Springbok Greats - Danie Gerber

Dr. Danie Craven said of Danie:
"He is a natural; you never have to tell him what to do, he instinctively chooses the right option. Show him that you have confidence in him and he will turn the world upside down!
Danie possesses unusual strength, speed and agility and using those skills and at tributes he has scored tries other players would sell their soul for; one of the greatest centres ever to represent South Africa".
This video is part of a television series called Springbok Greats which aired in the 1980's.
Enjoy and thanks for watching!

[@floydkingi4364]

Kiwi here.. Danie Gerber is regarded as one of the great centres of all time, and is still revered here in New Zealand

[@jeremyrogers4839]

Huge statement from a Kiwi. And I respect the AB's. But I agree. Best Centre in the world!

[@Bokfanlettucelip]

Great praise. Great to see Danie's gifts acknowledged. I wish he had the opportunity to play more games against the All Blacks. I can only imagine the games That might have been...

[@barrythebloke592]

Hands down the best centre I have ever watched. His enormous strength and stamina were the bedrock of his game but he was no basher! He had burning pace, a beautiful body swerve, displayed superb support running, was a hard tackler and an excellent reader of the game. That Springbok back line was enormously talented and yet he still stood out.

[@RealRugby]

Couldn't agree with you more. There isn't a list of the best 13's of all time, it's Danie Gerber and then just the rest

[@mariopereira9727]

The best centre of all time. Thanks for all the great memories Dannie The Master Gerber, from Portugal, Mário Pereira.

[@michaelcooper4986]

I saw Danie Gerber and Naas Botha at the waterfront in Cape town they seemed liked the best of friends

[@cheetahcheetah3756]

whenever I see vids of Danie, this song comes in my head: oho, u cant touch this. lol, this man was fast. danie, if u read this, u were the man. ;-)

[@kobusbam6112]

about 2 months ago he had a signing session, i thought lines is going to be huge, me and my brother got there and we were the first / only ones. Not sure how many people came after we left - but its sad that thats what south africa feel for him nowadays and that includes young and old. Really felt bad for him, but he was in good spirit - he was very friendly, shaked our hands and even started some small talk.

[@RealRugby]

I was lucky enough to spend an entire weekend with Danie and his family and yes, he is very laid back and down to earth. He told me that when he was in New Zealand in 2011 for the RWC, he was still recognized by people on the street. I think in SA rugby is really suffering in general and it just does not have the support it used to. Go check out our other video of Danie, it's full of his best tries!

[@Patrick8804]

I walked into a bar about 2 weeks ago wearing my rugby t-shirt and meet a bunch of South Africans, at least a dozen, and they all wanted to talk about rugby, which was great so I had a great time and was in rugby heaven! Then I mentioned Danie Gerber but no one knew who he was. I was gob smacked! (That was my childhood hero - and still is my GOAT!!) It would be like talking to a bunch of basketball fans and no one knowing who Michael Jordan was.

[@analiza792]

@@Patrick8804 ...thats truly sad...even today kiwis still know who sid going is

[@floydkingi4364]

He is still well remembered here in New Zealand, the great All Black Frank Bunce rated him one of his toughest opponents!

[@rooibaard365]

​@@Patrick8804hehehe. Casuals. He was also my childhood hero. I've never seen anybody run as great as him on a rugby field.

[@neilcarpenter2669]

In my opinion the greatest outside centre I have ever seen and I have seen some good ones in my 50 years.

[@RealRugby]

A man that knows his rugby! Gerber is the greatest 13 in our opinion too

[@noleenpeake2164]

The greatest of all time, it's Gerber.

[@analiza792]

Thanks for the memories Danie Gerber

[@teebrinner5939]

Greatest centre of all time,a pleasure to watch..amazing

[@RealRugby]

It's just sad he never got the opportunity to play 100 tests for the Boks. People outside of South Africa will usually make a case for BOD as the greatest centre, or even Sella, but no one else even comes close to Gerber. He was simply perfect.

[@rus65]

You'd be surprised. Many kiwis don't rate BOD, but they certainly do rate Gerber. Gerber is the best i've seen followed by sella, BOD is way down the pecking order and many think the same.

[@RealRugby]

Russell Scott, a man that knows his rugby!

