On 25 July 1998, wing Pieter Rossouw scored a famous try to help the Springboks beat the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time since 1981.

“It’s the Everest of rugby to beat the New Zealanders away from home,” Nick Mallett told SuperSport as he recalled the Springboks’ 13-3 victory against the All Blacks at Athletic Park in the 1998 Tri-Nations.

The Springboks arrived in Wellington on an 11-match winning streak, 10 of those under Mallett who had succeeded Carel du Plessis in 1997.

“It was the first time I coached the Springboks against the All Blacks and it was away from home. It’s a big challenge to go over there and say, ‘We’re going to beat these blokes’ …

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Henry Honiball; he was one of the greatest defensive flyhalves the world has ever seen. I said to him, ‘Listen, try to think up a move that you’d struggle to defend against.’

“I’d forgotten I’d even asked him and I remember, it was on the bus just before the start of the team’s Wednesday practice, he came over and said, ‘Coach, I’ve got one.’

“Come the game, it had to be on the left-hand side of the field from a scrum, and reasonably close to their line …”

In the 70th minute of the match, scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen fed the 5m scrum formed 10m to the left of the All Blacks’ uprights, and he quickly swept to the base where captain Gary Teichmann had controlled the ball. Van der Westhuizen scooped up the ball and zipped a short pass to Honiball, and then sprinted to loop his flat-running flyhalf with enough speed to successfully drag All Blacks flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens with him.

Honiball, with shoulders turned towards the scrum, helped sell the threat by dummying Van der Westhuizen. This allowed the flyhalf to take another step towards the scrum and draw flanker Josh Kronfeld, the first All Blacks forward to break from the set piece.

As to plan, the misdirection created a gap between Mehrtens (chasing Van der Westhuizen) and Kronfeld (locked on Honiball), and the Bok flyhalf floated the ball into the space for left wing Rossouw to race on to it from the blindside, past the attempted cover tackle of No 8 Isitolo Maka and score under the uprights.

“They never saw him,” said Mallett. “There was dead silence. I thought there must have been a forward pass because the crowd went dead quiet. And I just heard “Oh [expletive] no!” from the All Blacks coaching box and then I heard a loud whistle.

“No one else had done that move before, the All Blacks had never seen it. It’s absolutely fantastic.”

Photo: Ross Land/Getty Images