Ken Borland

Coach Jake White says he is pleasantly surprised by how quickly his Bulls side have learnt how to vary their play and believes it could be an especially important quality when they come up against the Lions in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Ellis Park on Saturday night.

Far from just playing forward-based rugby with a strong kicking game – traditional Bulls’ 10-man rugby – White’s Bulls have been one of the hottest attacking sides in the competition, beating the most defenders so far, fullback David Kriel has run the most metres and they have scored the most tries (15) with outside centre Stedman Gans the joint leading try-scorer along with Neil Maritz of the Pumas with four.

“I’m not surprised by the style of rugby we’re playing because we want to use our backs as well, but I am surprised that in a relatively short space of time the team has been able to get like that. The excitement for me is not being labelled as a conservative Afrikaans coach using a big pack and just kicking. We’ve now got the forwards who can go through the opposition and the backs who can go around them.

“I’ve coached all over the world now and I’ve taken the best of different countries and tried to use it with the Bulls. We have massive talent here and we can play different styles of rugby. The Lions also do quite a lot of unexpected things, the way they kick, the way they attack and run out of their own half. They’re not stereotypical and they like to have quick rucks and move the ball around, they have the most passes and offloads of all the teams,” White said.

With the crowd at Ellis Park muffled by the Covid-19 restrictions and the Bulls accustomed to playing at altitude, two of the Lions’ key weapons have been removed. White also believes that their narrow defeat to the Free State Cheetahs three weeks ago in Bloemfontein has given them a template for how to beat the Lions.

“We had a great trial run against the Cheetahs, who are the same sort of team, and we know what went wrong then. We did everything right to win the game but we just didn’t take our chances. We played too much rugby in certain areas and sometimes when we needed to play, we kicked the ball away or a lineout throw went skew or we went left instead of right.

“Our cohesion wasn’t as well-oiled as it is now and we will ask different questions of the Lions. It’s not just bashing away with the forwards until they’re exhausted, we have backs who can break and score from their own line, we have one of the best flyhalves when it comes to kicking out of hand, and an aerial battle will suit us too with Travis Ismaiel and David Kriel both being nearly two metres tall.

“We’re confident we have all the bases covered and there’s nothing the Lions will do that we weren’t already challenged by against the Cheetahs. Plus the Lions have struggled this year, only winning two of their 11 matches, while Free State are the Currie Cup champions and have changed the way they attack and play considerably,” White said.

Rugby is a much-changed landscape from a year ago and one of the most positive aspects of this new age for South African rugby is that the Currie Cup looks set to return to being the top-class competition it once was.

By signing a naming rights sponsor like Carling Black Label, SA Rugby are pretty much ensuring that the oldest provincial competition in the sport, and surely one of the most-loved, is returned to the fans, such is the reputation of the biggest-selling beer brand in the country. Carling Black Label has a history of really focusing on fan participation, they are extremely innovative in that space and they are a brand of the people.

“We want to make the Currie Cup more accessible, more democratic in a way. Take the Eastern Cape for example, to be able to give rugby back to that region excites me and if ever there was a time to grow the game in that area then it is now. We want to give a voice to the fans, we want to bring them on board.

“Our dream is to explode the Currie Cup back into the forefront, back to its rightful place – it should be the premier provincial tournament in the world. How do we do local rugby in a new way? We’re not just there to put our brand up, we want to acknowledge the fans and bring their passion to the game. We want to bring the Currie Cup to life and closer to the fans,” brand director Arne Rust told me at the launch of their sponsorship this week at Melrose Arch.

The Currie Cup is a prime property in SA Rugby’s stable, probably second only in value to the Springboks, so it is great that the disentanglement from Super Rugby and the move to Europe has allowed for some much-needed attention to be paid to the competition.

Where SA Rugby and SA Breweries are getting it right is in realising that the customer is their primary stakeholder and in rugby’s case, their customer is ultimately the fan, whether watching on TV or (hopefully one day soon) at the ground.

Unfortunately, as has so often been the case recently, Cricket South Africa are being shown up badly by their counterparts in the sports business.

This week saw the much-anticipated return-to-play, after an eight-month Covid-enforced break, of the country’s leading cricketers as the Four-Day Franchise Series kicked off the new season. But this momentous occasion may as well have happened in a black hole, such was the lack of fanfare from CSA.

Firstly, no spectators were allowed, which is possibly a decision that is out of their hands due to Covid safety measures. But it does seem ridiculous considering people can mix and misbehave in shopping centres, pubs and clubs quite legally, while a cricket field situated in the great outdoors with plenty of space for social distancing in the stands or on the grass banks is illegal.

But where CSA really dropped the ball was in ensuring the publc who wanted to follow the games could keep track of what was happening. Unlike most other Test-playing nations, there is no live-streaming option for our four-day cricket, which is a story all in itself.

But even trying to find the location of live scores for the matches was almost a mission impossible. That’s because CSA, in their wisdom, have sold the rights to all their match data, including the scores, to the overseas company Opta.

