Ken Borland

Their opening warm-up match against the England Lions caused many to squirm after the heavy defeat they suffered, but Thursday night’s comprehensive win over the same team had batting hero Heinrich Klaasen saying the Proteas have everything in place for their ODI series against world champions England that starts on Tuesday.

The Lions – England’s version of their A side – chased down 319 in just 37.1 overs in the first match, but South Africa rebounded to beat them by 107 runs in Worcester. The Proteas again batted first and posted a formidable 360/7, but this time they only used their five frontline bowlers and bowled their opponents out for 253.

In the first match, South Africa gave eight bowlers a run and they all just bowled a handful of overs because preparation was more important than the result. But Thursday night’s clash was very much a dress rehearsal for the first ODI and was played under 11-a-side rules.

The batsmen, led by Klaasen with scores of 51 off 35 and 123 off 85, look in good shape and the likely bowling attack did well on Thursday night as well.

“We’ll take a lot of confidence from that,” Klaasen said. “They’ve given us two very good pitches to bat on, so the batsmen are smiling with a lot of confidence, and the bowling was a lot better too.

“We took the game to them and it paid off. We’ll now have a day off and then a couple of training sessions and then we’ll be good to go.

“The bowlers were able to get more of a feel of the game and the way the England Lions played was very aggressive. It was a good outing for the bowlers because the Lions played the same brand that England will use, so we know what to expect and how to adapt,” Klaasen said.

The 30-year-old Klaasen, batting at No.7 in the first game and at No.5 for his fiery century, has brought a fantastic attacking edge to the Proteas line-up. It is a continuation of the fine form he showed on the T20 tour of India, his first appearances for South Africa since October 2021.

“Hopefully I can keep riding the wave, I’m quite happy with where I am at the moment and the way I am striking the ball,” Klaasen said. “It’s about staying in the game and taking every ball as it comes.

“I’m hitting the ball nicely and I’m in a good mental space. Andile Phehlukwayo [67 off 53] joined me at an awkward stage [167/5 in 30 overs] and I was very pleased with the way we went about our partnership.

“It’s good to have Andi in form and hitting the ball so nicely. He took the pressure off me, he said I must just get to my hundred and he’ll take care of the rest,” Klaasen said.

Re: The matter between Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber and all the former national team coaches and players who have come out to criticise his selection for the second Test against Wales in Bloemfontein, which led to an historic first loss to the men from Cymru on home turf.

The defeat, following a fortuitous last-minute win in the first Test against a team that had been reduced to 12 men for some of the last 10 minutes, has put Nienaber and the Springboks in a concerning position – another loss in Cape Town on Saturday would give Wales the series and would be the first time South Africa have lost the majority of their mid-winter Tests at home since losing to the British and Irish Lions in 1997.

Losing the series to Wales would also put Nienaber under pressure to start anew, but then we have seen the next tier of players is not yet ready to take over judging by the way they let the Test in Bloemfontein slip. So in many ways, Nienaber really is between a rock and a hard place, with only a good victory in Cape Town on Saturday allowing him to wriggle into some breathing space.

The problem with being world champions is not only that you are the team with the biggest target on your backs, but that four years can be a long time in rugby and a side that won the previous World Cup might be just that little bit over the hill at the next showpiece tournament. It is the major reason why the defending champions have only retained their title once – the All Blacks going back-to-back in 2011 and 2015.

Coaches will naturally want to stick with the players they trust, the ones who won them the greatest prize in the sport. But they will also recognise the need to rejuvenate, to refresh their squad with new blood where necessary.

Thanks partly to the weakness of the rand and the number of foreign clubs eager to embrace South African talent, there is no doubt a fresh generation of exciting talent is starting to emerge at home, helped by the move into European competition.

Nienaber does need to look at them in the pressure of international rugby because some of them could well be key to defending the World Cup crown next year. But it is a balancing act and ideally you would want to introduce three or four players at a time with plenty of experienced, first-choice campaigners around them.

Perhaps Jake White is right and the fact that Nienaber has limited experience of being the head coach of a team led to him naively thinking that a squad with 19 changes to the 23 would be able to beat Wales.

I’m sure the number crunchers in the Randburg TV studios will know the answer, but I do wonder whether more people will watch the Springboks this weekend because the Test is a series decider or whether they prefer to watch a South African team sweeping all before them?

One thing is certain and White also made this point. The Springboks cannot rely on what won them the World Cup in 2019 working again next year. As we have seen with Wales, the opposition is getting better and better at countering the Erasmus/Nienaber game plan.

