Ken Borland

The desire not to be pinned in their own half for lengthy periods has seen the Sharks recall Curwin Bosch to the starting flyhalf berth for their United Rugby Championship match against Benetton in Treviso on Saturday.

Italian vogue might be extremely exciting for those who consider themselves to be dedicated followers of fashion, but their rugby, apart from 2015 when the national team wore pinstripe shorts, can be dour at times. Kicking long and deep is a tactic Sharks coach Sean Everitt is fully expecting from Benetton Treviso on Saturday, and in Bosch he has one of the longest boots in the game to repel the strategy.

“Benetton have made the fourth-highest kicking metres in the competition so far, so we thought we would go like-for-like,” Everitt said on Thursday. “Curwin has gone well over the last couple of weeks, and he kicked for poles very well when he came on against the Bulls.

“Our goalkicking accuracy has not been as good as we would have liked and hopefully Curwin can take that away. It’s going to be the same challenge as we faced against Ospreys, who are also in the top-five for metres kicked.

“We have to be really smart in how we manage the game. Benetton also rely a lot on their maul, so we have to make sure we’re playing in the right areas. I’m excited that Curwin has earned a starting berth again,” Everitt said.

Although Benetton Treviso will be missing their Italy national squad players, they showed in hammering the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final eight months ago that their no-name-brand team are a lean, mean, fighting machine.

“Benetton are just outside the top-eight already and they have run teams close in their five defeats, even when they’ve been under-strength,” Everitt said. “They won the territory and possession battle last weekend against Glasgow Warriors, but lost the match 13-3.

“We have learnt lessons from teams like the Bulls and we won’t take them lightly. They have still got their overseas players – five of them South African in Irne Herbst and Carl Wegner at lock, Dewald Duvenhage, Andries Coetzee and Rhyno Smith.

“Those are all good players, some of the best in South Africa. We are sure they will come with a lot of emotion and passion, and we’ll have a target on our backs with a lot of Springboks.

“And we expect a lot of local support in the Stadio Monigo. Treviso is a small city, but there is lots of rugby interest. We’re expecting hostile stands,” Everitt said.

Sharks – Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (c), Marius Louw, Makazole Mapimpi, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Siya Kolisi, Gerbrandt Grobler, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit (v/c), Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Replacements: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Le Roux Roets, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Tito Bonilla,  Werner Kok.

Juan Mostert has followed a similar road to Loftus Versfeld as the great Handre Pollard and he could get his first chance to shine at senior level as he was on Thursday named on the bench for the Bulls for their United Rugby Championship match against Zebre in Parma on Friday night.

Mostert has been named as the flyhalf cover for starting No.10 Chris Smith. The Bulls have something of a flyhalf crisis on the go at present as Morne Steyn is suspended for three weeks and Johan Goosen is out with a long-term knee injury.

So the 21-year-old Mostert has been lured out of a deal with the Seattle Seahawks for Major League Rugby and offered a two-year deal by the Bulls, whose director of rugby, Jake White, has been tracking the young talent’s career.

“Fortunately Juan had not quite done all the paperwork for the United States because Covid and visa requirements did not make it as easy as he thought it would. So we have signed him to stay,” White said on Thursday.

“He has a two-year deal and we’ll probably look to keep him for longer. He’s big and tall and he played for SA Schools and Paul Roos Gimnasium. He’ll be an understudy to Morne, Chris and Johan.

“He probably didn’t think he would get a chance so soon, but he’ll always be in the mix because he can play flyhalf, centre and fullback. Hopefully he can get on the field against Zebre and get a feel for this level.

“He’s had a bit of injury problems with a quad strain that has gone on for a while, but he’s got everything – pedigree of playing for South Africa at junior level and versatility,” White said.

Pollard was also schooled in the Western Cape (Paarl Gim) before heading to Pretoria and Mostert is even more of a physical specimen, being four centimetres taller than the Springbok star at 6’4”. Mostert starred for Maties in the Varsity Cup before his decision to further his career in America.

But when Jake White makes an advance, it’s probably best for a young rugby player to take up the offer. With Steyn already 37 years old, Goosen turning 30 in July and Smith 27, Mostert could well be the flyhalf of the future for the Bulls.

Bulls team:Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Embrose Papier; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Jacques van Rooyen, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. IMPACT -Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Robert Hunt, Janko Swanepoel, WJ Steenkamp; Keagan Johannes, Juan Mostert, Canan Moodie.

