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Ken Borland



Hopefully a thrilling end for a Currie Cup that has been no apocalypse 0

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Ken

As the Currie Cup approaches what will hopefully be a thrilling end, there have been some apocalyptic comments about the poor quality of the rugby and how South Africa are allegedly once again miles behind the rest of the world.

People going on about the end of the world being nigh should generally be treated with some scepticism and it was good to hear Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus provide some much-needed perspective this week. In case anyone has forgotten, our Currie Cup teams are trying to play rugby in the middle of a global pandemic.

Obviously the major focus is to ensure nobody contracts the virus, which means there is regular testing being done on the players. Covid tests are not particularly pleasant, but the effects of this pandemic do not end there.

While Covid has disrupted the lifestyles of so many, it has had a terrible effect on the structured preparation rugby players have become used to in the professional era. According to Erasmus, rugby teams normally spend 280-300 minutes training together in the week before a game. But due to Covid protocols, that figure has now dropped to less than half of that.

That’s because after a match on a Saturday, teams can only do their Covid tests on Tuesday morning, because 48 hours have to pass before testing, otherwise contact tracing would have to be done in terms of who had too much physical contact during the last match. That means teams cannot train on a Monday in case anyone is positive and spreads the virus through the squad.

The results are only returned on the Tuesday night, which means all the scrum, maul and breakdown work has to be done on the Wednesday. A team could train on the Thursday, but that’s two days before the game and coaches and conditioning experts often are a bit wary of doing that so close to a match.

Captain’s runs on a Friday are now also mostly a thing of the past. When one adds in the effect of teams only being selected in the second half of the week, and the absence of coaches and players from week-to-week due to positive tests, it is clear there has been an awfully disruptive effect on the preparations of teams.

Players who do test positive return to action via a detailed nine-day quarantine period and then, once they return a negative test, a return-to-play protocol that measures the effect of the virus on the body through tests on the heart, lungs and other vital organs. It works out to be about 16 days – the equivalent of two matches – away from the game.

And even players or coaches who test negative, but are deemed to be close contacts of someone who has the virus, have to quarantine for 10 days.

These players and coaches, who have all taken pay cuts as well, are at the vanguard of keeping the South African game afloat in far from ideal circumstances. They deserve our thanks and appreciation, not our opprobrium.

With competing in Europe on the horizon, it really is a brave new world in so many ways for our rugby players. They will need our support.

They are taking the hits on and off the field, it’s midsummer when they have never been playing before, and the good thing one can say about the Currie Cup this year is that it’s still as uncompromising as ever.

Saturday’s matches between the Bulls and Lions at Loftus Versfeld, and Western Province and the Sharks at Newlands, might not be thrilling in terms of dazzling running rugby, but for sheer intensity alone they will hopefully be enthralling to watch.

Matchfixing investigators studying Tsolekile recording 0

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Ken

 

Investigators studying the Gulam Bodi cricket matchfixing case are in possession of a recording allegedly detailing a meeting between former Highveld Lions captain Thami Tsolekile and Indian gamblers, three informed sources have confirmed to Saturday Citizen.

The recording, in which Tsolekile allegedly discusses other players who are in on the scam, was apparently sent to one of the players who was approached by Bodi, possibly as a warning for them to keep quiet.

It was, instead, handed in to the anti-corruption and security unit at Cricket SA (CSA).

Bodi’s lawyers are also believed to have a copy of the recording and are looking at using it as leverage to prevent their client from being criminally prosecuted or to even get his sentence reduced. Bodi was banned from the game for 20 years in January.

Investigators are reportedly also homing in on a meeting Tsolekile had with the alleged bookies at a Rivonia strip club, with telephone records apparently showing he was there until 4am one morning in September.

The recording was apparently made of a subsequent meeting.

The match-fixing investigation has seen Tsolekile, who captained the Highveld Lions in the RamSlam T20 Challenge at the end of 2015 – but has not played for them since – go underground.

Saturday Citizen was unable to contact him for comment, but he has previously denied any involvement in corruption.

The former test wicketkeeper/batsman has not been seen at the Wanderers all year and team-mate Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who has previously admitted to being under investigation but denied having taken money to underperform, has also not been seen there since the end of the T20 competition, in which the Lions won just four of their 10 matches to finish second-last.

The 35-year-old Tsolekile has played three Tests for South Africa, the last one against England in 2004.

