Okey was such a faithful and loyal teammate and friend.

I didn't know him well when he was selected purely as a prop forward for the first test in 1949. Jack van der Schyff was going to take the kicks in the test matches, and when he failed with a few at Newlands, Felix du Plessis gave the ball to Okey who proceeded to bang over five penalties to give us victory by 15-11 over New Zealand.

This effort of his resulted in a great deal of retaliation by the All Blacks, not only in the remaining tests of 1949 but particularly during the test series in New Zealand in 1956.

Okey had his own particular theory with regard to place kicking. When he practised he would only take three shots at goal as a warm-up; but he put everything he had, all his expertise and ability, into those kicks. He maintained that if he kicked more than three his attention would wander and he would not be able to focus his mind on the more important kicks to come in the match itself.

When we toured overseas in 1951/52, Okey arrived in England with a sizeable reputation and the name "Okey the boot" and such was his reputation that the media wanted to capture his prowess as a goal kicker on film.

All this attention had an unfortunate result. Instead of Okey's strict regime of kicking only three balls at goal during practice, he now found himself obliged to appease the press by kicking some forty or fifty balls at goal. His form suffered as a result.

Fortunately, prior to the game against Scotland at Murrayfield, he regained his touch and converted seven of the nine tries scored that day. Okey often proved that when the chips were down he had the ability to rise to the occasion. That was one of the factors that helped place him among the greatest points-scorers in our history as well as a fine forward and a wonderful team man.