James Small

Biography

James Terence Small (10 February 1969 – 10 July 2019) was a South African rugby union winger who played for the Springboks. His international debut was against the All Blacks in 1992 and he made his final appearance against Scotland in 1997. In that final test match, he scored his 20th try, becoming the leading Springbok try scorer, eclipsing Danie Gerber's record. He was also the leading try scorer in the 1996 Super 12 season.

== Early life and education == Small was born in Cape Town to a working-class family, and attended Risidale Primary School and Greenside High School in Johannesburg, South Africa. He obtained Transvaal Colours for athletics and competed in the 100m and 400m when he was 16, but looking back said lacked the discipline in school required by athletics, preferring rugby as the fun alternative. He said he was offered the opportunity to go to San Diego State University for athletics but had to turn down the offer as his family could not afford for him to travel there. At school he was involved in association football, but was banned from the sport after a falling out with a referee, after which he turned to rugby. He was selected to represent the Transvaal school boys at Craven Week, earning a place in the South African schools boys side on the back of his performance there. Although he didn't go to university, he played for the Wits rugby club. In 1987 year he started playing for Transvaal, at the age of 18.

== Rugby career ==

=== Provincial career === Small played much of his provincial career under coach Harry Viljoen, following him from Transvaal to Natal in 1993, and to Western Province in 1998. That same year he returned to the Transvaal, then known as the Golden Lions, but "had a string of discipline problems with former All Black coach Laurie Mains". He played for the Cats in 1999, and retired after an injury.

=== International career === His first Test match in 1992 was the first for the Springboks at the dawn of the new, internationally acceptable South Africa following the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the ANC. He was one of the heroes of the Springbok team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and later that year experienced the transition of rugby from an amateur to a professional sport. After the fall of apartheid, when the Springboks were being taught the lyrics to the new South African national anthem, "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", Small was particularly enthusiastic about learning the lyrics. His response was that in his early days of playing rugby, he too was discriminated against, by Afrikaner players, for being of British descent rather than Dutch like they were. When the Springboks visited Robben Island on a tour, Small was very moved by what he saw and visibly wept, recalling later that "Thinking about Mandela's cell and how he spent twenty-seven years in prison and came out with love and friendship. All that washed over me, that huge realization, and the tears just rolled down my face." Small faced Jonah Lomu as his opposite man in the final of the 1995 World Cup. Lomu had scored four tries in New Zealand's semifinal against England, but Small and his teammates managed to contain Lomu, preventing him from scoring. The Springboks won the match and the Cup. Small's career was marred by his verbal abuse of others on the rugby field, gaining notoriety as being the "bad boy" of the Springbok team. He became the first Springbok to ever be sent off, as a result of dissent towards referee Ed Morrison in the second test against Australia in 1993. In later years Small acknowledged that he felt he had let a lot of people down but that he was sent off as a result of an accumulation of incidents in the team. He faced a Springboks disciplinary hearing, but was selected for the third test match the following week. Small was also alleged by his teammate Chester Williams to have uttered racist abuse towards him, though as an opponent in provincial rugby, not as a Springbok teammate.

=== Test match record ===

Pld = Games played, W = Games won, D = Games drawn, L = Games lost, Tri = Tries scored, Pts = Points scored

=== Test tries (20) ===