Ken Borland

As three South African sides chase playoff spots in the last three rounds of United Rugby Championship round-robin action, one of the northern hemisphere’s star enforcers of the previous decade has said the high intensity of their play rather than a push to play expansive rugby is what will bring success for the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls.

Jim Hamilton is currently a pundit for Premier Sports but he played 63 Tests for Scotland and was a second-row star for teams like Leicester, Gloucester and Saracens. And he is a big fan of South African rugby.

“I always say for any team, if you’re struggling to get go-forward, go and get some South Africans,” Hamilton said in a URC media briefing on Monday. “South Africans are taking over as the best players in the world.

“I’ve been surprised by how much rugby the South African teams have played: they go wide from their own half, or straight from a scrum. But the European teams are still leading the charge in terms of the stats for tries scored, carries and defenders beaten. So why don’t they just play ball-in-hand against the South Africans?

“Well it’s hard to play in those conditions, they definitely have an effect, altitude hits you like a brick wall. I saw guys who were absolutely bollocked with the hands on their knees.

“But the game now is so driven by percentages and when the South African teams come over to Europe and decide not to play how they do in the Currie Cup but more like their national team, focusing more on territory and playing in the right areas, then they will become incredibly dangerous,” Hamilton said.

The former Scotland stalwart admitted to being frustrated by the poor start the South African teams made to the URC, but now that they have been back on home turf, they have been rampant

“South African players are the whole package – robust, the humility they bring, and they are hard; everything around them is just rugby. If I was a coach, I would go look there for players. It’s unquestionable that every single one of them in Europe has been a roaring success.

“But the South African teams were a bit of a disappointment at the start. We all said how positive their inclusion was, but then it was not how we thought it would be. But a lot of it had to do with the changes brought by Covid.

“They definitely struggled around the referees over here and their interpretations, it felt like they were playing for the sake of playing. I don’t think they got a fair shot then and it was always going to take a while for them to bed in to the competition.

“But now their results are speaking for themselves, now that they are fully loaded and taking the tournament seriously. Don’t just judge them on this year, but now we’ve seen the URC works,” Hamilton said.

The United Rugby Championship is the successor to SuperRugby for the four South African teams involved in it, and it loans from the southern hemisphere competition the excitement of seeing different players and styles of rugby.

It also, however, is running into the same problem that SuperRugby did in terms of how incredibly difficult it is for teams to win overseas; perhaps even more so in the URC.

Excluding the matches involving the two Italian teams, who have won just four of their 27 games combined, there have only been four wins by teams travelling overseas to play, as opposed to 26 losses and one draw, which was when the Stormers held Edinburgh 20-20 in October.

The overseas victories have been by the Sharks over the Ospreys, the Bulls beating the struggling Cardiff Blues, Stormers beating the hapless Dragons and Edinburgh surprising the Sharks at Kings Park.

The best sporting events have a large element of unpredictability about them; the excitement of a 50/50 contest, nobody being quite sure who is going to win. It is partly why a Test match between the Springboks and All Blacks is so exciting.

But so far in the URC, teams hosting an overseas side (excluding matches involving Zebre or Benetton) have won 84% of the time. So the competition has been a little too predictable.

But let’s not detract from the overall excellence of the Celtic teams playing at home or the superb manner in which the South African teams rebounded from tough starts to the competition, being thrown straight into the deep end overseas in the UK autumn.

I am optimistic that the URC will go from strength-to-strength as a thrilling, highly competitive tournament, especially with the announcement this week from CEO Martin Anayi that from next season, the schedule will pause during international weekends.

That means teams like Leinster, Edinburgh, Ospreys, the Sharks and Stormers, will not be deprived from playing their internationals at key times of the tournament. Even Cardiff, who are sitting 13^th on the log, have had 10 Welsh internationals ripped from their squad for much of the tournament.

The first year of the new URC has suffered badly from the effects of Covid and the postponements it has forced. But as the pandemic dies down, so we should get a clearer picture of how good this new competition really is.

