Ken Borland

With the World Cup rapidly approaching, the selection of South Africa’s squad to face Wales in the incoming series in July will be under the spotlight and three former Springbok greats have called for the introduction of some fresh blood.

South Africa will defend the title they won in Japan in 2019 when the next World Cup kicks off in September 2023 and Joel Stransky, John Smit and Victor Matfield all believe the time is now for Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber to start building depth for that tournament.

“The Springboks should use the Welsh games to see who the next eighthman, flyhalf and outside centre will be. Other than that we have depth,” 2007 World Cup winning captain Smit said.

Stransky, the hero of South Africa’s 1995 World Cup triumph, said there should also be change at fullback.

“There must be an eye cast forward to the World Cup because Jacques will probably have to pick his squad in 12 months time,” Stransky said.

“Some guys are getting on a bit, if we pick a similar squad to 2019 then there’ll be half-a-dozen players 33 and over. It’s a chance to blood youngsters, even off the bench.

“He needs a fullback, Willie le Roux last year was already borderline and I don’t think Jacques should pick him. I would love to see Warrick Gelant play there, there’s Aphelele Fassi or maybe even Cheslin Kolbe.

“But now’s the time, there were guys who have shone in the URC and you can’t ignore them. But my concern is that some of them have not even been at the alignment camps,” Stransky said.

“Whoever is going to play at the World Cup, whatever their age, they must play now,” Matfield, man of the match in the 2007 final, added. “It was not a great year for the Boks in 2021 and they need to build a team and their confidence.

“There are one or two players who everyone says should be in the side, but they haven’t been at the alignment camps. Warrick Gelant and Evan Roos are unbelievable game-breakers.

“If you have one or two youngsters between the experienced players, then it will feel like they’re playing provincial rugby. But we’re not saying pick five or six new guys,” Matfield said.

The legendary lock said he hoped a couple of x-factor players as well as Bulls second-rower Ruan Nortje would be added to the Springbok party.

“I don’t believe in testing players at Test level, but you need one or two players with x-factor that can bring the magic, otherwise you struggle to break teams down, especially with defences being so tight.

“Ruan Nortje is a fantastic player, but it’s unfortunate for him that we have four unbelievable second rowers: Eben Etzebeth is the best in the world, Lood de Jager is arguably second; there’s RG Snyman if he’s ready and Franco Mostert always adds value,” Matfield said.

Trawling social media (which always leaves one feeling a bit dirty), one would think Cricket South Africa’s newly-appointed director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, is filled with the sort of vengeful wrath of a spouse whose partner has committed adultery.

South Africans, it seems, love the drama of confrontation and aggression, especially if we can throw in an element of racial bias. No wonder we are such a sadly divided nation.

Aside from the delicious irony of Nkwe having gone from being Mark Boucher’s assistant coach to effectively his boss in the space of less than a year, it is highly unlikely that the new director of cricket is going to come in and destabilise the national team – especially since they are clearly heading in the right direction – by firing the coach.

And with CSA now playing it by the book in terms of corporate governance, any perceived enmity between the two has not only been grossly overstated but would also not be grounds for dismissing Boucher.

While admittedly it was a difficult marriage between the two when Boucher became head coach in December 2019, Nkwe being ‘demoted’ from interim team director to his assistant, the new director of cricket told me personally a couple of months back that he had no issues with Boucher personally.

His much-publicised resignation and his eventual decision not to testify at Boucher’s disciplinary hearing were never about the man himself. The reason why their work relationship never clicked is because, at heart, they are both head coaches.

South Africa have often got it wrong when it comes to their assistant coaches for the national team. Being the Proteas assistant coach is not like being the head coach of a franchise, the responsibilities are totally different. It is why someone like Malibongwe Maketa is much better off being the head coach of the SA A team than he would be in some understudy role with the Proteas.

It is a systemic error and Nkwe is exactly the sort of clear thinker to put it right as director of cricket.

At CSA’s AGM last October, the grim financial picture of the organisation was shown, with a nett loss of R221 million in 2020/21. This was largely due to broadcast revenue plummeting and there was an acknowledgement that to fix the situation, the Proteas had to be a drawcard, strong enough for the Big Three to want to play against regularly.

Between Boucher and the previous director of cricket, Graeme Smith, that vital reputation overseas has been restored. The immense respect Smith is held in internationally, especially in India, was crucial in getting those ‘sugar daddies’ into bed.

