“Larkham has DeBeered DeBeer!"
It is arguably most famous drop-goal in Australian rugby history, and along with the Wallabies’ 1999 World Cup victory that it unlocked, ’that’ kick from Stephen Larkham celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year.
But in RUGBY.com.au's new podcast "Keep 'em Nude: the Story of the 99ers", the former Wallabies fly-half has shared a little-known truth about the spectacular 45-metre drop-goal he launched in extra-time against the Springboks in the semi-finals of the 1999 World Cup.
The drop-goal was the first ever kicked by Larkham in his rugby career. It sealed a Wallabies’ win, and allowed them to go on and beat France a week later in the final.
But it turns out Larkham was, mostly, trying to do something else entirely. He was actually trying to kick the ball dead.
In episode four of the podcast, Larkham talks about the intent of the Wallabies’ most-famous drop-kick was to kick for field position, and an attempted hack to avoid a new law that punished a punt-kick going dead.
"They’d just changed the law about kicking the ball dead. Prior to that you could kick the ball dead from anywhere on the field and it would come back for a 22. But during that tournament you kicked the ball dead it came back to a scrum from where you kicked it from,” Larkham says.
"So the only way you could really just kick it down the other end of the field was using a drop-kick, you know. So just kick it dead using a drop-kick, whether it goes over is a bonus or not. And that’s kind of what was in my head.
"We had the lineout and I hit Greysie up, and I get the ball and I just felt we didn’t have anything on.
"Back of my head was just “play field position, take a field goal”. I will combine both and put it on the boot to try and just kick it dead, that’s what I was thinking, we just have get down that end of the field so I was just trying to kick the ball dead."
Wallabies centre Tim Horan, who tells “Keep ‘em Nude” he was not only very close to missing the semi-final due to illness but that he’d verbally agreed to defect to rugby league for Norths five years earlier, recounts how Larkham’s teammates had thought their no.10 had taken a bad option.
"When it went back to him a couple of us just went “noooo”, thinking we’re 45 metres out where Nathan Grey had carried the ball,” Horan tells the podcast.
"You go another five metres, you’re 40 out, you’re going to get a penalty at some stage in front. Then he hit it and we all just virtually laughed.”
Drop-goals had been on everyone’s mind that week - and been practised at training - after Springbok no.10 Janie De Beer kicked a world record five drop-goals against England the week before in Paris.
"We had the world record the week before with Janie de Beer and so at training everyone was practising the field goals,” Larkham said.
"I was pretty good at training, in fact my whole life I have been good at training. But put me in a game situation, I have only kicked two field goals in a game situation, that one and then another later on.
"I went over to Japan after the World Cup and was playing fullback and I would have had at least 30 shots in games, and I didn’t hit one. So my record is good when it counts."
"Keep 'em Nude": The Story of the 99ers is available on the link above, or via iTunes Podcasts and Spotify Podcasts.
