Ken Borland

Despite a highly-encouraging first-half display by the SA A team before they understandably depleted their energy reserves, Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said he remains concerned about how he is going to manage his squad ahead of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions on July 24.

The SA A team raced into a 17-3 lead in the first half against the Lions at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night, but the second half saw them desperately clinging on in defence, eventually securing a 17-13 win. Getting the match fitness up and dealing with the numerous Covid cases within the squad will continue to require a delicate juggling act by Erasmus and head coach Jacques Nienaber, who is now out of quarantine and will retake the onfield reins.

“The guys put their hands up and showed their guts, and we do have a lot of players to come back into the mix. But there are guys I’m worried about – Malherbe, Mbonambi, De Jager, Snyman, Kolisi, Vermeulen, Pollard, Mapimpi and Frans Steyn – it’s about how we reintegrate those Covid cases because they are coming back in dribs and drabs as they get released from quarantine.

“So I’m 70-80% happy with the squad, but the other 20-30% are going to need really good management. We have two options to play on Saturday: the Bulls have gone into quarantine for us as back-up, but if there are cases in the Stormers camp then it would be safest for us to play the Lions again. If we don’t play them again, it definitely won’t be because they are afraid, it will because of their plans for the tour. It won’t be because we’re more physical than them,” Erasmus chirped.

As heartening as the SA A team’s display was, since it was basically a shadow Test team if all the players Erasmus mentioned don’t make it back for the first Test, the World Cup winning coach knows that courage and determination will only win the silverware if they are reflected on the scoreboard.

“We don’t want to run away with our emotions. We knew we would run out of steam and that made the match tighter in the end, but we played with a lot of heart. I’m proud of that, but we won’t win the series on that alone. There are a lot of technical and tactical things we need to get right,” Erasmus said.

The SA A team – surely the Springbok shadow side – provided a little pocket of cheer for South Africans in these miserable times as they produced a superbly gutsy performance to beat the British and Irish Lions 17-13 in their match at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night.

The SA A side made a fantastic start to the game as their counter-attacking ability gave them a 17-3 lead in the first half-hour, but they then had to dig incredibly deep to hang on to that lead. They took it into halftime despite both scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, for a clumsy defensive effort on the line, and ubiquitous flank Marco van Staden (repeat team infringements) being yellow-carded. The Lions bashed away on the line with pick-and-goes instead of the more obvious option of a scrum, and they were kept out by magnificent defence.

Lock Eben Etzebeth was constantly in the Lions’ faces, and it was his charge-down of a strange attempted chip inside the SA A 22 by Owen Farrell that led to the opening try. The rebound was regathered by classy centre Damian de Allende, who soon passed to wing Sbu Nkosi to speed away to the tryline in the 13^th minute.

The second try was down to the astonishing magic of wing Cheslin Kolbe, who fielded a kick just inside his own half, five metres from touch. He jogged at first, but hen exploded, wonderful footwork taking him through the smallest of gaps before his superb offload to outside centre Lukhanyo Am, running a great supporting line, sent his skipper over for the try.

The Lions scored the only points of the second half as powerful loosehead prop Wyn Jones, who was denied a try on the stroke of halftime, went over from close range when SA A still only had 13 men on the field. Farrell kicked the conversion and a penalty for the tourists to close within four points.

The Lions dominated the second half, but when coach Warren Gatland rewatches the second half, even he will surely be impressed by the incredible courage and determination shown by the SA A side. Even though their physical dominance began to fade as their lack of match fitness told – as predicted by stand-in coach Rassie Erasmus – they just kept putting their bodies on the line to deny their opponents.

Gatland’s men overdid the crosskick, but it might have been a plan to fit into their preparations for the first Test, but they certainly showed what a threat they can be in the wider channels. Their kicking game outside of the 22 was also excellent, and they often put the home side under severe pressure by kicking into the corners.

But SA A closed out an enthralling game in solid fashion, using their rolling maul to earn penalties and count down the clock. The tour has now well and truly kicked off and, after a thrilling dress rehearsal, in nine days time many of these players will be out on the same field for what is now sure to be a real spectacle in the first Test.

Scorers

SA A – Tries: Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am. Conversions: Morne Steyn (2). Penalty: Steyn.

