Ken Borland

‘Matching the opposition’s physicality’ is a recurring riff in rugby these days, and Sharks coach Sean Everitt spoke of little else when assessing the strengths of the Dragons team they come up against in their United Rugby Championship match in Newport on Saturday.

The Sharks themselves do not own the most physically intimidating side, putting greater value on mobility, tempo and expansiveness, but they have produced the grunt at times.

The Dragons, meanwhile, are under new management with Dai Flanagan moving from Scarlets in June to take over as head coach. It is believed director of rugby Dean Ryan is being moved on, after he gave the players a public earful following their lacklustre 44-6 loss to Edinburgh on the opening weekend of URC action.

The squad responded with a 23-17 win over Munster, a major upset, the first time they have beaten the Irish giants since 2015, and their first win at home at Rodney Parade in 18 months.

“The Dragons have a new head coach and they are a very different kettle of fish at home,” Everitt said. “Last week they dominated Munster physically, in the mauls, collisions and set-pieces, they were vastly improved in those areas.

“So obviously we will need to be dominant from a physicality point of view. The Dragons are a different team from when we beat them 51-3 in April. We were fortunate to be at home then.

“It was difficult for them in Durban at that time of year and it’s going to be a different challenge for us in Newport. They pride themselves on their physicality and the collisions.

“They are physical by nature and we are going to have to be up for it physically,” Everitt reiterated.

But whenever the Dragons have come up against South African opposition – probably the measure for physicality in the URC – it has been a chronicle of disappointment for the Welshmen.

They lost all four matches they played against South African teams last season, and, notwithstanding their brilliant result against Munster, which ended a six-game losing run, they have not won successive URC games since April 2021.

Kick-off: 8.35pm.

So near and yet so far is probably an apt summation of the Springboks’ Rugby Championship campaign, and there is a lingering feeling that Jacques Nienaber’s team are still not playing to their true potential and are still not ruthless enough when it comes to translating dominance to points on the scoreboard.

And their next opponents, on November 5 and 12 respectively, are Ireland in Dublin and France in Marseille. Those are the top two sides in the world rankings and then we will have a better idea of whether South Africa are genuine World Cup contenders or just also-rans in a southern hemisphere competition that is no longer the gold standard of international rugby.

Having hammered the All Blacks in Nelspruit on the opening weekend, the Springboks really only have themselves to blame for not winning the Rugby Championship for just the fifth time.

Their first misjudgement lies squarely on Nienaber (and maybe director of rugby Rassie Erasmus) for not choosing the best XV to play New Zealand the following weekend at Ellis Park. The All Blacks were in disarray and ripe for the taking after their 26-10 defeat at Mbombela Stadium. When your greatest rivals are on their knees, you don’t experiment and give them a helping hand, you ruthlessly turn the knife and ensure they sack their coach mid-competition.

Instead, Ian Foster’s men bounced back with an impressive win, the ship was steadied and, despite an historic first loss at home to Argentina, they were worthy winners of the Rugby Championship.

Having lost to the Pumas 25-18 in Christchurch, New Zealand then thrashed them 53-3 the following weekend in Hamilton, the result that ultimately won them the title, because it left the Springboks needing a bonus point and turning around a big points differential in the final round to claim the silverware.

It is that kind of ruthlessness, the ability to really put opposition away, that the Springboks lack. The last time they scored 40 points in the Rugby Championship, never mind winning by a margin of 39, was back in August 2019 against Argentina.

I get that Test matches cannot always be like a commercial for open, running rugby, but the great sides are able to leverage dominance and make it reflect on the scoreboard. And there have been periods when the Springboks have enjoyed an absolute monopoly on momentum, but just did not have the execution or intent to make it count.

In the last match against Argentina, I would have liked to have seen the Springboks try and play some expansive rugby. They had nothing to lose – even if they lost, they still would have finished second.

But with crash-ball centres at numbers 10 and 12 and the creativity of Lukhanyo Am missed at outside centre, the Springboks still just relied on their usual formula of scoring from set-pieces and rolling mauls.

They were not helped by a referee, Damon Murphy, who was determined to be in the middle of the limelight. If you are going to steal the show, at least make sure you are competent, but Murphy and his officiating team made a series of terrible decisions that robbed South Africa of momentum.

From winning the World Cup in 2019, the Springboks no longer seem to be the leaders of the pack. I don’t see much growth, especially in terms of their attacking play, since those heady days in Japan. The opposition will have had four years to work out how to blunt South Africa’s forward-based, strangling game of stout defence and contestable kicking, and the Boks better have more strings to their bow if they hope to defend their title.

Perhaps Nienaber, an inexperienced head coach maybe in Erasmus’s shadow, has tried too hard to prove he is the man and is too prescriptive in terms of the style of play. While throttling the opposition has worked, one wonders if the Springboks are not strangling their own potential in the process?

Let’s hope they express themselves more in Europe.

