23 Facts About Gerry Brand

Gerhard Hamilton Brand was a Springbok rugby union footballer who played in 16 tests between 1928 and 1938.

Gerry Brand has been described as the best kicker of his era, as well as a "magnificent defensive player" with a "wonderful tackle".

Gerhard Hamilton Gerry Brand received his second name for the Hamilton Rugby Football Club in Sea Point, Cape Town, which had won the Western Province Rugby Football Union's 1906 Grand Challenge Cup club competition two days before his birth.

Gerry Brand grew up in Sea Point and learnt rugby from the age of 8.

Gerry Brand attended Sea Point Boys High School, and as a young man played scrum-half for Hamiltons, whose name he carried.

Related searches

Gerry Brand was an introvert, according to his friend, Danie Craven.

In 1936 Gerry Brand helped Hamiltons win the provincial championship, a feat the club did not repeat for the next 73 years.

The newspaper speculated that Gerry Brand could be chosen for a proposed exchange of baseball tours between South Africa and Japan.

Gerry Brand was first selected to play for Western Province in 1927, the year that his team won the Currie Cup championships.

Gerry Brand would turn out for Province until he was 38 years old.

Along the way Gerry Brand scored 24 points in a match against South Western Districts, a record for a provincial game that stood until 1950, when it was surpassed by Basie Viviers.

In 1934 Gerry Brand established a Currie Cup series record of 70 points in 6 matches – 67 points from kicks and 3 points from a solitary try.

In 1945 Gerry Brand played his last match for the Western Province before retiring from rugby.

In 1928 Gerry Brand made his debut for the Springboks on the wing against New Zealand, and played in two tests that year.

Gerry Brand played in 18 of the 26 tour matches, scoring 72 points in total.

Gerry Brand was appointed captain of the Western Province team in 1932.

Gerry Brand was part of the 1937 Springbok tour to Australasia, during which he scored 90 points in seven matches – a record that stood for 56 years.

Gerry Brand kicked 69 conversions, which continues to be the record for most conversions on a Springbok tour.

Gerry Brand captained the Western Province Town and Country XV which handed the Lions their first defeat on tour.

Gerry Brand's name was among the first listed for the Springboks for the first test at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg.

Not to be outdone, Gerry Brand drop-kicked a 60-yard penalty from almost exactly the same place as his famous Twickenham kick.

Gerry Brand was appointed a national selector in the 1960s and owned a filling station in Bloemfontein.

Gerry Brand played in 16 tests for the Springboks during which he scored 55 points.