Ken Borland

The Proteas Women’s performances made the grade in most departments during their 4-1 T20 series win over India, according to captain Laura Wolvaardt, but there are a couple of areas of their game which still need brushing up as they head into the 20-over World Cup in England in June.

South Africa signed off the series with a dominant performance at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, beating India by 23 runs. Wolvaardt was once again the Player of the Match as her sparkling 92 not out off just 56 balls carried the home team to 155 for six. An impressive bowling performance then restricted India to 132 for eight.

Wolvaardt took her tally of runs for the series to 330, the most in a women’s T20 rubber, making her the obvious choice for Player of the Series. The 27-year-old averaged 82.50 at a strike-rate of 168.36.

Her opening partner, Sune Luus, also enjoyed a successful series, scoring 197 runs at an average of 49.25 and a strike-rate of 138.73. But one concern for the Proteas will be that no other batter scored more than Annerie Dercksen’s 65 runs in four innings, two of which were not out.

Wolvaardt said after the fifth T20 that the lack of partnerships after the powerplay, in which they scored 49 without loss, was a concern. She faced 30 of the first 50 deliveries of the innings, reaching 50 in that time, but only 26 deliveries in the remaining 70. The Cape Town born player hit the last two balls of the innings for six to provide a crucial late boost in the company of Sinalo Jafta (16* off 8).

“Our total of 155 was somewhere around our goal in the end. The one area we lacked a bit in was partnerships. If we had one big partnership then we would have got over 165, which would have been decent. But we were about par, maybe a bit under.

“I did feel that I lost momentum a bit after the powerplay. We needed just one more big partnership, because when you lose wickets you’re also building dot balls. But I’m very happy with our batting in the powerplay and how much intent we showed.

“In all five matches that was good, and it was something that was not the best in the past. Previously we’ve been having slow starts and then some massive finishes. Now our starts are putting us in really good positions,” Wolvaardt said.

“Our death bowling has also come a long way, after we had found it tough in New Zealand. I thought it was a proper bowling effort today, the spinners were very good, Chloe Tryon and Nonkululeko Mlaba were excellent. We found a way to keep the batters quiet in the first 10 overs, they tried to force things but they just couldn’t do it. I was very impressed with the bowling.

“Taking our catches is one area we need to improve though. It’s been frustrating that in every game, one or two catches have gone down. But our play has been pretty good overall in this series, and I will now take a look at the different phases of the game more deeply.

“But we are very happy to beat India 4-1 and they are in our World Cup group as well. We now have a bit of momentum going into the tournament and it tells us that we are doing a lot of things right,” the skipper added.

While Wolvaardt was loathe to describe her performances as being the best she has ever batted, she did say she enjoyed being so fluent at the crease.

“I’m very happy with my form, although I did always have the best of the conditions because I won all the tosses. My batting had been a bit sluggish – in New Zealand I was getting like seven off the first 16 balls – and I can’t really say what changed. That’s how cricket is sometimes and it was nice to keep it going and enjoy the freedom to play positively,” Wolvaardt said.

Following a hugely successful 2024 in which they conquered both hemispheres, former Springbok great Naas Botha believes South Africa have entered rugby Elysium and deserve to be ranked alongside the greatest ever teams to play the game.

The Springboks won the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship by a whopping eight points, losing just one of their six matches (by one point in Argentina), and then recently beat Scotland, England and Wales for an unbeaten tour for the Autumn InternationalSeries in the UK.

Their only other defeat in 2024 was against Ireland in July, losing 25-24 in Durban thanks to a last-minute drop goal by Ciaran Frawley. The 12 months since their 2023 World Cup triumph have been good for the Springboks, who remain the number one ranked team.

Flyhalf Botha was the key member of the South African team between 1980 and 1992, but due to the country’s banning from international competition, he only played 28 Tests. Nevertheless, he scored 312 points as one of the most accurate kickers the game has known.It was a record tally for the Springboks until Percy Montgomery surpassed it in 2004 in his 50^th match. The World Cup winning fullback still holds the record with 893 points in 102 Tests.

A brilliant rugby strategist, Botha, who was chosen for the World XV in 1986 and 1992, led his province, Northern Transvaal, to nine titles in the famous Currie Cup. He is that competition’s leading points-scorer with 1699, including a record 135 drop goals,many of them in high-pressure situations.

“It’s absolutely amazing what Rassie Erasmus and his squad have achieved and you have to give them that credit. One win does not make a great team, a magic moment does not make a great team. But magic season after season after season makes a great team. Youcan’t compare this Springbok team to any of their current rivals because we know the pool of players they have is frightening,” Botha told SportsBoom.com at Sun City, where he was playing in the Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational, a golf tournament that raises money for needy children at the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School on Player’s Johannesburg estate.