The Sharks have turned down the option to play a more ‘upmarket’ team and include their returning Springboks in their United Rugby Championship visit to Newport to take on the Dragons on Saturday, instead deciding to leave them in Durban until after their tour is over.

While the Bulls and Stormers are fielding some of the Springboks who were involved in the Rugby Championship, Sharks coach Sean Everitt has made just two injury-enforced changes to the team that opened their campaign with a narrow (in the end) win over Zebre in Parma.

Lock Gerbrandt Grobler injured his bicep in training this week and will be replaced by new signing Justin Basson, with Hyron Andrews moving on to the bench.

And replacement flyhalf Fred Zeilinga has also returned home injured, with Anthony Volmink replacing him amongst the substitutes.

“The Springboks have been given a week off and will integrate themselves back into training next week in Durban,” Everitt said on Thursday. “If we need to call in some of them due to injuries for next week against Leinster, then we will.

“But I would prefer them to get up to date with what we were doing in pre-season and what we have implemented since then. It’s a bit different for us because of the number of Springboks we have.

“Fortunately they are all guys who prepare well. But they did miss part of pre-season and they need to get up to speed. They’re all quality players and we will need to introduce them for a couple of games in October.

“But for now we are leaving them in Durban to prepare for the clash with Glasgow back at home on October 15,” Everitt explained.

Having upset Munster in Newport last weekend, the Dragons are shopping for their second successive home win, having begun the season with a fearful 44-6 hammering away to Edinburgh.

What the Sharks want is a repeat of their first 40 minutes against Zebre last weekend, when they were impressively efficient in garnering a 28-3 lead. They lost focus in the second half though, and had to hang on desperately for a 42-37 triumph.

“The first half was the best rugby we’ve played for a long time and I was very happy with that,” Everitt said. “But in the second half we allowed them to get momentum.

“Zebre and the Dragons are both dangerous out wide and we struggled with our width in defence and allowed them quick ball at the breakdowns.

“Plus we never stuck to our kicking plan. So really we put ourselves under the pump. Having conceded only three penalties in the first half, not many at all, we then gave away seven in the second half when we were feeling the pressure. But those things are all fixable,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Ben Tapuai, Thaakir Abrahams, Boeta Chamberlain, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi, Dylan Richardson, James Venter, Reniel Hugo, Justin Basson, Thomas du Toit (c), Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench – Dan Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Carlu Sadie, Hyron Andrews, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Marnus Potgieter, Anthony Volmink.

CAPE ST FRANCIS, Eastern Cape – Heinrich Bruiners grew up in George, a little more than three hours along the N2 in a westerly direction from Cape St Francis, so a little bit of blustery wind is never going to give him grey hairs.

So although the wind almost reached 30km/h on the opening day of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at the St Francis Links on Thursday, it was no bother for Bruiners as he cruised to a marvellous, bogey-free, seven-under-par 65 to claim a one-stroke lead after the first round.

Things became a little gory for the rest of the field though, with only 31 of the 83 golfers ending the first day under par. Bruiners’ nearest challengers are Serengeti’s Ockie Strydom (66), and American Brooklin Bailey and a pair of South Africans in Dylan Naidoo and Jaco Prinsloo on 67.

“It was a bit windy today, but not too bad, just one or two clubs. Growing up on the coast, I’ve played a lot of tournaments in these conditions. I tend to focus a bit better because you have to be a bit more specific, otherwise it’s so easy to make a mistake in the wind.

“But playing in the wind feels like a bit of an advantage for me, to be honest, and I have a lower ball-flight than most,” Bruiners said.

Apart from playing what he described as his “worst two rounds for the year” in the preceding pro-am event, Bruiners has felt that he has been playing good golf, but has committed the sin of not capitalising when it comes to his final score.

On Thursday he put that right with three birdies on his front nine as he went off on the 10^th and then four more on his back nine, including three-in-a-row from the fourth.

“I’m very happy because in the last while, I’ve been playing really well but I just didn’t end off rounds the way I would like. I made a good birdie on 11 today, which is quite a tough hole, so it was nice to get off to a good start.

“The next few holes were also downwind and I was glad I capitalised because I was thinking the wind was going to pick up. I hit two very good shots for birdies on the first and fourth holes.

“Then there were more holes into the wind coming in, but I tried to be aggressive. Last week I was in contention in the SunBet Challenge Wild Coast, but I became a bit defensive down the stretch. So I tried to be a bit more positive today.

“It ended up being a really solid round, no drops because I made a really nice putt for par on the seventh. It’s the first time in a while I’ve sunk a putt like that, so it meant a lot.

“In fact this must be one of my most memorable rounds. I’ve played a few good rounds, but this one I’ll remember,” a delighted Bruiners said.

Strydom also started on the 10^th and had a much slower start to his ascent up the leaderboard, being just one-under at the turn. The first three holes at St Francis Links are deceptive, but the 37-year-old birdied all three for a great start to his back nine. Strydom also picked up shots on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes for a top-class round of golf.

Bailey also made a leap up the leaderboard on the front nine, also collecting five birdies.