The Springboks’ next meeting with the All Blacks will bring one of rugby’s biggest rivalries back into focus, but for one South African family, the fixture carries a much more personal connection.
Almost a century ago, a 19-year-old Albertus Viljoen ‘Oupa Alvi‘ van der Merwe found his name in the history books when he became the first player to score a try against the touring All Blacks on African soil.
Today, his grandson, Alvi van der Merwe, is helping carry that remarkable family story into a new generation.
A teenage moment that became rugby history
The year was 1928, when the All Blacks arrived in South Africa with a formidable reputation.
During the opening tour match at Newlands, Albertus Viljoen van der Merwe represented Western Province Country. At just 19 years old, he scored a try against the visitors, becoming the first player to do so against the touring All Blacks on African soil.
The All Blacks eventually won the match 11–3, but Van der Merwe’s achievement remained an important part of the tour’s story.
His rugby career would go on to earn him recognition as Springbok number 221.
Nearly 100 years later, that number has taken on a meaning beyond the rugby field.
From a Springbok number to a family story
Oupa Alvi’s legacy eventually became connected to another part of the Van der Merwe family’s story: winemaking.
He helped lay the foundations for what would become Alvi’s Drift in the Breede River Valley. Today, the family’s 221 wine range takes its name from his Springbok number.
The range includes Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinotage and Special Cuvée Red, linking a piece of South African rugby history with the family’s winemaking journey.
For the current generation, however, the significance of 221 is not simply about celebrating an old sporting achievement.
It is about keeping a family story alive.
When family history becomes part of the present
Family legacies can easily become distant stories about people younger generations never knew. In the Van der Merwe family, Oupa Alvi’s rugby achievement has instead become something that continues to be shared.
Alvi van der Merwe, his grandson and winemaker at Alvi’s Drift, sees the 221 range as a way of carrying that story forward.
The idea is simple: a story that began on a rugby field nearly a century ago can continue around a table, over a family lunch, a braai or while watching the Springboks.
That gives the 221 name a meaning that reaches beyond sport.
A story that connects rugby and wine
Oupa Alvi’s belief that making good wine is a team effort has also remained part of the family’s philosophy.
For the Van der Merwes, the 221 range brings together rugby, family, place and South African winemaking while giving a new generation its own connection to a remarkable piece of family history.
And with the Springboks preparing to face the All Blacks on 22 August, the timing offers a fitting reminder of how far that story has travelled.
What began with a teenager scoring a historic try at Newlands in 1928 now lives on through his grandson, a family wine estate and a number that still carries the name of a Springbok who helped write the early history of one of rugby’s greatest rivalries.
For more information, visit Alvi’s Drift.
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Picture: Springbok / Facebook