Gauteng may be the financial capital of South Africa but Durban is rapidly becoming the rugby capital as the Sharks confirmed the mega-signing of Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth on Thursday, on a long-term deal that will keep him at Kings Park from July until 2027.

Thanks to the cash cow that is their equity partners, Etzebeth will move from being one of the highest-paid players in France while he was with Toulon, to one of the highest earning players in South Africa, as befits a veteran of 97 Tests and a perennial contender for any World XV. Although the Sharks cannot come close to matching the reported R20 million a year Toulon were paying him, Durban offers other perks in terms of lifestyle and networking with the range of leading businesspeople who have invested in the franchise.

A happy Etzebeth will mean the Sharks’ tight five will be getting a considerable boost.

“I’m looking forward to coming to the Sharks and living in Durban, and I expect this to be a wonderful chapter in my career,” Etzebeth said in a statement released by the Sharks on Thursday.
“Family and being closer to home was a big motivating factor, as well as being able to represent a great team like the Sharks. I can see things are happening there.

“Siya Kolisi is there and we’ve been friends since were in the provincial U19s together and now we will get to play for the Sharks together.

“Along with my Springbok team-mates Bongi Mbonambi, Makazole Mapimpi, Lukhanyo Am, Thomas du Toit, all guys I know well. I’m also really excited to meet a few new guys,” Etzebeth said.

The 30-year-old admitted to being impressed with what the Sharks have managed to build so far.
“I’m looking forward to playing at the Shark Tank, the local derbies against the Bulls, Stormers and Lions will be awesome,” Etzebeth said. “I’m looking forward to being back in South Africa and playing in front of the Sharks fans there.”
“I chatted to Siya, I gave Thomas a call and chatted to them. Off the field things work, on the field we can see things are working and the team is doing well.

“I enjoyed watching the last game against the Bulls and the victory away from home, and this is a brand I definitely want to be associated with and which I’m proud to be joining,” Etzebeth said. “Attracting a player of Etzebeth’s calibre underlines the importance the Sharks place on building a winning squad, which is aligned to the vision of being the biggest franchise in world rugby,” said CEO Eduard Coetzee.
“We’re also focused on building a strong group of players for a number of years, not just the immediate future, and Eben’s long-term contract reflects this.”

The Sharks are hoping that all their excellent programmes to assist their players with life outside rugby will clinch the deal with Eben Etzebeth, leading to the Springbok powerhouse lock joining them after the end of Toulon’s season in June.

The Sharks, thanks to their equity partners, offer enormous networking and advisory possibilities with an array of leading businesspeople and that could be of interest to Etzebeth, who has been one of the best-paid players in France and is now in the second half of his career.

Eduard Coetzee, the CEO of the Sharks, confirmed on Tuesday that the franchise are putting together an offer for arguably the best lock in the world, who was earning about R20 million a year at Toulon.

“We are speaking to Eben, he wants to come back and we will put our best foot forward,” Coetzee told The Citizen. “It’s about what we can offer him on and off the field.

“Eben will be turning 31 in October and we can give him a start for life after rugby. We can match him up with businesspeople who can help him – in the pharmaceutical world, clothing, property etc.

“Hopefully that can make up for the loss of income he will have coming back to South Africa. And with the endorsements and commercial opportunities he can get here, hopefully he can earn something that is not a long ways off what he gets there in France. So we feel there is definitely a chance that we will get him,” Coetzee said.

The salary cap (R65m) that SA Rugby have imposed on their franchises as they try to compete with the big-spending European clubs is a frustration, and the Sharks also have to ensure they do not anger the existing superstars in their squad by paying the likes of Etzebeth considerably more than they are earning.

“Of a probable current World XV, we have Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Lukhanyo Am, and now you add Eben Etzebeth,” Coetzee said. “And you can’t pay one of them twice as much as the others.

“You need a level of consistency in terms of what you are paying the top guys. Fortunately we have some credit still in the salary cap and Eben has got himself out of his contract with Toulon.”

The CEO also cleared up any impression that Neil Powell being parachuted in as director of rugby when he had initially been signed as defence coach would be cause for any anger by head coach Sean Everitt.

“John McFarland left for a long-term deal and Warren Whiteley stepped in as defence coach until Neil arrives in September, and he is doing really well. We felt the gap was in terms of managing the entire rugby programme.

“It has been a consultative process and Sean has a very difficult job managing two teams out of one squad. But Neil runs systems really well and he is very strong on culture and work ethic.

“So Neil will run everything outside of the day-to-day coaching. This will cause the least disruption and his strength is people-management, we need someone to run the whole system from juniors up the pipeline,” Coetzee said.