[@darrenormsby3034]

Indeed mate. I'm a kiwi and I rate Danie as the greatest centre of all time. Along with our Christian Cullen, no other back had the skill and speed of Gerber. BOD....oh boy. He is the most overrated player on the planet!!! I would rate Mike Gibson ahead of BOD any day of the week

[@ronansavage7918]

Real Rugby BOD is actually very highly rated outside of South Africa and New Zealand. Here in Australia he is definitely seen as one of the greats and up north he is seen as the greatest NH player ever I think. My list would go: Horan, O’driscoll, Sella, Nonu, Gerber, Little and Smith

[@stephenbrown663]

I'm a scarlet fan from West Wales Gerber was best I saw

[@RealRugby]

Thanks mate. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Springboks of all time in SA. I still think he is the greatest 13 of all time

[@noleenpeake2164]

@@RealRugby Gerber definitely still is❤️

[@Martin-pb7ts]

He was something special. He makes my first team of all players of all time, and yes I do actually have such a list. :-)

[@RealRugby]

Martin Coetzee share the list!

[@thegulagarchipelago5921]

Such a Great Pitty that he never really got the chance to play at international level! The outside world missed out on one Hell of a Player!!! I always admired his loyalty to EP rugby but in retrospect he probably should have moved to a bigger union. (I do remember him late in his career for WP on the wing though???)

[@RealRugby]

Met him a couplenof times and he admitted he should have gone to WP earlier in his career. Very loyal to EP. Also said no to rugby league just because he wanted to play one more test for the Springboks. Great guy, great Springbok

[@leonvanderriel5502]

Best centre ever. In 1980 as a 10 year old boy I moved from number 6 flank to number 13. In the same year Danie made his debut for the Springboks as a 22 year old against the Pumas and he immediately became my rugby hero. What a privilege to have been coached by him as a club rugby player in my mid 20's. Such a strong and modest leader. Never came even remotely close to his achievements. but blessed to still have contact with this absolute talented. gifted, blessed and modest legend to the present day. He is an absolute legend and leader on and off the field. We need more leaders like him, on and off the field.

[@johnryan6095]

Next to the greatest M.c.h. Gibson

[@abriepieterse1665]

Yes it's quite tragic that a sportsman of such extreme talent is not better known, I guess it's mostly due to playing pre-professional era and due to sanctions at the time in South Africa. Out of curiosity who was the player in the next episode, referred to as the most talked about player in the history of South African sport? I would guess based on the date of the series Naas Botha. If it was more recent I suppose it would be Oscar Pistorius, for all the wrong reasons.

[@RealRugby]

Abrie Pieterse They were referring to Naas Botha

[@abriepieterse1665]

Alright, thought so. Thanks for the great videos, keep them coming!

[@chieflyboat]

My centre ranking in the pro era: Gerber, C. Smith, Herbert, Fourie, Mortlock, Bunce, J. Little, Sella, BOD, J. Davies, Umaga, Jauzion

[@ronansavage7918]

A lot of those players didn’t play in the professional era

[@rugbywhisperer-coachkane3038]

@@ronansavage7918 they all played past 1996 which was the start of the pro era... Funny enough Danie didn't play in the pro era at all.

[@rugbywhisperer-coachkane3038]

Where's O'Driscoll??? Mortlock my favourite of the lot 👍🏼

[@rugbywhisperer-coachkane3038]

@@ronansavage7918 also Sella never played past 1995

[@rugbywhisperer-coachkane3038]

Apologies i see BOD... Right.. That's O'Driscoll 👍🏼

[@nrmasson1]

Hey, what happened to rugby? I grew up playing rugby in the '80s. I loved watching Danie Gerber, Eroll Tobias, Ray Mordt...all those guys. I then moved to America in '91. I watched a few matches 20 years later and was shocked! They don't run the ball! They run into each other and do this bear hug thing. It's quite miserable to watch, actually. What happened? Can anybody tell me?

[@ay613]

I agree it's boring.

[@manageselflove11manageself3]

It changed alot you are right

[@floydkingi4364]

Very predictable these days, almost like Rugby League

[@TheCosmerenaut1]

The game changed, defences got better and tactics have evolved completely. Now if you try run or play like they used to, you’ll get suffocated by a modern defence and lose the ball. I love watching rugby

[@norman1291]

@@TheCosmerenaut1 So if the fly half, centers and wing line up deep and wide, and they run hard, and the ball is passed in front of them as they each run into and catch the ball, they are catching the ball at full speed, how can they get suffocated?

[@michaelcooper4986]

Imagine this team at the 1987 world cup we would have beaten the all blacks