Where were you the day Andrew Mehrtens flipped the bird at the Loftus crowd

Jamie Wall looks back on the infamous Andrew Mehrtens middle finger incident of 1999.

It’s a derby-free weekend of Super Rugby, with teams from every nation involved crossing oceans to complete round 11. One of the more notable is the unbeaten Crusaders visiting Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria to take on the Bulls. It was in this fixture at the same venue in 1999 that one of Super Rugby’s most infamous acts of poor sportsmanship was perpetrated by a guy who looked like his mum still cut his hair.

These were simpler times for what was then the Super 12. The Crusaders still had the ‘Canterbury’ on the front of their name, and played in the first iteration of an armour-design jersey with white shorts. They were also stacked with All Blacks.

The Northern Bulls had slumped from being a semifinalist in Super 12’s first season to being a veritable shitshow by its fourth. By the time this ninth round fixture came around, the Bulls hadn’t won a game all season. They did however have one of the more memorable South African sponsors in clothing chain Mr. Price, whose arrangement with the teams it sponsors stipulates that the skipper must give his post-match interview in a Donald Trump-MAGA style hat.

On this day in 1999, the lowly Bulls somehow managed to fight their way to 28-27 lead over the defending champions with time fast running out. But they made the costly mistake of allowing a midfield scrum and opportunity for Andrew Mehrtens to kick a drop goal, which sailed through the rarified high veldt air and between the sticks for a classic snatch-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat moment.

Then Mehrtens showed the Pretoria crowd exactly what it meant to him to beat their team.

Maybe someone in the crowd had said something mean to him during the game. Maybe he remembered he had in fact been born in Durban, making the win over the rival Northern team extra special. Or could it be that he was just using his fingers to remind everyone of the final margin of victory?

Whatever the reason, Mehrtens’ raised middle fingers and ‘shove it up ya’ exclamation point to the main stand at Loftus went down in history. Either as the act of a rebellious scamp who just wanted to show a bit of passion, or as a classless piece of foolishness from a senior All Black who really should’ve known better. How you see it probably depends on which team you support.

Since social media didn't really exist yet, the fallout from Mehrts’ salute was confined to newspapers, TV news and reenactments around schools and workplaces the following Monday morning. The first five received no official sanction for the gesture, which these days would probably incur a hefty fine and fake tearful apology.

The scandal didn’t seem to do much to the Crusaders on-field performance, with the team going on to successfully defend their Super Rugby title by beating the Otago Highlanders at the old Carisbrook ground in Dunedin.

Andrew Mehrtens kicked a drop goal in that game, too, but he left his hands in his pockets for the jog back to halfway.

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