Scrum of the Earth /

This week marks the 87th anniversary of South Africa-New Zealand rugby rivalry. The first ever Test match took place on August 13th 1921, when the All-Blacks triumphed at Carisbrook 13-5.

Wing John Steel scored one of New Zealand’s two tries that day and All-Black historians still regard the star performer’s try in the drawn series as one of the most spectacular ever.

Collecting a cross-kick from the half-way line, with the ball awkwardly positioned behind his back, Steel raced away for a momentous score.

Elsewhere in history, in 30 BC, Cleopatra (nothing to do with the expensive porn-film) committed suicide after her lover Mark Anthony’s defeat at the battle of Actium. In 1945 George Orwell’s satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, Animal Farm, was first published while 15 years later, in 1960, Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom,   

And it’s Feliz Cumpleaños! as they say in Spain to the Barking bruiser, Jason Leonard (50), French Hall of Famer Andre Boniface (74), Springbok centre Adrian Jacobs (28) and the champion of the ‘shortest hat-trick in history’, Nick Easter (30)