Nkwe will be a different sort of director of cricket. Apart from being an excellent coach, the 39-year-old is passionate about developing structures for the game, from grassroots all the way to where the sponsors want to pay their big money.

Nkwe’s appointment is an investment in the game at all levels and just reward for someone who has maintained his dignity despite the ignominy of his treatment by the previous CSA Board.

But then Boucher has also been treated disgracefully and I like to believe that there will a professional relationship between the two and a respect for their different roles.

Boucher may well continue to be the public face of our cricket as he steers the national team, but Nkwe has a vital role to play in ensuring the pipeline, everything that feeds into the Proteas, is operating smoothly and efficiently.

Together, they could actually form quite a formidable team. Nkwe is one of the leading cricket brains in the country and his input into the national team and all levels below it can only be beneficial.

The Proteas leave for India and their five-match T20 series on Wednesday morning relieved that Cricket South Africa’s office politics, which threatened the careers of their coach and former director of cricket, have now seemingly come to an end, according to captain Temba Bavuma.

Proteas head coach Mark Boucher’s position was under immense scrutiny as he was accused of racist conduct, while director of cricket Graeme Smith faced the same charges. An independent tribunal cleared Smith and CSA then withdrew their charges against Boucher, admitting there was no evidence to support their case.

Bavuma said he hoped the off-field saga that had raged above their heads was done and dusted.

“I think there’s a lot of relief in the whole cricket fraternity that these off-field issues have been resolved and put to bed,” Bavuma said on Tuesday. “Hopefully we can now focus on what happens on the field.

“We should all invest as much as we can into that now. I think we handled the situation as a team as best we could. We’ve had many conversations over the months to make sure everyone is in the right space.

“We wanted to make sure there were no underlying issues between players or management, and I think those conversations really helped,” Bavuma said.

To add to their contentment, South Africa are going into the series with several players having performed extremely well in the just-completed Indian Premier League. None more so than David Miller, who helped steer the Gujarat Titans to the title in their first season, his exceptional finishing displays seeing him end the tournament with a strike-rate of 142 and an average of 68.

Where Miller is going to bat for the Proteas is going to be an interesting decision for Bavuma and Boucher.

“It’s always good having guys in form and David lifting the IPL trophy means he’ll bring good confidence into the team and it would have done a world of good for his own confidence,” Bavuma said.

“He performed exceedingly well and whatever feelings of insecurity he might have, he has never expressed those type of feelings to me. He’s an integral part of the Proteas team.

“We trust those sort of performances will continue well into the future. There’s always the conversation about him batting for longer, but he understands where he fits in in our team.

“But if he feels he can add more value in a different position then we can have that conversation. There’s no way we would stifle or restrict any of our players, we want to try set up and assist all of them to perform their best,” Bavuma said.

The Bulls acknowledge that Saturday’s United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld is a 50/50 game, but they will go into the knockout clash with fresh minds and bodies, happy with the rugby they are playing.

Walt Steenkamp has had a pleasing impact in the No.4 jersey since joining the Bulls from the Free State Cheetahs in November 2020, and he said the pack are so content with how they are operating as a unit that they are even happy to see the backs score all the tries!

“The team relies a lot on us for front-foot ball and it was nice to see only backs scoring against Ospreys in our last match, so we can give the credit to them,” Steenkamp said with a smile on Tuesday.

“We have played so much rugby this year, so the break since then has given us the chance to rest our sore bodies. And myself and Ruan Nortje have enjoyed a good combination at lock.

“They always say altitude matters, but the Sharks have played here a lot, they would have prepared for it, plus they come from a place with high humidity, so it’s a 50/50 game.

“But playing finals rugby is about having a mindset change, because if you lose then you’re out. So we have to give 100% and Jake White is a great coach who knows how to play finals rugby,” Steenkamp said.

The Bulls have lost both their URC matches against the Sharks this season, largely due to some terrible discipline and getting a mauling in the scrums. Those are the two areas Steenkamp highlighted as requiring improvement on Saturday.

“The Sharks lineout and scrum is good, but we have plans for them,” Steenkamp said. “We have conceded four or five penalties a game at scrum time against them, so we’ve worked hard on that.

“You get different interpretations at the scrums, so we plan for the referees as well and try and show them good pictures.

“But also, the last time we played the Sharks, we played 60 minutes with 14 men because of a red card, so discipline is also very important.

“The Sharks pack is always very good as a whole, there are no weaknesses. But we think we can put pressure there. It’s finals rugby, but we will still stick to what works for us,” Steenkamp said.