Ken Borland

CAPE ST FRANCIS, Eastern Cape – Heinrich Bruiners grew up in George, a little more than three hours along the N2 in a westerly direction from Cape St Francis, so a little bit of blustery wind is never going to give him grey hairs.

So although the wind almost reached 30km/h on the opening day of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at the St Francis Links on Thursday, it was no bother for Bruiners as he cruised to a marvellous, bogey-free, seven-under-par 65 to claim a one-stroke lead after the first round.

Things became a little gory for the rest of the field though, with only 31 of the 83 golfers ending the first day under par. Bruiners’ nearest challengers are Serengeti’s Ockie Strydom (66), and American Brooklin Bailey and a pair of South Africans in Dylan Naidoo and Jaco Prinsloo on 67.

“It was a bit windy today, but not too bad, just one or two clubs. Growing up on the coast, I’ve played a lot of tournaments in these conditions. I tend to focus a bit better because you have to be a bit more specific, otherwise it’s so easy to make a mistake in the wind.

“But playing in the wind feels like a bit of an advantage for me, to be honest, and I have a lower ball-flight than most,” Bruiners said.

Apart from playing what he described as his “worst two rounds for the year” in the preceding pro-am event, Bruiners has felt that he has been playing good golf, but has committed the sin of not capitalising when it comes to his final score.

On Thursday he put that right with three birdies on his front nine as he went off on the 10^th and then four more on his back nine, including three-in-a-row from the fourth.

“I’m very happy because in the last while, I’ve been playing really well but I just didn’t end off rounds the way I would like. I made a good birdie on 11 today, which is quite a tough hole, so it was nice to get off to a good start.

“The next few holes were also downwind and I was glad I capitalised because I was thinking the wind was going to pick up. I hit two very good shots for birdies on the first and fourth holes.

“Then there were more holes into the wind coming in, but I tried to be aggressive. Last week I was in contention in the SunBet Challenge Wild Coast, but I became a bit defensive down the stretch. So I tried to be a bit more positive today.

“It ended up being a really solid round, no drops because I made a really nice putt for par on the seventh. It’s the first time in a while I’ve sunk a putt like that, so it meant a lot.

“In fact this must be one of my most memorable rounds. I’ve played a few good rounds, but this one I’ll remember,” a delighted Bruiners said.

Strydom also started on the 10^th and had a much slower start to his ascent up the leaderboard, being just one-under at the turn. The first three holes at St Francis Links are deceptive, but the 37-year-old birdied all three for a great start to his back nine. Strydom also picked up shots on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes for a top-class round of golf.

Bailey also made a leap up the leaderboard on the front nine, also collecting five birdies.

Lifelong Bulls fans will have seen some brilliant backlines in their lives, but not many will be more exciting than the unit coach Jake White announced on Thursday for their United Rugby Championship match against Connacht at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

Five Springboks, four of them who are part of the national team’s current plans, have been named. New sensations Kurt-Lee Arendse (fullback) and Canan Moodie (right wing) will have a slightly more experienced international in Sbu Nkosi for company in a class back three.

Johan Goosen, who was eased back into action last weekend at fullback, returns as the starting flyhalf for the first time since injuring his knee 11 months ago, and there will be great interest in how he performs given how other experienced No.10s in the country seem to be falling by the wayside.

And then to round it all off, there is the veteran, evergreen Cornal Hendricks at outside centre. And two other backline Springboks on the bench in scrumhalf Embrose Papier and utility back Lionel Mapoe.

Even White called it “an incredible backline we’ve been able to put together”.

“But it’s their first time together as a combination and I look forward to seeing how quick it is before they click. They are all very talented.

“They all like to keep ball in hand, and in training we see so many line-breaks and so many supporting lines. So hopefully we can keep ball-in-hand on Friday evening.

“But rugby is also about clever kicking and they are all very clever rugby players. A guy like Canan can play 100 Tests for South Africa and people are now seeing what I see in him.

“And then you have a guy like David Kriel at inside centre who sums up what we’re about at the Bulls – you need to be adaptable. He brings incredible work ethic and unbelievable skills and rugby intelligence,” White said.

Although there has been a gorge between Connacht’s score and that of their opponents in their first two URC matches – Ulster beating them 36-10 and the Stormers 38-15 – White says they are a team that stays in the game.

“Connacht never go away and in both matches, with 20 minutes left the result could have gone either team’s way. So we must not think that it’s going to just happen for us.

“They beat us 34-7 last season, which was the biggest score against us. So we know we must play well otherwise we’ll get another hiding.

“They are very direct and well-coached, a typical Irish team that fights till the end. They’re good with the ball and defensively. They were not easy games for either the Stormers or Ulster.

“Connacht play a style of rugby that is very difficult to contain. Against the Stormers they were still in the game until they lost Bundee Aki to a red card, they were just one score away,” White said.

