Ken Borland

SA Rugby on Tuesday expressed their disappointment and frustration that millions of South Africans will not be able to watch the Springboks in action at the World Cup due to the SABC’s decision not to broadcast an event which lifted the spirits of the country in inspirational fashion in both 1995 and 2007.
Those were the two years the Springboks lifted the most prestigious trophy in rugby, with the 1995 triumph, on home soil and featuring the enthusiastic participation of then president Nelson Mandela, being cited as a major boost to race relations in the fledgling democracy. The current Springbok team is captained for the first time by a Black African in the hugely popular Siya Kolisi and they are rated as one of the strongest contenders when the tournament kicks off on Friday.
South Africa, who are coached by former captain Rassie Erasmus, open their campaign by playing defending champions New Zealand on Saturday in what will be one of the most important games of the tournament.
“We are looking forward to a strong Springbok challenge led by Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisi, and it is extremely frustrating for our sport that the national broadcaster is not in a position to show it. We share the disappointment of SABC licence-holders that they will be unable to follow the progress of the Springboks and other big matches in the tournament.
“The Rugby World Cup has been broadcast on SABC at every tournament since 1995 and like other mega sporting events has the power to bring the nation together behind a national team,” an SA Rugby spokesperson told The Citizen on Monday.
Although the television rights to the World Cup are owned by WorldRugby, SuperSport, who have bought the local rights, were willing to help the SABC show at least some of the tournament, but after months of negotiations the national broadcaster pulled out, according to MultiChoice, the owners of the sports pay channel.
“As far as television rights are concerned, the SABC, having initially made a commercial offer, subsequently withdrew that offer citing budget constraints and the scheduling of the RWC, being in Japan. Rugby World Cup broadcast rights are sold by World Rugby and its agents and all broadcasters (including free-to-air operators) are able to bid for acquiring these rights,” Joe Heshu, the MultiChoice Group Executive for Corporate Affairs, told The Citizen.
The radio rights are owned by marketing company IMG and not MultiChoice.
The Rugby World Cup would have cost the SABC $28m for broadcasting rights on television and $60 000 for radio, not factoring in production costs of R900 000, SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe told Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications on Tuesday.

Social media reaction

Teddy Rubskins @walternatebeing
SABC was looted dry by ANC cadres, this is the real issue. In the 90s SABC showed F1, NBA, currie cup & springboks rugby as well as cricket. Also the ANC government will never break the monopoly Naspers holds as they love the tax revenue from their group companies.
The 2019 rugby world cup would have cost the SABC $28m for broadcasting rights on television and $60 000 for broadcasting rights on radio, he said. These costs do not factor production costs of R900 000.

Jy Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika  Put SA 1st
@Joy_wa_Afrika
However, a nation that is being deprived of watching the 6 @Springboks games because of money grabbing @SuperSportTV We can only afford SABC but does the greedy @SuperSportTV care Absolutely not

Cornu Perold @CornuPerold
Will Sports Minister @NathiMthethwaSA and his Communications counterpart @Stellarated help find a resolution here too as they did in the saga that saw the SABC not broadcasting any PSL matches on their platforms? Surely Rugby is a sport for ALL South Africans?

OH LOOK…Squirrel
@Travesty_Kruger
I think it quite sad that SABC hasn’t made a plan for them to air the RWC. We always seem to be united when the Bokke are playing and sadly not all of us (myself included) have DSTV.

zwelitsha @zwelitshazwe

Thulas sport is an audience driver in broadcasting, note all the satellite dishes on rooftops from informal settlements (end result of PSL rights), SABC Board, Govt must wake up Fact, Ad revenue will NEVER = Sports rights, bt loss of sports rights = audience flight

uSumpa @Konkwane_K
I feel for those people who are let down again by the SABC. The most vulnerable people who love rugby they won’t watch the Rugby World Cup because SABC is useless beyond doubt.

Riccardo Dobloni @superdoct
Money hungry, no national interest at all. SuperSport fine keep you rights, keep your advertising money, but surely you can see the benefits of letting everyone watch the national team in a world cup! go back to Open Time or sponsor SABC to show at least the #Springbok games

Cameron MacKenzie MP @CameronMacKenz2
When @MultiChoice ask for US$28million & @sabc trying to get on an even financial footing, it’s competing priorities. Why not pressure @MultiChoice instead to help out in the interests of those who can’t afford DSTV? The new SABC board are doing the right – tough – thing.

LLOYD L. MAFA @MafaLloyd
Really no broadcast of Rugby World Cup then why are we still paying the TV licence. SABC please get your act together.

Pale Rider @Pale_Rider7
Multi Choice should come to the party and as a gesture of good faith at least allow SABC rights to broadcast the Springbok games. With their messed up image lately it can only do them good.

SABC Too  @SABCtoo

Obviously, young children in South Africa don’t deserve to see a multiracial world-class national team captained by a man who came from nothing but hunger in one of the worlds largest competitions. #RWC2019

azania mboya @azaniamboya

SABC are a national disgrace by refusing to broadcast the Rugby World Cup thus leaving millions of African rugby fans without coverage. A huge blow against African transformation in Rugby. No wonder so many ppl dont want 2 pay T V Licences !!!!

The young Bulls team Jake White sent to Nelspruit for their Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Sunday may well have been extremely talented, but they also made a million mistakes as they were humbled 44-14 by the home side.

The Bulls conceded a plethora of penalties, many of them at the scrum, where the Pumas were hugely dominant, but others were just down to ill-discipline or not knowing the laws of the game properly. Those penalties ensured the Pumas bossed both the territory and possession stats.

But when the Bulls did have the ball, they also made several handling errors and conceded turnovers, meaning they were not able to make use of their opportunities. They also made mistakes in setting up their driving mauls, which robbed them of another attacking weapon.