Refereeing is a constant source of controversy in all rugby these days, and the South African teams certainly struggled to adapt to not only the conditions in the UK but also how the officials interpreted the game. There was a feeling that it would be payback back at home when local referees befuddled the visiting teams.

And then the URC announced that all matches in South Africa would be controlled by neutral referees, which was no doubt a snub for our officials and bad news for those wanting to see overseas teams blown off the park.

But Bulls coach Jake White is a sly old fox, and he recognised early on that having the best referees in control of matches would lead to the best team winning more often. He backed the idea of neutral referees and it certainly seems to have helped the South African teams establish their dominance on home soil.

My feeling is that our local referees allow too much skulduggery at the ruck, which leads to slow ball and a lack of momentum for the attacking team.

Now, with confidence restored, let’s hope a couple of other South African teams can sneak into the top eight and join our Shield champion in the playoffs.

A talent as rich as Dewald Brevis is never going to be localised for long, but the 18-year-old will at least be based in Centurion for the next two seasons, the Northerns Titans having contracted him for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns.

Brevis announced himself on the global stage in the U19 World Cup at the start of the year, being named Player of the Tournament after lashing two centuries and three fifties. It almost immediately led to the Mumbai Indians snapping him up for this year’s Indian Premier League.

And Brevis has also introduced himself to that dazzling competition in style, his blistering 49 off 25 balls against the Punjab Kings in midweek including a 112m six, the biggest of the tournament so far. One imagines other T20 franchises around the world will be keen to get their hands on him.

But for now, his first priority will have to be with the Northerns Titans, who first blooded him in intra-squad T20 games when he was just 17, during which he scored a 40-ball half-century against their first-choice attack.

The fact the Brevis signature is now sitting in the office of Titans CEO Jacques Faul at SuperSport Park will also end speculation that England are about to poach him.

Northerns fans will also be able to witness the talents of another extremely exciting T20 player at SuperSport Park next season in Donovan Ferreira, who has been granted his first provincial contract.

The Titans have also confirmed that veteran spinner Aaron Phangiso will be staying with them, after some speculation that he would be moving on.

Two players are leaving Northerns – batsman/wicketkeeper Gihahn Cloete is going back to the Free State Knights and opening batsman Grant Mokoena, fresh off scoring the most runs in the Titans’ triumphant four-day campaign (482 @ 48.20), has decided to join North-West.

Some people wondered how incumbent Test spinner Keshav Maharaj would react once former Kolpak star Simon Harmer became available again for the Proteas, and it is undeniable that choosing both of them has been a tremendous success which has brought the best out of the left-arm spinner.

Maharaj and Harmer played in the same Proteas XI for the first time against Bangladesh and they ended up claiming 29 of the 40 wickets to fall as South Africa won both Tests by convincing margins.

For his part, Player of the Series Maharaj, who took 16 wickets and scored 108 runs, is certainly a Harmer fan.

“It’s always nice having a spinner at the other end and Simon is a world-class performer,” Maharaj said. “He has shown how much he has grown on the county circuit.

“He has also shown why he belongs in international cricket, not just because of his bowling but because of how he is a team man and especially his lower-order runs in both Tests.

“Under pressure having returned to Test cricket, he showed why he’s world-class and I am really happy for him. I know there will be a time when he gets a lot more rewards,” Maharaj said.

In the absence of Kagiso Rabada, Maharaj was very much the leader of the Proteas attack and he said his success was basically down to him repeating the same things he does at domestic level.

“I’m just happy that it was a really good Test season, we crossed the line although the conditions were difficult and did not suit us. Credit to the team for responding well in all disciplines,” Maharaj said.

“After not taking wickets in the first innings in Durban, Dean Elgar and Mark Boucher had a chat with me and said I was doing the right things and my time will come.

“I just tried to repeat my processes from what I’ve done in domestic cricket, with a few minor tweaks here and there for international cricket. I just tried to replicate what I had done before.

“As a team as well, it’s been about keep doing the right things in terms of culture and skill. Dean has done really well in his first season as captain, he’s a fighter and a character, which is what we needed,” Maharaj said.