Bulls team: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie; Cornal Hendricks; David Kriel; Sbu Nkosi; Johan Goosen; Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw; Marco van Staden; Marcel Coetzee; Ruan Nortje; Walt Steenkamp; Francois Klopper; Johan Grobbelaar; Gerhard Steenekamp. Substitutes – Jan-Hendrik Wessels; Simphiwe Matanzima; Mornay Smith; Janko Swanepoel; Reinhardt Ludwig; Embrose Papier; Chris Smith; Lionel Mapoe.

Kickoff: 6.30pm.

South Africa’s top-order produced a terrible batting display in the first T20 against India in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, crashing to nine for five after being sent in to bat, and top-scorer Keshav Maharaj admitted that they had been caught unawares in the powerplay and needed to look at ways of ensuring such a parlous start does not happen again.

The Proteas eventually made it to 106-8 thanks largely to Maharaj’s greatly determined 41 off 35 balls, while there were also rearguard knocks by Aiden Markram (25) and Wayne Parnell (24). But despite a shaky start they saw them reduced to 17-2 in the seventh over, India cruised to victory by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare, thanks to unbeaten half-centuries by Lokesh Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav.

“We don’t want to dwell too much on the match, but there are things we can address and hopefully rectify,” Maharaj said after the awful start to the tour. “We do need to chat about how we started.

“When you are put under pressure like that then it’s very difficult to come back. But we showed some fight and we can build on that. It showed great character to go from nine for five to 106, we made a game of it and there are a lot of positives from that.

“But we need to adjust better against the new ball, they were getting a lot of swing, so we needed a change of plan and mindset. We didn’t expect the ball to swing so much, and the pitch was also two-paced, there was a lot of tennis ball bounce, so it was not easy.

“We need to find a way to combat the swing up front and our application at the top also needs to be looked at. But the ball was swinging prodigiously and we were just trying to get to the 16^th over and not get bowled out,” Maharaj said.

Losing five wickets in the powerplay was the difference between the two sides though, as Rahul dug in and Suryakumar scored an inspired 50 not out in 33 balls.

“With five wickets down in the powerplay, you’ve still got to be focused. We wanted to try and get to 16 overs and not get bowed out, and then unfortunately Wayne got out.

“Our seam bowlers also did really well in the powerplay, KG Rabada and Wayne were exceptional. Small moments went India’s way, but they batted exceptionally well.

“It was always going to be very difficult to come back from five wickets down in the powerplay, maybe it was a bit of rustiness on our part. Hopefully we can execute much better and make the second T20 more exciting.

“Conditions were in the bowlers’ favour, but full credit to Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh for landing the ball in the right areas. They had us under pressure in the powerplay,” Maharaj said.

South Africa’s batting is now certifiably in crisis as they could only manage a miserable 106/8 and were beaten by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare in their first T20 against India in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

That dismal score actually represented a recovery as, having been sent in to bat, the top-order were decimated by brilliant Indian swing bowling, crashing to a catastrophic 9/5.

Captain Temba Bavuma fell for a duck, bowled by a surprise inswinger from Deepak Chahar, at the end of the first over.

Arshdeep Singh then produced an incredible second over of the innings, forcing Quinton de Kock (1) to chop on, having Rilee Rossouw caught behind for a first-ball duck and then bowling David Miller first ball with another wonderful delivery that zeroed in on middle-stump.

Tristan Stubbs became the third batsmen to be dismissed first ball when he edged a cut at Chahar, Arshdeep taking a fine catch at third man.

Aiden Markram (25) and Wayne Parnell (24) averted the immediate crisis of being bowled out for a record low, adding 33, but South Africa only just limped into three figures thanks to Keshav Maharaj, who showed great determination in scoring 41 off 35 balls. The way the Proteas top-order bats, he should be regarded as a bowling all-rounder these days.

South Africa’s bowlers gave perhaps some pause for thought as Kagiso Rabada had Rohit Sharma caught behind for a two-ball duck and Anrich Nortje dismissed the other big fish, Virat Kohli (3), in the same fashion.

But Suryakumar Yadav showed what a marvellous talent he is with his 50 not off 33 balls and opener Lokesh Rahul batted through to score 51 not out off 56 balls.

Rabada (4-1-16-1) and Parnell (4-0-14-0) were both impressive with the new ball.

To make matters worse, wicketkeeper De Kock may well have injured a finger as he required prolonged treatment midway through the innings after trying to stop a leg-side wide from fast bowler Nortje.

Suryakumar became the record run-scorer in T20 Internationals in a calendar year for India, having now scored 732 runs at a brilliant average of 40.66 and a magnificent strike-rate of 180.29. He has cruised past the previous record of 689 runs by Shikhar Dhawan with ease, and still has the World Cup to come.

The 32-year-old hit the second and third deliveries he faced, from Nortje, for six, to immediately settle any nerves in the chase.

“As a batting unit, we failed to apply ourselves,” Bavuma said afterwards. “We weren’t able to adjust our plans. We saw what Rahul was able to do. We didn’t expect that pitch, we practised here  and we saw the wicket was spicy, but we didn’t expect it like that. You expected to hit through the line coming to India.”