Botha is now 66 years old and his rugby memories go back a long way, making him highly qualified to weigh in on the debate as to whether the current Springboks are the greatest team ever.

“By repeating in 2023 what they did in 2019 and winning the World Cup again, they did something that nobody can ever take away from them. No matter how you analyse it, they are the first South African team to do that. So who do you compare them to?

“You can’t really compare different eras and the 1980s were totally different to 2024. I played in some really good Springbok teams like the 1981 one that went to New Zealand was fantastic and the 1986 side that played the New Zealand Cavaliers. Then we havethe Jake White (2007) and Francois Pienaar (1995) teams that won World Cups.

“Going back, people used to talk about the 1937 Springbok team that won a series in New Zealand. We thought we had become only the second team to do that in 1981, before referee Clive Norling intervened.

“The 1974 British Lions were a great team, but they started in 1971 in New Zealand where they had an absolutely brilliant tour and then finished the job in 1974, unfortunately against us in South Africa. So we had to rebuild after that and we beat the BritishLions in 1980, so you have to give that Springbok team some credit too.

“The Australia team in 1984 won the Grand Slam, beating all four Home Nations, and Australia also won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999 when they cleaned up France in the final. And then we have the 2003 England team winning the World Cup in Australia.

“And what about all the New Zealand teams since then? Forget about World Cups, which you win in six or seven weeks, for the last 20 years, who has really dominated rugby before South Africa and you’d have to say the All Blacks, so give them credit as well.

“But the pleasure of this current Springbok team is that they have taken over and are playing at a different level. For once the world is following South Africa. I’m not meaning to sound arrogant, but I don’t think the rest of the world wants us around. They’reeven trying to make laws to eliminate our dominance, instead of just letting rugby be rugby and allowing the game to succeed. There is enough nonsense outside of rugby, we don’t need to let it on to the field,” Botha said.

The DP World Lions advanced their lead at the top of the CSA 4-Day Series standings to more than 30 points on Saturday as they hammered the Dafabet Warriors by 200 runs in Johannesburg, sealing victory on the third day.

Having bundled the Warriors out for just 94 in the morning session on the second day, giving them a first-innings lead of 197, #ThePrideOfJozi then declared their second innings on their overnight score of 214 for eight.

That set the Warriors a target of 412 for victory, a daunting score that has never been chased down before in the fourth innings of a CSA 4-Day Series match at the DP World Wanderers Stadium.

Despite the magnitude of the challenge, the Warriors set off rapidly in their second innings, racing to 121 for two in 17 overs. But the DP World Lions showed their tenacity by fighting back and they had Eastern Province 151 for four at lunch, youngster Kwena Maphaka having taken two of the wickets as he removed both openers.

A superb yorker bowled Diego Rosier for 8 and 10 minutes before the break, the left-arm fast bowler claimed the key wicket as he had Jordan Hermann caught behind off a brilliant delivery, the left-hander having blasted 67 off 71 balls.

Less than 25 overs later, the Warriors were all out for 211, with Lutho Sipamla wrapping up the lower-order with four for 42. He also produced fantastic deliveries to bowl Andile Mogakane (1) and Sinethemba Qeshile (40).

The 23.82 bonus points earned from the match will sit nicely under the DP World Lions’ Christmas tree because this is their last four-day match until March. That takes their tally to 83.96, with their nearest challengers, the Knights and Titans, both below 50 points in the standings.

The home side had won the toss and elected to bat first, and evergreen captain Dominic Hendricks once again held the batting together on the first day, scoring a defiant 89 as he went past 300 runs for the season.

But when Hendricks fell in the final session, trapped lbw by the impressive swing bowling of Beyers Swanepoel, the Warriors had felled five of the DP World Lions batsmen with just 167 on the board.

But that brought the combative Bjorn Fortuin to the crease and he struck a crucial 50 as he decorated his 59 balls faced with nine fours. Codi Yusuf once again stood tall with the bat in the lower-order, scoring 30 as he and Fortuin added 65 for the seventh wicket.

The DP World Lions were bowled out for 291 in the last over of the first day and the second morning gifted their bowlers helpful conditions for seam bowing.

Yusuf (5-1-11-2) had Jordan Hermann smartly taken by Delano Potgieter at short square-leg off the first ball of the innings, and then trapped Proteas batsman Matthew Breetzke (4) lbw in his second over.

Meanwhile, Maphaka showed the class that has many talking about his hereditary line from #ThePrideOfJozi’s legendary fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, as he had Diego Rosier (4) edging a lifter behind and then trapped Matthew de Villiers lbw first ball with a searing inswinging yorker.