British and Irish Lions – Try: Wyn Jones. Conversion: Owen Farrell. Penalties: Farrell (2).

As praiseworthy as Ireland’s brilliant display in the second ODI was, Proteas captain Temba Bavuma made it clear that he was not fine with the dismal performance his team produced in the field.

After South Africa won the toss and were able to bowl first, they were poor in the opening powerplay and dreadful at the death, conceding 95 runs in the last eight overs. Their fielding was also terrible, four catches that should have been taken were dropped and there were several fumbles and misfields.

“We were totally outplayed but the fielding was not the standards that we pride ourselves on and those dropped catches were always going to be costly. Bowling short and wide is never the plan, I’d like to give the bowlers the benefit of the doubt and say it was down to execution. But it’s happening all too often that we find ourselves trying to defend both sides of the field.

“In the death bowling there just hasn’t been any consistency, which makes it hard to set a plan. We’ve had enough conversations about it, we’ve exhausted those conversations now and we need to show it in action now. We trust these guys, but they must be able to bowl to a plan. We know there are guys on the sidelines who have the skills, so there is now a strong case for them getting an opportunity,” Bavuma threatened after the shock 43-run defeat in Dublin.

The batting, especially the middle-order, could also see changes beyond the expected return of Quinton de Kock.

On the bright side, Janneman Malan’s 84 off 96 balls showed that he is a young batsman who watches and learns from all that is going on around him. The 25-year-old has made a great start to his ODI career with 306 runs in five innings, including a century and now his second half-century.

“It was quite nervewracking because I haven’t had a lot of games or been able to get momentum, and it’s in different conditions. But watching Ireland bat twice before I had my first time at the crease gave me a bit of info and I was able to take all the learnings. Chasing 290, at halfway we were on a good path, Rassie van der Dussen and I had set it up well.

“But it would have been great if I could have batted through. I needed to get a big hundred, so I failed the team in that respect. We needed an in-batter at the end and to lose myself and Rassie bang-bang was not great. We needed to take it deeper and put pressure on them. They showed by scoring close to 60 runs in the last four overs what having a guy in could do at the end,” Malan said on Wednesday.

The ants of Ireland pulled off a giant-killing act as they beat a sloppy South African side who suffered far too many eek-worthy moments in the field, by 43 runs in the second ODI at Malahide in Dublin on Tuesday.

The Proteas had again won the toss and sent Ireland in to bat but the pacemen bowled poorly up front and at the death as Ireland posted a formidable 290 for five.

This time Ireland were both able to prosper up front in the powerplay and keep wickets intact. Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie took them to 49 without loss in the first 10 overs and their opening stand was eventually worth  64 off 82 balls.

But in a powerful top-order performance, Balbirnie then added another 60 for the second wicket with Andy McBrine (30) and the Ireland captain went on to a superb 102 off 117 balls, really leading from the front and providing the foundation for the win.

Harry Tector (79 off 68) and George Dockrell (45 off 23) then provided a scintillating end to the innings as they hammered wayward death bowling for 88 runs in the last seven overs.

Spinners Tabraiz Shamsi (10-1-42-1) and Keshav Maharaj (10-0-50-1) were the best of the South African bowlers, doing a fine job in the middle overs.

Apart from the woes of the seamers, the Proteas fielding was also extremely creaky, with four catches going down that should have been caught and messy ground-fielding also being the order of the day.

Janneman Malan was the top-scorer for South Africa as they were bowled out for 247 in the penultimate over.

The rookie opener struck a powerful 84 off 96 balls, with four sixes, making up for the early loss of Aiden Markram (5) and Temba Bavuma (10).

He was well-supported by Rassie van der Dussen (49 off 70) in a third-wicket stand of 108 in 22 overs, but South Africa then fell away badly, once again exposing the lower middle-order and the finishing ability of the team as a problem.

Malan will wryly consider that he could yet found himself out the team for the third and final match on Friday as Quinton de Kock obviously needs to return.

He will also be kicking himself for getting out when he did though, caught sweeping spinner George Dockrell to cow-corner, and when Van der Dussen was trapped lbw by McBrine in the next over, it was the hammer blow from which the Proteas could never recover.