Ken Borland

One thing that has become clear in this year’s Carling Currie Cup is that the ‘smaller’ unions, those not playing in Europe, cannot be taken for granted and the belief and hunger now flowing through the veins of the Griquas and Pumas players is going to make them hard to stop in the last three weeks of competition.

Griquas are third on the log and the Pumas fourth, with just the Sharks and Bulls ahead of them. At least one of them is going to make the semi-finals as they play each other in Kimberley on Saturday, but they will both go through if Western Province fail to beat the Sharks in Durban.

For the Pumas, the success of their season has been based on the realisation that they cannot just rely on their forwards to grind opponents down and they have produced some fine attacking rugby with ball-in-hand too.

“Our forwards were our go-to and they are still one of our strong points. But we said that we must play balanced rugby, we can’t just rely on our forwards for 80 minutes. The engine must rest a bit as well! So we have spread the workload, we are also using the kicking game more and overall we are just playing with more ball.

“When we played in SuperRugby Unlocked last year we got exposed to playing against the very best guys, Springboks included. We saw that we can beat them, but we just needed to rectify the small mistakes that were costing us. We spent two months focusing on that in pre-season and now we are starting to really get belief that we can beat the big unions,” ever-dangerous Pumas fullback Devon Williams told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Griquas wing Daniel Kasande also said there was a link between last year’s experiences and all the narrow defeats they suffered and their strong showing in this year’s Currie Cup.

“Not much has changed in terms of our system and structure from last year, but we had a lot of narrow losses then, things would just not go for us at the end of matcheis. So since then we have been fine-tuning our play and getting in sync with each other. Being together now for two seasons, you can see the chemistry in how we play.

“Before, every time we went into a competition we were the new boys and you get a bit of cold feet. But once you are in with the big boys for a while, you grow in confidence. You start to feel that you can dominate and it was very special beating Western Province at Newlands, once you do that sort of thing once, you believe you can do it again and again,” Kasande told The Citizen.

The way Griquas and the Pumas have contributed to the competition, one hopes many of their players are voted into the team for the newly-created Carling Champions Match – an all-star Currie Cup team chosen by the public – on November 6.

One will not often find a young head coach who would not feel threatened by bringing in assistants who are more experienced or better-known than himself, but it speaks volumes for the confidence and character of Central Gauteng Lions mentor Wandile Gwavu that he has fully embraced having JP Duminy and Piet Botha as his batting and bowling coaches.

Duminy played 46 Tests, 199 ODIs and 81 T20s for South Africa, so he has a wealth of knowledge to offer the Lions batsmen, while Botha is vastly experienced in his own right as a coach and is highly-rated when it comes to helping the bowlers. Gwavu said it is not just the players who will be learning from his assistants.

“It’s a superstar coaching staff with JP, Piet and Prasanna Agoram as our analyst. It’s not only going to be great for the players but also for the growth of the head coach, I’m keen to take the learnings on and it will make me better as well. I know I lack international playing experience and the way JP speaks about cricket, I know we totally share the same philosophies.

“I’ve played under Piet Botha, we have a very strong relationship and I rate him as one of the best bowling coaches around. He’s very good with youngsters and Sisanda Magala, Lutho Sipamla and Anrich Nortje have all come through under his watch. And Prasanna is one of the best, if not the best, analysts, so we have world-class people in our camp,” the 34-year-old Gwavu said on Tuesday.

That the Lions have secured the services of Duminy, one of the Western Cape’s favourite sons, is due to the initiative of CEO Jono Leaf-Wright. The team will certainly benefit from one of the deepest thinkers in the game.

“It was an opportunity I didn’t really think of until I had a conversation with Jono during an ODI I was commentating on against Pakistan here. And then when I heard him speak at a coach’s forum I knew I was in,  you can just sense the trust and integrity. I certainly believe I can contribute. It’s mostly about having conversations about game-plans and driving certain mindsets.

“It’s about talking through their processes with the players, but it’s also about the coaches in Gauteng and telling them what happens at the top level. I don’t have all the answers, but hopefully I can ask good questions and it’s about empowering, encouraging and uplifting the batsmen. It all starts with mindset and trying to throw the first punch. It will be a learning experience for me too,” Duminy said at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

The All Blacks have agreed to base themselves in Queensland in order for the Rugby Championship to be completed, which means the historic 100^th meeting between them and their arch-rivals the Springboks will take place in the unlikely venue of Townsville, in the northern reaches of the state and deep in the tropics.

The Springboks will leave for Australia on Thursday and will have to quarantine for two weeks, but in return they will have the benefit of being able to return to normal life thereafter, not needing to stay in a bubble. They can still train while in quarantine, ahead of their next match, against Australia on September 12 on the Gold Coast.

But it is their clash with the All Blacks on September 25 in Townsville that will capture the imagination, even though it is effectively being played as a curtain-raiser to the Australia versus Argentina match that follows.

“The two-week quarantine period means we will be on tour for just under six weeks, but we are looking forward to experiencing normal life after a year-and-a-half of living under several forms of adjusted Covid-19 restrictions in South Africa. This will certainly assist in ensuring that the players are fresh mentally when they take the field, which is essential for them to peak in form.

“We are pleased that the Rugby Championship schedule has been finalised and we are looking forward to continuing our campaign in Australia. We can now continue our planning to ensure that the players are ready for the next four matches from a physical and mental point of view, and we are excited about facing our old foes Australia and New Zealand again after kicking off the tournament well against Argentina,” Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said in a statement on Tuesday.

For all the bluster about how boring Springbok rugby is and how they are unworthy world champions despite beating the British and Irish Lions recently, the Kiwis are now going to have to put up or shut up on September 25 and then again on October 2 on the Gold Coast, in what, on current form, should be the Rugby Championship decider.

Apart from the Springboks not needing to stay in a bubble after their quarantine, the other good news is that there will be spectators at all the matches. Given the level of aggression between Australian and New Zealand rugby at the moment, the local crowds could well be supporting the Springboks in their matches against the All Blacks.

Australia and New Zealand get the chance to sort out some of their issues on the field when they meet in Perth, as originally scheduled, probably next weekend.

Brisbane in Queensland has emerged as the most likely contingency plan to host the remainder of the Rugby Championship tournament.
Despite South Africa offering to host the rest of the competition and there being some interest in France and the United Kingdom, New Zealand media were reporting on Monday that the four Southern Hemisphere teams would now be based in Queensland, whose state government has agreed they can quarantine there in the midst of the rising Covid numbers on both sides of the Tasman Sea.
The Rugby Championship looks set to restart though in Perth on September 4, when the All Blacks will take on Australia in the match they were meant to play this weekend. South Africa and Argentina, who are both waiting in Gqeberha for clarity on the travel plans, will by then be quarantining in Queensland.
Meanwhile, the Springboks issued a medical update on Monday confirming Jaden Hendrikse’s worst fears that his leg is indeed fractured. That will rule him out of the rest of the Rugby Championship and his fellow Sharks scrumhalf Grant Williams has been called up to the national squad for the first time.
The 25-year-old has been in fine form in the Currie Cup and his searing pace has caused many difficulties for opposition defences.
The Springboks also confirmed that the scrumhalves who played in the 2019 World Cup final, Faf de Klerk (leg) and Herschel Jantjies (hip), are both recovering well from their injuries and should be available to play when South Africa return to action, probably on September 11.