The Springboks need to grow, they need to change and evolve. I am sure Nienaber had this in mind with his selection for last weekend. It was a gamble that did not come off, much like playing the undercooked Elton Jantjies at flyhalf in the first Test. Sometimes the Springboks brains trust just try to be a little bit too clever.

Providing the first-choice players do the business on Saturday, it may just turn out to be a small step backwards, a valuable lesson, on the path to the 2023 World Cup.

Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus, the duo who became heroes by turning a Springbok side at its lowest ebb into world champions, are now trending towards zero in some critics’ eyes, with fellow World Cup winning coach Jake White the latest to take a potshot.

White, now spearheading the Bulls’ renaissance as director of rugby at Loftus Versfeld, took a thinly veiled swipe at Nienaber’s lack of coaching experience in a column he wrote for the Rugby Pass website on Thursday.

Criticising the decision to make 14 changes to the Springbok starting XV and suffering an historic first defeat to Wales on home turf last weekend in Bloemfontein, White said Nienaber should have learnt not to experiment at Test level in that fashion at junior or club level.

“Making 14 changes obviously didn’t work for the Springboks and personally, I think Jacques Nienaber missed a trick,” White wrote. “There’s an expectation that you win every time you play in South African colours and the margins in Test rugby are incredibly small.

“I’m told his rationale for picking that second Test team was because he … didn’t want them to just be playing a dead rubber in the third Test. I’d say I don’t think there should ever be a dead rubber Test when you’re playing at home.

“The job of a national coach is to win Test matches. National coaches shouldn’t use Tests to see if players are good enough, thats what A sides or training is for.

“You’re not a national coach to learn lessons. You learn that at age-grade or club level – I mean that sincerely – there’s a reason people go through a system to become national coach,” White said.

The often-outspoken coach added that Wales will love the prospect of a winner-takes-all contest in Cape Town and the situation the Springboks have put themselves in.

“What I’m expecting on Saturday is massive amounts of pressure that he [Nienaber] didn’t need. Nienaber could have won the Series and now he’s created a real cauldron in Cape Town.

“It’s at sea level, and the Welsh will be boosted by the fact they’ve contested Tests on the highveld. Wales will come brimming with confidence. I’ve coached against them, and the one thing they don’t do is go away.

“Going back to selection, when Sir Gareth Edwards, one of the greatest players of all time, said it was a slap in the face, I can’t believe it wasn’t a real motivation for the Welsh team.

“Wales won’t make changes to a winning team. With consistency comes confidence. It’s backs to the wall for the Boks and if they don’t get the proper game going, they could lose the series,” White said.

The Proteas Women’s team will be after quicker batting in order to stay alive in the three-match series when they tackle England again in the second ODI in Bristol on Friday.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening match in Northampton earlier this week, South Africa struggled up front in the face of some outstanding quick bowling by the veteran Katherine Brunt (9-1-18-3). After 30 overs the Proteas had posted just 109/5 and it was only thanks to Chloe Tryon (88 off 73) and Nadine de Klerk (38 off 53) that they managed to eventually reach 218.

No-one in the top-five batted with a strike-rate higher than 67, compared to England’s blazing batting which saw them chase down the target inside 33 overs. Emma Lamb scored a 91-ball century and Nat Sciver blasted 55 off 36 balls to show South Africa a more appropriate approach.

“It was definitely not our best performance, far off it,” De Klerk admitted on Thursday. “We all know we can play much better than that and we need to play positive cricket.

“We lacked intensity and we need to back ourselves. I definitely think we’ll put up a better game in the second ODI, we’re going to show a lot more aggression with the bat, take the bowlers on a bit more.

“We’ve been training the way we want to play and it’s gone very well. We’ve been trying out different options. We also didn’t have the best day with the ball, but England came out at a blistering pace.

“We need to think out the box more, but all credit to England for batting really well,” the 22-year-old De Klerk said.

The all-rounder has been one of the fringe players in the Proteas squad since making her debut in May 2017, but with the absence of Dane van Niekerk and others, De Klerk has been a regular starter since the start of last year.

“It’s all about waiting for our opportunity and whenever you get the chance, you must make the best of it,” she said. “We get a lot of support from everyone and it’s just about working hard behind the scenes.

“I think everybody – including Shabnim Ismail – is good to go for the match and I think it’s going to be a really good pitch and a quick outfield.

“So we want to have a lot of fun, back ourselves and keep it simple. We’ll be going out to play nice, aggressive, positive cricket,” De Klerk said.