Tommy Gentles died in Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg, on 29 June 2011 at the age of 77. He had been in hospital for some three weeks undergoing heart surgery when his system collapsed.

There is a famous picture in the history of South African rugby - a sad picture, taken at Ellis Park in 1955. In it Jack van der Schyff slumps away in disappointment as his conversion kick flies wide and the Springboks lose to the Lions by one point in one of rugby's greatest Tests. On the ground following the errant flight of the ball is Tommy Gentles, the Springbok scrumhalf who held the ball for Van der Schyff as was the law governing conversion kicks at the time.

Gentles was young at the time - only just 21. Not only was he young, he was also tiny- the shortest ever Springbok at 1,6 metres (5 ft 3 ins). He weighed only 60 kg. But heavens, he was a great player, the darling of Newlands in a career that was just too short, a brave, lively, intuitive player. How the Muslim supporters at Newlands hero-worshipped the nippiest of scrumhalves.

He was at school at the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch and from there went to UCT. When he left rugby union for rugby league, he had played more matches for the Springboks than for Western Province, and more matches for Villagers than for UCT. At UCT he had a wonderful time at Under-19, captaining Combined UCT-Stellenbosch but then in open rugby he struck an obstacle. He could play only scrumhalf and UCT and Western Province preferred Dick Lockyear to Gentles while South Africa's preferred Gentles to Lockyear.

Top get round the impasse Gentles went off to Villagers in 1955 and made the 1st XV. He eventually captained the club and took them from bottom of the Grand Challenge to champions. In 1955, playing for Villagers, he actually got a game for Western Province when Lockyear was at Springbok trials and was then chosen for the Junior Springboks on their tour of Rhodesia with Danie Craven as their manager. Craven was coach of the Springboks against the great 1955 Lions and Gentles played in the first two tests - the defeat by a point in the first Test and the big victory at Newlands in the second. Inexplicably he was dropped from the third Test, which the Springboks lost but was back for the fourth, which the Springboks won.

He was in the 1956 Springbok side that toured Australia. He and {Popeye Strydom were the scrumhalves. There were six Tests on  that fateful tour and Gentles played just two - the second and third against the belligerent All Blacks hell bent on avenging the whitewash of 1949.

In 1958 the French came, the first French team to tour outside of Europe. They drew the first Test when Gentles did not play and then won the second when not only did he play but he was the vice-captain.

That was the end of Gentles's rugby union career for, just 24 years of age, he went off to play rugby league, first at Wigan and then for Leeds - a miserable experience and one that cost him dearly in days when rugby union treated league players as pariahs. He was not allowed to wear Springbok colours or coach a club side in South Africa and once, when he went to Villagers to have a drink with some of the players from his 1958 champion side, he was required to leave the Villager clubhouse - all of which seems bizarre and incomprehensible in these professional times.

Thomas Alexander Gentles was born in Johannesburg on 31 April 1934. He went to Western Province Preparatory School before going on to Bishops.

Gentles, who was a successful insurance broker, is survived by his wife Jean and his son Ian, who played for Transvaal Schools and now lives in London, and Ian's wife Christine.