When one adds a defence that was occasionally disorganised and a number of one-on-one tackles being missed, then the reasons for the heavy defeat are clear.

With coach White excluding most of the players who he will call on for their semi-final against the Lions on January 23, it was a case of U21s against seniors in Nelspruit.

But full credit to the Pumas, who put their run of defeats behind them and produced a fine display of rugby, largely cutting out the errors that dogged the Bulls. Their set-pieces were excellent, their maul effective and in open play they used the ball with dashing, while also defending well and competing effectively at the rucks.

The Pumas, retaining impressive hunger and drive at the end of a tough season, started in clinical fashion and by scoring five tries in the first 25 minutes they had effectively already shut the Bulls out of the match by racing to a 31-0 lead. The Bulls eventually made it on to the scoreboard after half-an-hour through a rolling maul try by debutant hooker Joe van Zyl.

The Bulls managed to keep the Pumas out better in the second half, apart from a second fine solo try by flyhalf Devon Williams.

The Bulls’ debutant inside centre Dawid Kellerman managed to take something out of the game with a good individual try of his own.

Scorers

Pumas – Tries: Luther Obi, Etienne Taljaard, Devon Williams (2), Willie Engelbrecht, Daniel Maartens. Conversions: Ginter Smuts (4). Penalties: Smuts (2).

Bulls – Tries: Joe van Zyl, Dawid Kellerman. Conversions: Morne Steyn, Clinton Swart.

“This just reaffirms what I’ve been saying about having a team together for a long time and being able to prepare properly – then you have a chance to win,” was coach Jake White’s response to his makeshift Bulls side being hammered 44-14 by the Pumas in their Currie Cup match in Nelspruit at the weekend.

Given the thoroughly unusual week they had, it was always going to be an uphill task for the youthful Bulls outfit to beat a fired-up Pumas side. Having emerged from their Covid outbreak, the Bulls had to play the Lions in a crucial clash in midweek with a weakened team. But they managed to sneak a win over their Gauteng neighbours, thereby ensuring they would finish top of the log.

They then had to wait 48 hours before they could do Covid testing again, leaving precious little time before Sunday’s match with the Pumas. White was always going to wrap his first-choice players in cotton-wool before their semi-final against the Lions on January 23, but he would have liked more time to prepare the largely U21 side he threw into action at the Mbombela Stadium.

“It was always going to be tough having just one training session together with this team, a guy like replacement flank Divan Venter only trained with us for 20 minutes because Nizaam Carr pulled out on the Friday. We’ve brought much better teams to Nelspruit and struggled, and this was a very new squad. But it’s never nice losing and I did hope for a better performance.

“I was pleased with the 7-10 score in the second half, but it was not ideal to go 31-0 down after the first 25 minutes. But all credit to the Pumas, we wanted to get those early points but they did it to us instead. They’ve been in Lockdown for a long time and made huge sacrifices, so it’s nice for them to get some reward. They should have won against some much better teams than what we brought here this time,” White admitted.

White said the best thing to come out of the game was that here were no injuries and now his team have the better part of two weeks to prepare for the knockout stages. The halfback pairing of Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl were probably the only two players who started against the Pumas and are likely to feature in the semi-final, and they were pulled off the field at halftime.

“The most important thing is that we didn’t get any injuries, which is quite nice. I was worried that we would lose one or two players, which is why Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar didn’t get on and Lizo Gqoboka only had limited time. I wanted to give Morne Steyn some game time and confidence, but two weeks out from a semi-final, you just don’t want the guys to get injured.

“I didn’t want to risk anyone and fortunately there were no injuries. I had still hoped we would be more competitive, like we were in the second half, but you’ve got to pay your school fees and a guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels maybe lost just one game in his whole Grey College school career. But now we need to win our last two games, we’ve worked hard for a home semi-final and we have not lost at home yet,” White said.

With the focus firmly on the Currie Cup semifinal next weekend, Bulls coach Jake White has returned the first-choice halfback pairing of Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl to starting action against the Pumas on Sunday, but no-one else travelling to Nelspruit is guaranteed to be involved in the team to play the Lions at Loftus Versfeld.

Having beaten the Lions in midweek in Pretoria, the result against the Pumas cannot change the fact that the Bulls will finish top of the log. With three games in 10 days, White on Saturday announced 11 changes to the team that won the Gauteng derby.

Due to the Covid infection that swept through the squad, the in-form Steyn and Van Zyl have not started a match in a month, and White is obviously looking for them to provide the guidance needed to a very inexperienced backline against the hassling strategies of the Pumas, who always look to put the opposition off their game-plan.

White has also increased the pressure on them by choosing a new-look tight five in which lock Jan Uys is the only player to retain his place.

Uys impressed against the Lions and another strong performance against the Pumas could see him force himself into the reckoning for the semi-final, depending on the fitness of Walt Steenkamp and Sintu Manjezi.

Loose forward Arno Botha, who will captain the team in Nelspruit, could also bring his physical presence to the semi-final, while wing Stravino Jacobs certainly improved his chances of playing with his solid showing in midweek.

The Bulls will at least have a more experienced replacement front row on the bench, with hooker Johan Grobbelaar and props Lizo Gqoboka and Marcel van der Merwe trying to ensure they stay in the squad for the semi-final.

Bulls: Clinton Swart, Jade Stighling, Marnus Potgieter, Dawid Kellerman, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Tim Agaba, Arno Botha (capt), WJ Steenkamp, Janko Swanepoel, Jan Uys, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Johan Grobbelaar, Lizo Gqoboka, Marcel van der Merwe, Divan Venter, Elrigh Louw, Keagan Johannes, Kabelo Mokoena, Jay-Cee Nel.