The idea was that other outlets would then buy the scores from Opta, but competitively it has been a disaster with just about nobody willing to do that. Unsurprisingly, because shouldn’t scores be in the public domain anyway? You would think CSA would want as much publicity for the game as possible …

But like the company that priced itself out of its market and went bankrupt, CSA, who need as many supporters as they can get given how poor their image is, once again sent the message that they actually don’t care about their fans. “You’re interested in the cricket, well we’ve made it as hard as possible for you to follow it,” seems to be their attitude.

It was heartening, however, that in their first meeting, the new interim board made a point of noting this unsatisfactory situation and they have tasked Judith February, who is well-versed in the media, to investigate the capacity and competency in CSA to deal with their stakeholders.

The Springboks will not be withdrawing from the Rugby Championship permanently, but with the tournament probably being played in the same late winter to spring window, they will not be deriving any battle-hardened preparedness from it ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour next year.

And that could be a problem for the world champions, according to former Springbok captain John Smit, who led South Africa to victory over the Lions in 2009.

The tourists will be in South Africa from the end of June to August 8, which will put pressure on SA Rugby to organise warm-up games for the Springboks once the Pro16 ends. SA Rugby president Mark Alexander said on Thursday that director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is busy lining up three or four games which will need WorldRugby permission.

“The absence of proper Test match action is going to be the biggest difficulty and the Springboks will have a new coach too even though Jacques Nienaber was obviously a big part of the system before. But we’ve had 13 Tests called off this year and a coach always worries that his team will be undercooked. There could also be an over-reliance on the 2019 group because of it.

“Franchise rugby will help, but Test rugby is a different level and the Springboks will need to be battle-hardened, so they will need warm-up games. We had one-and-a-half years after our World Cup win in 2007 to get into the groove and understand the Peter de Villiers way. The current Springboks have skipped a year, which is great for the body, but not so good for the systems or being battle-hardened,” Smit said on Thursday at FNB Stadium where the announcement of Castle Lager as the series sponsor was made.

Smit added that playing the Lions was when he felt under the most pressure as Springbok captain, the perihelion of his career.

“That week before the first Test was probably the most nervous I had ever been because you’re not sure what to expect and you know you’re up against formidable opponents. That’s why it’s so important to get the first ‘punch’ in. The ability to deal with the hype is so important and the current team have a bit of experience of that from Japan. But it’s really important that first week is good.

“Motivation will be at an all-time high and the uniqueness of the series adds to the hype. And beating the Lions is just becoming more and more of a challenge, they’ve beaten Australia and drawn with New Zealand in their last two series. The days of saying rugby in the North is not at the same level are over and both sides will have a massive amount to play for,” Smit said.

The Cheetahs are famous for the expansive, running rugby they can bring, but Sharks coach Sean Everitt has warned that the Free Staters also have some industrial-strength forward power that his team will need to combat in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Kings Park on Friday night.

Playing at a high tempo is something the Sharks are comfortable with, but matching big, powerful packs in the set-pieces and the collisions has been something they have struggled with at times this year, and the Cheetahs will surely be aiming to use physicality as a weapon on Friday night.

“I think the Cheetahs are going to pose the same challenge up front as the Pumas and Bulls did. They have a lot of synergy in their lineout and scrum, so those are an obvious threat then. Plus with Frans Steyn at 12 it gives them a different dimension in terms of his kicking, carrying and his running from set-piece. We’re going to have to keep them out with really aggressive defence.

“The Cheetahs also like to maul a lot, from all areas of the field, but fortunately JJ van der Mescht was outstanding for us in that department against the Pumas – he pretty much stopped three mauls on his own. But I think the break will have motivated the Cheetahs, they won’t be happy about just getting two points against the Lions and they’ll be raring to go after that abandoned game and a bye,” Everitt said.

Despite dominating the Super Rugby competition at the start of the year, the Sharks have been taking baby steps since the return-to-play. Everitt showed patience by not prematurely throwing his toys out of the pram, but he believes his team are now settled and have laid the platform to now improve every week. He does not expect to see any more signs of rust from the Sharks.

“We’re no longer finding our feet, we’ve been together for a while now. Our confidence is back and we should be improving weekly now. I’m expecting a high-tempo game and we need guys who are going to have an impact, and I’m certain our bench will bring that and give us the opportunity to change the game if necessary. There’s healthy competition in our squad.

“But this competition as a whole is really strong and everyone has strengthened their squads since the start of the year. It’s been a great platform for South African rugby and every one of the our players knows they have the opportunity to get noticed now. We’ve settled in well now,” Everitt said.

Teams

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, JJ van der Mescht, John-Hubert Meyer, Dan Jooste, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, Michael Kumbirai, Ruben van Heerden, Thembelani Bholi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Werner Kok.

Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Malcolm Jaer, William Small-Smith, Francois Steyn, Rosko Specman, Tian Schoeman, Tian Meyer, Aidon Davis, Junior Pokomela (captain), Andisa Ntsila, JP du Preez, Carl Wegner, Luan de Bruin, Reinach Venter, Charles Marais. Replacements – Jacques du Toit, Boan Venter, Khutha Mchunu, Oupa Mohoje, Jeandré Rudolph, Ruben de Haas, Reinhardt Fortuin, Chris Smit.

Kickoff: 19h00