Ken Borland

Life in France is good (although he complained the biltong is not the same as at home) judging by the sparkle in Trevor Nyakane’s eye and his lean and mean look at the Springbok hotel in Pretoria on Thursday.

The former Bulls prop joined Racing 92 at the beginning of the year and will be a useful source of information on next year’s Rugby World Cup hosts. Nyakane picked up an injury towards the end of the French season which prevented him from playing in Racing’s unsuccessful Champions Cup semi-final and Top 14 quarterfinal.

But the 33-year-old was thrilled to be able to watch the charge of the South African teams in the United Rugby Championship.

“Being in France has given me a different perspective on rugby, and I’ll be giving that information to the Springbok team. It’s lovely coming back, I feel at home, you can get biltong over there but it’s not the same!

“I was really amazed watching the URC. At the start of the competition, you had to scroll to the second page of the log to find any of the South African teams, and then we ended up with three teams in the playoffs!

“Racing play Champions Cup rugby against Leinster, so we know what they are capable of and it was really amazing for the Bulls to go there and win. It shows that there are only greener pastures for our teams,” Nyakane said.

The versatile frontranker’s focus is now on the Tests against Wales and he says the never-say-die attitude of Wayne Pivac’s side is their strongest attribute.

“Wales have a lot of experience and they never let go. Some teams you can just beat into submission, but Wales keep coming until the final whistle blows.

“They will try and impose themselves in the game, but as South Africans we are never shy of a challenge,” Nyakane said.

While Thursday’s function was to introduce the new Springbok squad to the media, who coach Jacques Nienaber described as the brokers between the team and the fans/sponsors, who he said were ultimately their employers, it was unsurprising that the players were more excited about the prospect of playing in full stadiums again.

“We’ve really missed the fans, they mean a lot to us,” Nyakane said. “We went through the Lions tour last year without any crowds, it was a good tour but we really missed the guys out there keying us up.

“I would urge all fans to purchase tickets and come out and support us, and I can assure them we will give of our best.”

Deon Fourie has been around South African rugby for a while, making his senior debut for Western Province in 2005, and he also played in France for seven years with Lyon and Grenoble, but the 35-year-old Stormers hero has always had a burning desire to be chosen for the Springboks.

Following his sensational displays in leading the Stormers to the United Rugby Championship title, he was selected to the Springbok squad for the first time, alongside seven other uncapped players.

On Thursday, the utility forward had completed his first week of training with the Springboks and his face, battered as it has been this season from all his tremendous efforts at the breakdown, was beaming.

“The intensity is way higher up than at provincial level, and, at the age of 35, it takes me longer to get up and running and I’m feeling it a bit,” Fourie smiled at their Pretoria hotel.

“Some guys have waited 22 years for their dream to come true, but for me it’s been 35 years. So it’s just great to be here and to realise my dream,” he said.

Fourie’s Stormers team-mate Evan Roos, also immense in the URC triumph, is 22 years old and perhaps who the elder statesman was referring to.

“This is a boyhood dream come true,” Roos said. “I watched most of these guys growing up, so it feels a bit surreal to be in the same squad as them now.

“But I’m excited about working hard on my game and making sure the important little things get better,” Roos said.

While new faces certainly bring an injection of energy and fresh ideas into a squad, it is a universal truth in rugby that experience is vital at international level.

And Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said that, coupled with a burning desire to restore their pride, will make Wales dangerous opponents in South Africa’s first three Tests of the year, starting on July 2 at Loftus Versfeld.

“We have an average of 26 caps per player, while Wales has 36 so they have experienced players who have been there before,” Nienaber said. “Their clubs also didn’t make the playoffs in the URC, so they have had a nice month to prepare.

“I’m not sure if they are pushing the restart button from the Six Nations, but I know from 2018 when we were desperate that you do desperate things. We changed our defensive system and the way we kick.

“They have had a lot of negative publicity, a desperate team is always dangerous and it is always a tough battle against Wales. Coach Wayne Pivac said their mission was to win a Test in South Africa for the first time.

“So we will prepare for what we think will come our way, but we will have to adapt on the field, do it on the run. We’re going to have to be unbelievably solutions-driven,” Nienaber said.

The 150th Open next month at St Andrew’s and the Masters and the U.S. Open next year are all now on the diary of South Africa’s 17-year-old sensation Aldrich Potgieter after he won amateur golf’s biggest prize – the 127th Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes – over the weekend.