The Warriors were nine for four and the tumble of wickets spread like a disease as Sipamla and Tshepo Moreki (6.3-3-17-3) chipped in to send the visitors crashing to 41 for six inside the first hour.

Moreki’s pace and venom is often underestimated and he forced Swanepoel to retire hurt on 21 after hitting him in the head with a lifter. The Warriors’ key all-rounder, who took five wickets in the first innings, could take no further part in the match due to the concussion he suffered.

Maphaka (7-1-24-3) returned to claim his third wicket, resulting in the Warriors being bowled out for their second-lowest total ever against the DP World Lions.

The clatter of wickets took a breather when #ThePrideOfJozi came out to bat in their second innings, with Josh Richards (44) and Mohamed Manack (49) taking them to 100 for two at tea.

The DP World Lions suffered a sporadic loss of wickets through the final session, but the batsmen had done more than enough to give the defending champions an unassailable lead.

The infectious enthusiasm of the bowling attack, despite a rough start, then finished off a job very well done on the third day.

In the wake of a triumphant 2024 following on from their 2023 World Cup victory, Ken Borland spoke to some of the finest men to have ever pulled on the Springbok jersey and asked them one question: Is the current class of Springboks (2019-2024) the greatest Springbok team ever?

They were all at Sun City playing golf and giving back in support of the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation and the fundraising effort for the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School, which was the late Vivienne’s passion since its establishment in 1990 for the children of farmworkers on their Lanseria estate.

All these former Springbok stars pointed to the achievement of winning back-to-back World Cups and the incredible strength in depth that coach Rassie Erasmus has cultivated for himself as being key factors in determining that this team is the greatest to represent South Africa.

Naas Botha

“By repeating in 2023 what they did in 2019 and winning the World Cup again, they did something that nobody can ever take away from them. No matter how you analyse it, they are the first South African team to do that. So who do you compare them to?

“You can’t really compare different eras and the 1980s were totally different to 2024. I played in some really good Springbok teams like the 1981 one that went to New Zealand was fantastic and the 1986 side that played the New Zealand Cavaliers. Then we have the Jake White and Francois Pienaar teams that won World Cups.

“But it’s absolutely amazing what Rassie Erasmus and his squad have achieved and you have to give them that credit. We now know who has progressed after the 2023 World Cup, it’s clear where New Zealand, England, Ireland and France are. You can’t compare this Springbok team to any of their rivals because we know the pool of players they have is frightening.

“One win does not make a great team, a magic moment does not make a great team. But magic season after season after season makes a great team.”

Pat Lambie

“I would argue that Springbok rugby is in the best shape it has ever been. It’s not just their achievements – winning back-to-back World Cups and the Rugby Championship and beating the British and Irish Lions – but the depth they have created in so many positions. That’s going to stand us in good stead going into the next World Cup.

“There is healthy competition for all 23 places and it’s a mix of experience, youth and x-factor that can have a massive impact off the bench. Rassie has done an excellent job leading the young players into international rugby and everywhere you turn, there’s a player who looks like a matchwinner.”

Robbie Kempson

“It’s the most successful Springbok team ever, but for me it’s the depth that is the greatest factor in rating them as the best. The quality of individuals in key positions at Rassie’s disposal is amazing and he’s brought a lot of them through. He’s a wily old man who has managed big players for 8-12 years, it’s the same group and yet he’s getting a much higher level out of them.

“They are way better than the All Blacks teams we played against 25 years ago. They were a phenomenal side, but these Springboks now have consistency, they’re definitely a better outfit, winning two back-to-back World Cups and everything else they’ve played for. And now they’ve evolved to really stretching teams with a running game. For me, they are definitely the number one side to have played this game.”

Butch James

“I believe it’s the greatest Springbok team we’ve ever had, definitely in terms of squad depth, which is unbelievable. We didn’t even pick our best team for the matches in the United Kingdom, but they were still great teams, which shows our depth.

“I think they’ve proved it already that they are the best Springbok team ever, they don’t have to do more. It was a tough tour of the UK because of that expectation that they would win all the games, which they did, even though England had us worried.

“I’ve liked the All Blacks over the last couple of decades, but the consistency of this Springbok team stands out, especially since Rassie keeps chopping and changing the selections.”

Steven Kitshoff

“I’ve read a lot about whether this is our best team ever and there’s no doubt that Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus have really been getting things right. To win back-to-back World Cups is special, we’re performing year in, year out and the depth is feeding into the machine nicely.

“I think there’s still a long road ahead before we can call ourselves the best team ever, but we’ve definitely put our hands up as one of the best. Although there have been some amazing teams in the last couple of decades, so I think we still have a long way to go.”