Ken Borland

The Ospreys showed at Ellis Park recently that they have a top scrum, but the Bulls are confident of handling them in their United Rugby Championship match in Swansea on Friday night thanks to the intel provided to them by someone who scaled the heights of Welsh rugby.

Former Springbok tighthead prop Werner Kruger is the Bulls scrum consultant and he also played 122 times for Scarlets, being a key figure in their 2016/17 side that won the Pro12, the Celtic league that was the precursor to the URC.

“It really helps having Werner Kruger in our camp, he is someone who recently played in Wales, so he knows their mindset,” Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp said on Tuesday.

“All that information helps and our scrum is something we have really worked on. Now that we have played longer together as a tight five, we’ve got our rhythm.

“Ospreys have a good pack, but we’ve done our prep and we can only give our best. And in terms of adapting to the referee, if we don’t do anything wrong then he can’t penalise us,” Steenekamp said.

Ospreys are looking to win the Welsh Shield in the URC and a place in the lucrative Champions Cup, and are currently level with Scarlets on 44 points, so Friday night’s clash is a massive match for them as well.

They have lost to all three of the other South African franchises, with their heaviest defeat coming against the Lions at Ellis Park. They were beaten 45-15 at the end of March, but the one aspect of the game where Ospreys did come out on top was in the scrum, against a powerful Lions set-piece.

Since then there has been a far more celebratory mood in the Swansea Stadium offices as Ospreys have enjoyed putting 50 points on the board in back-to-back matches against the Dragons and Scarlets and they held their annual awards evening during the last week as well.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are just happy that the weather along the south-west coast of Wales is good.

“The weather is not bad at all,” Steenekamp said. “It’s nearly the same temperature as Pretoria was when we left. The last time we played in Europe it was in midwinter compared to coming from our midsummer.

“We haven’t really changed our touring plans since then, but we have grown a lot as a squad – both in our game and as players,” Steenekamp said.

Tristan Stubbs, the sensational young Warriors batting talent, will have his first taste of international action when he tours India with the Proteas T20 squad next month and his Eastern Province coach, Robin Peterson, believes the 21-year-old will only get better as he gains more experience in the shortest format.

Stubbs’s maiden Proteas call-up came on Tuesday following two outstanding T20 campaigns for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

“We’re very proud of Tristan and very chuffed that he is getting this opportunity,” Peterson told The Citizen on Tuesday. “It’s a testament to his hard work. He’s a very natural player and being aware of the situation is where he has really improved.

“His biggest strength is that he reads the game well. And he doesn’t feel the pressure because he has the skills to get off strike quickly, get in and then explode.

“He comes in in different situations and he will only get better as he builds a database of doing it in different conditions against different opposition.

“Hopefully his IPL experience now with the Mumbai Indians will help make the transition to international cricket smoother. Mixing with Kieron Pollard, he’s getting some elite thinking on middle-order batting, and he has a great opportunity to play alongside David Miller now in the Proteas side,” Peterson, who represented South Africa in 100 white-ball matches, said.

As befitting someone who could come to the crease with three wickets down inside the powerplay, or with just 20 balls left in the innings, Stubbs has the all-round game for all circumstances.

“He has sound thinking around the game and he has all the natural attributes for the middle-order – he plays spin well, he can hit sixes and he runs hard so he doesn’t use up a lot of dot balls,” Peterson said.

“He loves his golf and was a great hockey player, which is probably why he has such good wrists.

“He’s a very laid-back surfer-boy from Knysna, but very competitive and very driven to succeed. It’s been a meteoric rise for him, but I just hope people are patient with him,” coach Peterson said.

Thirteen of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad have been selected for the series in India, with Stubbs and left-arm quick Marco Jansen the only inclusions who have not yet played in the shortest format at international level.

All-rounder Wayne Parnell has also earned a recall, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje is fit again and available for South Africa for the first time since last November.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.

Quick-scoring Tristan Stubbs will be in line to make his Proteas debut following his first call-up on Tuesday to the South African squad for their T20 series in India, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje will be making a welcome return to international action.

The 21-year-old Stubbs has played sensational T20 cricket for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings over the last two seasons, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156, outstanding figures in the shortest format. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

The talent of Stubbs was noticed by the Mumbai Indians, who called him into their IPL squad as an injury replacement two weeks ago. That cut short his involvement with the SA A team on their recent tour of Zimbabwe, but he did play twice, scoring 37 and 19, being not out in both innings and scoring at a strike-rate of 121.

His inclusion means the Proteas could field an explosive middle-order with David Miller and Aiden Markram both in outstanding form in the IPL.

Paceman Nortje has also been playing in the IPL, proving his recovery from back and hip injuries, and will be playing for South Africa for the first time since the T20 World Cup last November.

From that squad that performed admirably in the UAE, sadly falling just short of the semi-finals, spinner Bjorn Fortuin and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder have unfortunately lost their places, being replaced by pacemen Marco Jansen and Wayne Parnell, both of whom are useful lower-order batsmen too.

South Africa were only allowed to take 15 players to the T20 World Cup, but have selected 16 for the India tour as they finalise preparations for the next edition of the global showpiece, in Australia at the end of October.

Fortuin performed highly creditably for the SA A team in Zimbabwe, but Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj are always going to be ahead of him in the spinners’ queue. If one of them gets injured then Markram could fill in and, with their being at least two days between all five matches in India, Fortuin could always be flown in if necessary.

Parnell is arguably a more explosive batsman than Mulder and his left-arm swing bowling offers variety to the attack, with fellow left-armer Jansen generally using his height to hit the deck hard.

South Africa’s first match in India is on June 9 in Delhi.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.

Lionel Cronje is an extremely well-travelled rugby player, but he is yet to win the Currie Cup and probably still burns a bit from his experience in last year’s final, giving the flyhalf a good reason to return to the Sharks and try and put that right.

The Sharks announced on Monday that the 32-year-old Cronje has returned to Kings Park on a two-year contract. Apart from playing for the KwaZulu-Natalians in 2014/15 and on loan last year, he has also  been on the books of five other South African provinces as well as playing in Australia for the Brumbies and, most recently, for Toyota Verblitz in Japan.

While on loan in Durban last year, he spoke candidly about his burning desire to win the Currie Cup, but the Sharks were hammered 44-10 in the final by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld. The chance to play in Europe, in the United Rugby Championship, also figures high up on Cronje’s wish-list.

The Sharks have had a bit of an issue at flyhalf this season, with Curwin Bosch suffering a poor run of form and Boeta Chamberlain and Tito Bonilla not excelling enough to suggest they can help the Sharks to European glory. Cronje’s experience will now be thrown into the mix.

You would think that, with all the money they now have in their coffers from the MVM consortium, the Sharks could attract a world-class, high-profile flyhalf to Kings Park, but for the moment they are backing Bosch, but Cronje will be putting pressure on his position when he becomes available for selection in September.

The Sharks have also announced that locks Emile van Heerden and Renier Hugo have signed contracts that will keep them at Kings Park for the next three years, while exciting scrumhalf Grant Williams has extended his contract by another two years.