Ken Borland

While the Springboks’ second-half comeback against Ireland last weekend was rightly lauded, no-one enjoys seeing them play as poorly as they did in the first half and it is imperative that they hit their straps from the outset on Saturday against Scotland to avoid the feel-good factor of Dublin being totally diminished.

While there is no question the team has enormous character and are growing mentally with every outing, there are still nagging doubts eating away at many analysts that the Springboks might not be on the right path.

While the fickle public throw their rotten tomatoes over the way the Springboks play, the lack of tries they’ve scored and who is selected, there are valid concerns about South Africa’s greatest rivals, New Zealand, disappearing over the horizon in terms of how far ahead they are in terms of quality.

Many comparisons with the All Blacks have not been between apples and apples, simply because they have a far more experienced, injury-free side at the moment, but the way they dismantled a brave Scottish team last weekend with a second-string side gives the Springboks a pointer as to what they should be aiming for.

Heyneke Meyer’s team may have risen to number two in the world rankings, but there has not been much to choose between them, Australia, France, England and even Argentina this year.

Ruthless and efficient is what most fans would want to see from them this weekend in Edinburgh.

Scotland is currently ranked ninth and in danger of slipping further into the third tier of nations ahead of the 2015 World Cup draw on 3 December. Running through their team list, only a handful of players are recognisable internationals. The Springboks really should dominate them and, for a change, make sure the scoreboard reflects that as well.

Even when the admirable young Springbok pack has dominated its opposition this year – even doing it against the All Blacks in Dunedin – the team has turned that advantage into points just once, beating Australia 31-8 at Loftus Versfeld at the end of September.

There is a bright young thing at flyhalf now in Pat Lambie, but one feels he still needs to sell himself to coach Meyer and there was more than a hint of him playing within himself last weekend against Ireland.

Lambie’s strength is not the aerial route and, given that Zane Kirchner and Ruan Pienaar are still in the team and kicking for territory is still a vital part of Test rugby, he would perhaps be well-advised to leave those duties to them, while focusing on his more magical skills while the Springboks are on attack.

The Springboks have come to Murrayfield before with expectations running high that they would emulate the All Blacks, but lost their last outing there 21-17 in 2010 and struggled to a 14-10 victory in the previous match in 2008.

The major advantage South Africans have over northern hemisphere teams is the pace at which they play the game in Sanzar events, and the Scots will surely not be able to match the intensity if the Springboks up the pace, as they did in the first half of the Test against England at Ellis Park in June.

The pack obviously has a key role to play in laying the foundation and securing quick ball, but the Springboks should learn from the mistakes of the past and not only rely on forward dominance for victory.

After choosing centres that provided a steady diet of crash ball in midfield for the whole year, it is pleasing that Meyer has given Juan de Jongh a chance in the number 13 jersey. One of the heroes of the Currie Cup final has the footwork to splinter the best of defences and the possibility exists of actually seeing a few linebreaks and offloads on Saturday.

The defence, which was outstanding against Ireland, may lose a bit in physicality, but De Jongh is a tenacious tackler and the Western Province and Stormers teams he starred in had the best defensive records in their competitions.

The Springboks are overdue a complete performance that proves they are indeed the nearest challengers to the All Blacks.

 http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-16-great-scots-the-boks-have-their-work-cut-out

Heino Kuhn’s prospects of becoming the South African national team wicketkeeper hinge on the form and fitness of a couple of other players right now, but the 28-year-old is inching his way closer and closer to the side through sheer weight of runs.

AB de Villiers currently holds the gloves in all three formats, but one of the world’s most talented batsmen has not scored a century at international level in nine months and has recurring back problems.

Thami Tsolekile is his official understudy on tour in Australia but there seems to be a lack of confidence in his batting, with his first-class average being 29.01.

Kuhn, on the other hand, has a first-class batting average of 46.17 but his appearances for South Africa have thus far been limited to five T20 internationals, in which he has batted four times but only once come to the crease with more than four overs left in the innings.

But the Titans batsman believes the time is now for him to step up and claim the mantle as Mark Boucher’s long-term successor.

“I’ve definitely made the wicketkeeping place in the national side my goal for the season, my whole thinking heading into the season was about getting into the Proteas side,” Kuhn admitted to Business Day on Wednesday.

