Terry Mclean wrote in his book 'Battle for the rugby crown' as follows about the Springbok pack in this firts test of the 1956 series: ". . . Van der Merwe was beating the daylights out of Hemi in the scrums, Walker and Bekker were crunching Irwin and Clarke, Claassen was playing with divine inspiration and du Rand was extracting the last possible ounce of fury and fire out of the pack as a whole.
Pre-match faith in the power of the All Black forwards to lick the daylight out of the Springboks had produced a degree of superiority complex even among the All Blacks; and what they felt when the found themselves being ignominiously pushed back yards and yards can only be imagined. All through the first half, until the more serious of a distressing number of injuries to a distressing number of players compelled the retirement of Irwin, the All Blacks were getting a hiding in the front row and an even bigger hiding, principally because of Claassen in the lineout.
So high and distinctive was the morale of the Springbok pack that in the second half, when with Ackermann and du Preez off the field, it was six men pushing against seven, the forwards were still capable of taking complete charge of the play for minutes at a time.