goldfields, one from Delagoa Bay, one from Durban, and one from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

All of this under the ever-watchful eyes of the British.

I think there were a lot of reasons for that.

So there was anti-migrant rioting happening in the middle of Durban, which contributed to the low crowd numbers.

But even then, I think I wouldn't use it as an excuse because there was like a football derby happening at the same time, which like managed to attract 40 to 50,000 people in Durban.

So I think it's a combination of like, Durban has always been a poorly attended test venue.

Even like, you know, if you go like 20 years back.

So, I think it just made for like a very poor atmosphere and very poor start to the series.

And then you have this, you know, like sequence of wickets falling around.

until there is that rear guard between Renshaw and Pat Cummins, and then Lyon plays a decent hand.

You know, we watched Hiran for many years playing for the Sharks.

here in Durban our home team and before he went overseas and then came back to the Lions and yeah our thoughts are with his family his young children his wife and you know all his teammates I imagine it's been an incredibly tough time but how special has it been to see the rugby community coming out like this in support of him and you know what he stood for what the game stands for

You know, admittedly, you hear about these things happening from time to time and it's always a little bit, it's another team in another country in another hemisphere and you kind of read about it.

But, you know, especially for us South Africans, when it is someone like Hyron Andrews, who's been part and parcel of South Africa's sort of rugby world and played for some teams.

I bawled my eyes out that night.

In 1992, we went on a tour to a coastal city in South Africa, Durban, an evangelical tour.

You do dancing on the street and you speak to people and you see all kinds of things happening on the street.

And God broke me on that tour.

It means praise God.

Everything you bring, praise to him.

That's where everything started We started a group after that, a dancing group I did some, I can't do it anymore, I'm way too old now Some break dancing, some freestyle, some all kinds of stuff Dancing on the streets, do some skits on the street Like typical 1890 evangelical youth groups that go out and we did that After that first tour at Durban, we actually, it was three tours after that.

Every year, over the July holiday period, we went down.

Basically, I had to ride New Year's Eve.

Durban, New Year's Day, Joe Berg.

And then the first week of January was, I think it's the Queen's Plate.

I was meant to write this London news, right? And that was part and parcel of what I had to do.

And then, so, you know, obviously been going flat out from, I've been in the 70s in every country, and I was pretty tired that I ran down.

And we got to...

Durban, and at the right New Year's Eve is the roasting hall.

And I've got a little bit of pain in my backside, right? I couldn't figure out what it was, right? Obviously, hemorrhoids or piles.