Potgieter held off a strong comeback from Englishman Sam Bairstow to seal a 3 & 2 victory in the thrilling 36-hole final at the Lancashire links course. He became just the third South African to lift the prestigious title after Bobby Cole (Carnoustie, 1966) and Jovan Rebula (Royal Aberdeen, 2018), and the second-youngest winner of The Amateur since Matteo Manassero triumphed in 2009 at the age of 16.

“It’s really amazing,” Potgieter said. “I can’t really find the words; there’s no feeling like it and I haven’t felt this good before.

“It will take some time to sink in, because right now the words can’t even come out of my mind to describe how I feel,” the Mossel Bay golfer said.

And for now, all he can think about is teeing it up at one of the most famous venues in sport as the 150^th celebration of the Open goes to the home of golf, St Andrews, where massive crowds are expected from July 14-17.

“I’m really excited. I played the Old Course recently during the St Andrews Links Trophy and it was really amazing. I’m really looking forward to the experience and The Open has always been my favourite Major because of all the history it holds.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d be playing The Open at this age. It’s a dream come true and it’s going to be a tough few weeks, waiting out the return trip back to St Andrews,.” Potgieter said.

The staff at Pinnacle Point, where Potgieter plays his golf, were quick to celebrate his achievement on social media and it has been a meteoric rise for the big-hitter.

Potgieter and his family had been living in Australia for nine years before they returned to South Africa in December last year. Having been 6 000th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2019, by the time he returned home, he had risen to 2 800th and was West Australia’s No.1 junior and ranked sixth in Australia.

He announced himself in spectacular fashion on the GolfRSA circuit, winning the Nomads SA Boys U19 Strokeplay Championship and backing up that tournament record 20-shot victory at Royal Cape with an 8 & 7 win to lift the SA Boys Matchplay title — becoming only the fifth junior since 1963 to complete that rare double after Richard Sterne (1999), Dylan Frittelli (2008), Zander Gous (2013) and Jayden Schaper (2015).

Ranked 140^th in the world before the dream week at Royal Lytham, Potgieter has cemented his spot alongside fellow GolfRSA National Squad members Casey Jarvis and Yurav Premlall in the International Team for the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup in North Carolina in September.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher would love his batsmen to go out and show more intent in T20 cricket, but he knows they first of all need to be equipped to do so and he said on Tuesday that captain Temba Bavuma will be one of the players he will be working hard with ahead of the World Cup in October.

Bavuma’s series strike-rate of just 103.38 came under the spotlight when South Africa wasted a 2-0 lead in their T20 series in India, but Boucher on Tuesday backed his captain in unequivocal fashion, highlighting that many of his problems were due to the outstanding performances of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the player of the series, up front with the new ball.

“Temba struggled, there’s no doubt about it, so as coaches we have to sit down and ask why? It was one bowler that he struggled against – Bhuvneshwar. Most guys did against him, he’s a fantastic bowler in those conditions and when the ball swings a lot then he is very dangerous. And the new ball was going up-and-down a lot,” Boucher said.

“We will look at giving him more options, but it’s quite difficult to change up during a series while you’re travelling and playing. Temba had also not played much cricket before the series.

“Against other bowlers, his strike-rate was fine, there were no issues. He wants to score quicker and his stats outside the powerplay are very good. He gets boundaries in different ways than say a Rassie van der Dussen or an Aiden Markram.

“There is space for a guy who can stabilise the innings and we see him in that mould. Temba loves a challenge, look how he has come through in Test cricket. He’s a tough cricketer and captain and we certainly do need him. I’ll be working extra hard with him and the bowling machine,” Boucher said.

The coach was also frank about the batsmen needing to embrace a new, more adventurous way of playing that he is trying to institute.

“You need the technical know-how to be able to play the shots, but your mindset also needs to be open to raising your strike-rate,” Boucher said. “By doing that you get your confidence up.

“In terms of mindset, you need to really trust the plan. And it’s not just about playing maverick cricket, we need to be smart too. It’s a new way and we don’t want to just go back to our default of a year or so ago.

“The batsmen need to commit to the new philosophy and not have doubts. You’re not going to win the World Cup if you don’t have the right mindset and the way India and England play is the way forward.

“Some batsmen are not used to taking a risk inside their first six balls, and especially in the third game we saw that, there was not enough intent. We didn’t pull the trigger to put the bowlers under pressure,” Boucher said.