CSA said they were unable to comment on the matter as there was an ongoing investigation. Bodi was banned from the sport for 20 years, five of which are suspended, after earlier this year admitting to charges of contriving or attempting to fix matches in South Africa’s 2015 Ram SLAM T20 tournament.

He was charged with several counts of contriving or attempting to fix matches on December 31 2015 following an investigation conducted by CSA’s anti-corruption and security unit.

Bodi played two one-day internationals and one Twenty20 match for the national side in 2007.

http://www.citizen.co.za/1104555/thami-caught-out/

Hurricanes have fingers & thumbs everywhere, but Bulls pay dearly for one stray hand 0

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Ken

 

The Hurricanes got away with their fingers and thumbs being in all the wrong places in the rucks, while the Bulls paid dearly for one hand allegedly sliding ever-so-slightly out of play as they went down 17-13 to the Wellington-based side in their Vodacom SuperRugby match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

Replacement lock Grant Hattingh had slid over in the left-hand corner in the 77th minute for a ‘try’ that would have put the Bulls 18-17 up with the conversion to come, but Australian referee Andrew Lees, who gave a sub-standard performance throughout, referred the decision upstairs.

South African TMO Johan Greeff, famous for messing up high-profile television replays in the past, ruled that Hattingh’s hand had brushed the touchline before dotting down the ball, although the evidence certainly didn’t confirm this.

But even though the Bulls did not get the rub of the green when it came to decisions by the officials, this was a game they did not deserve to win. Everyone was really expecting them to up their game after last weekend’s shock defeat at the hands of the Stormers, but if anything they were worse against a disappointing Hurricanes team.

The Bulls had enough possession and territory to put the Hurricanes away, but they invariably messed up on attack through poor handling, a lack of protection for the ball at the ruck, or just plain bad decision-making.

The signs were not good for the Bulls from the outset as they spent the opening minutes in the Hurricanes half but had nothing to show for it as they kept turning over possession.

The 11 774 spectators started to get restless as the Hurricanes then picked up two penalties (6-0) by flyhalf Beauden Barrett when they visited Bulls territory, but it was Handre Pollard, the home side’s most potent attacking threat, who snatched a 10-6 lead with nine minutes left in the first half.

The flyhalf first of all slotted a brilliant penalty from the halfway line and then knifed through for a try, which he converted, after the Bulls looked set to waste the strong counter-attacking runs made by fullback Jesse Kriel and flank Lappies Labuschagne.

Beauden Barrett did pull a penalty back (9-10) just before the break as the Bulls scrum disintegrated on Morne Mellet’s loosehead side twice in succession.

The Bulls’ scrum did get better in the final quarter when Dean Greyling and Callie Visagie came on, but the lack of set-piece momentum, a couple of crucial lineouts also going astray, certainly hurt the home side.

Barrett regained the lead (12-10) for the Hurricanes with a 47th-minute penalty before it was Pollard’s turn three minutes later to slot a penalty and put the Bulls 13-12 up.

The decisive moment as far as the visitors were concerned came in the 67th minute as the Bulls messed up their own lineout throw deep in their own half and a period of sustained pressure saw the Hurricanes awarded a penalty.

Wing Julian Savea had only popped up sporadically up till then, but he took a quick tap penalty and Victor Matfield, Piet van Zyl and Bjorn Basson were not up to the task of stopping the powerful All Black from scoring the match-winning try.

The Bulls swarmed back on to attack but their failure to protect their ball at the breakdown hindered their efforts to break through. Eventually there was enough space on the outside for Hattingh to dive over, but TMO Greeff ruled he had slid his hand on to the touchline at the same time or before he dotted down the ball.

At a ruck shortly thereafter, inside the Hurricanes half, replacement scrumhalf Rudi Paige was blatantly pulled into the melee but referee Lees gave the penalty to the Hurricanes instead.

It’s the sort of bad luck the Bulls are having at the moment, but the bottom line is that they are not playing well enough to win.

 

 

 

 

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    1 John 2:5 – “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.”

    James 2:14 – “What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”.

    Love without action is useless.

    If you love God unreservedly, you will offer your best to him and be willing to serve him wherever he wishes to use you.

    Love has to manifest itself practically.

    “Love requires uplifting and inspirational deeds.

    “How genuine can your love for God truly be if you are aware of a serious need and do nothing to alleviate it?”- Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm



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