At the time, matches involving South Africa seem to have been confined to the countries of the British Dominion – the largely autonomous units of the British Empire.7 On February 20, 1926, Reuters reported in relation to a prospective tour by South Africa to New Zealand: “[O]n the ground that such a tour would be premature; the South African Football Association has declined to send a soccer team to New Zealand.” The reasons for declining were never given, but six months later, on August 16, the Melbourne Argus reported that South Africa’s membership of the British Dominion would be discussed at an Imperial conference in London in November 1926. While South Africa per se was not discussed, the conference rejected the idea of a codified constitution as espoused by Jan Smuts, who was the South African Prime Minister at the time. The conference however, also fell short of endorsing the “end of empire” as espoused by Smuts’ arch-rival, Barry Hertzog.
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1 The match was advertised in the Cape Argus of August 21, 1862.
2 ‘Boer’, the Dutch and Afrikaans word for ‘farmer’, has since been used to define white South Africans of Dutch descent.
3 A Dutch word meaning “unification”.
4 British football consisted of the British Football Associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (Ireland being partitioned in 1921).
5 It was not always possible to obtain the full names of all players in the teams.
6 The numbers in brackets indicate how many minutes into the game the goal was scored.
7 The original dominions were Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa. India, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) joined after World War II, and soon thereafter the Dominion was referred to as the British Commonwealth.
While in the early twentieth century the export of football talent was not what it is today, South Africa happened to have a team of players in, of all places, the United States. On November 17, 1916, the Kokomo Daily Tribune in Indiana reported that “football is to receive considerable attention” from students at the University of Michigan. “The boosters for the English sport”, the report went on, “include 24 students from South Africa, who have a team of their own.” It was clearly seen as a major story at the time, since the same report was carried by the Wisconson-based Janesville Daily Gazette, and the term “football” definitely referred to soccer, rather than American football, hence the reference to “English sport.” South African football seemingly enjoyed world press coverage.
On April 19, 1920, the Manitoba Free Press in Winnipeg, Canada, ran an article on its sports page saying that an England selection would be touring South Africa the following month. This seems to have been a national team, as players were selected from a number of prominent clubs: Gough (Sheffield United), Longworth (Liverpool), Elevy (Luton), Treasure (Bristol), Voissey (Millwall), Ramber (Liverpool), Woodhouse (Brighton), Burns (London), Turnbull (Bradford), Harvery (Sheffield Wednesday), Merter (Hull), Smith (Bolton), Fazackerley (Sheffield United), Sloley (Corinthians), Hawes (Norwich), Davies (Swindon), Woodcock (Manchester United). The report indicated that the team would be coached by Whitley of Chelsea and was to leave for South Africa on May 7, 1920. The tour was to last three months with the team returning to England in August.
The tour itself appears to have been in response to earlier requests by the South Africa Football Association and New Zealand Soccer. In 1919 Reuters reported: “the governing council of the soccer code [the English Football Association], has received [an] invitation for English elevens to visit those countries next season.”
These tours, particularly the one to South Africa, inspired other Dominion countries to invite British teams. Canada invited Scotland for an international tour to take place in 1920. Canadian newspapers made it clear that they would prefer a fully-fledged professional outfit as opposed to an invitational side. The Winnipeg Free Press report went on to explain that the reason the Canadians felt they needed the respect of being met with a fully-fledged and strong team was that “[t]he British teams have toured South Africa and Europe in recent years, [so] it is up to Scotland to obey the call of the blood and send a team to Canada.” The report predicted confidently that the “team sent will be a full-blown professional outfit, not an aggregation of university men.”
Subsequently, there appear not to have been any international tours until the late 1940s. However, in 1933 there were negotiations between the Australian Football Association and SAFA. This was in the wake of the failure by the Australians to persuade the German Football Association to visit Australia “owing to the great distance.” After a lull of some years, there was a flurry of activity between Australia and Southern Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe).
In 1947 South Africa visited Australia. Initially they had planned to play five international friendly matches starting in Sydney, but due to a shipping strike the South Africans had to stay on for an extra five weeks. As a result the team played six additional unscheduled matches. Match data for games played against British Commonwealth countries as well as Portugal and Israel from 1947 to 1955 is as follows:
Australia 1-2 South Africa
May 10, 1947 – Sydney: Sydney Cricket Ground, 40 000 spectators
Referee: William McWilliams (Australia)
Assistant referees: W Chard (Australia), H McLeod (Australia)
AUSTRALIA
Norman Conquest, Joe Marston, Cec Drummond, David Coote, Alec Heaney, Lex Gibb, Ted Drain, James Cunningham, Charles Stewart, Reg Date, Ray Marshall
Coach: N Gillespie
SOUTH AFRICA
James Pickerill, Doug McCreadie, Ernie Dowell, Cecil Kurland, Harry Naish, Dudley Forbes, Basil Clack, Gordon Falconer, Donald Wilson, Horace Smethurst, Len Anley
Coach: J Barbour
GOAL SCORERS
Reg Date – Len Anley, Donald Wilson (penalty)
Australia 2-4 South Africa
May 24, 1947 – Brisbane: Brisbane Cricket Ground, 15 000 spectators
Referee: T Boyd (Australia)
AUSTRALIA
Norman Conquest, Joe Marston, Cec Drummond, David Coote, William Wilson, Lex Gibb, Charles Stewart, Alec Heaney, Reg Date, Ron Hughes, Max Wynn
Coach: N Gillespie
SOUTH AFRICA
Jimmy Pickerill, Doug McCreadie, Ernie Dowell, Cecil Kurland, Ray Ferryman, Dudley Forbes, Basil Clack, Gordon Falconer, Donald Wilson, Horace Smethurst, Len Anley
Coach: J Barbour
GOAL SCORERS
Reg Date (2) – Len Anley (2), Horace Smethurst, Donald Wilson
Australia 3-3 South Africa
May 31, 1947 – Sydney: Sydney Show Grounds, 20 000 spectators
Referee: William McWilliams (Australia)
Assistant