And, right now, Kuhn is in superb form with the bat as well. He has scored 107 and 41 in his two Momentum One-Day Cup innings and averaged 101.50 in the Titans’ two Sunfoil Series four-day matches this season.

Mother Cricket has the tendency, however, to get her own back on players who think too far ahead and Kuhn stressed that, although the national team was a very definite goal, he was focusing on performing for his team first.

“I’m not breaking my head worrying about why I’m not in the national team, I’m just going out there to enjoy every game and help my team win trophies. Personally, I’ve been batting well and I scored a century in my last game, but we weren’t happy with the way we played as a team in the first two four-day matches and we made a bad start to the one-day competition,” Kuhn said.

Whether De Villiers, one of South Africa’s key top-order batsmen, should even be keeping wicket is debatable with many of the owners of the sharpest cricketing brains around saying the workload is too much.

But Kuhn is happy to take on the responsibility of both gloveman and specialist batsman.

“I love to open the batting, especially in four-day cricket, and seeing off the new ball is always a good feeling. There are always a lot of gaps at the start of the innings, so any time you pierce the infield, you get four runs.

“But it is hard work keeping wicket as well and that’s why I float up and down the order with the Titans. If I had to play for South Africa, I’d probably only bat seven or eight, but that’s basically the same as opening the batting because you’ll be up against the second new ball,” Kuhn said.

The Affies product is also the owner of one of the best pair of hands in the country and, as a package, certainly warrants a look from the national selectors.

Whatever other talents Nashua Titans coach Matthew Maynard may have, it is his powers of encouragement and motivation that have been to the fore lately as he has lifted his team from a humiliating opening defeat into a position of strength in the Momentum One-Day Cup.

The Titans have shrugged off their catastrophic 269-run loss at the hands of the bizhub Highveld Lions – the heaviest between two leading provincial sides in local history – to win their next two matches and rise to second on the log ahead of Friday’s match against the Sunfoil Dolphins in Durban.

And, as fast bowler CJ de Villiers revealed to Sapa on Wednesday, Maynard revived his team by telling them that nothing else they did this season could possibly be worse than their performance that dark day in Centurion.

“A lot of credit for our turnaround must go to the coach [Maynard]. Everyone was shellshocked, nobody knew where to put their heads. But the coach said this is the worst we’ll ever play and that lifted a lot of pressure off us. We know we’re a good team and it just takes one guy to lift us,” De Villiers said.

The lift came five days later in Benoni as a fine all-round team effort saw the Titans beat the defending champions Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras and they then hammered the Chevrolet Knights last weekend to climb into second on the log, 10 points behind the Lions, but with a game in hand.

The Titans will be eager to maintain the momentum and stay in touch with the Lions by beating the bottom-placed Dolphins on Friday, or else they run the risk of being overtaken by the Knights or Cobras in the race for second place and a home qualifier.

The team that tops the standings qualifies automatically to host the final.

Of course, given the recent weather in Durban it would be quite an achievement just to complete the game. The south-westerly wind has been consistently blowing rain up the coast and she also ensures the Sahara Stadium Kingsmead pitch retains a lot of its traditional spite.

While the Titans spinners have been their most effective bowlers in the competition thus far, De Villiers said the pacemen could make an impact in Durban on Friday.

“The last few games, we haven’t really fired as a fast bowling unit and we’ve been leaking runs in the first 20 overs. We’ve spoken about it and we will be looking to improve against the Dolphins. Our plans have been pretty good, it’s just a matter of executing them,” De Villiers said.

While the Lions attack, spearheaded by Titans discard Hardus Viljoen, have bowled their opposition out in all four of their matches thus far, De Villiers said the Northerns/Easterns combination could also take wickets through exerting pressure.

“If you put batsmen under pressure and hit good areas, then you will get wickets. You don’t want to be trying for miracle balls, good balls in the right areas are the ones that end up taking wickets,” the former Free Stater said.

The Dolphins season may have already gone awry due to a combination of bad weather and poor form, but De Villiers said the Titans would still be keeping an eye on quality players like Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Jonathan Vandiar (if fit), Cody Chetty, David Miller and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.