Ken Borland

Captain Phepsi Buthelezi suffered a head knock against Griquas and will miss the Sharks’ Currie Cup game against Western Province in Cape Town on Wednesday, but coach Sean Everitt is confident the eighthman will have recovered in time to join the squad in Johannesburg as they go into lockdown ahead of their match against the British and Irish Lions on July 7 at Ellis Park.

The focus of the Sharks is facing a testing time because they have the crucial match against Western Province to concentrate on, but also the excitement of the game against the British and Irish Lions and all the Covid protocol palaver that goes with that fixture.

“I presume Phepsi will be ready for the Lions, he feels 100% but just didn’t pass all his tests. So he’s nearly there and it wasn’t a serious concussion. Hopefully he’ll be able to join us on Friday when we fly to Johannesburg and go into a six-day quarantine. We are allowed to train on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and we’ll have PCR tests on Friday, Monday and Wednesday before the game.

“We’ve had no clarification yet on our kickoff time in Cape Town, but I presume it will be moved from 7pm, but that will have no impact on our preparation. Our message to the players this morning was that we need to be squeaky clean and we would like them to treat it as if they are in self-isolation, just coming to the stadium and going home. Otherwise they could miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime against the Lions,” Everitt said on Monday.

The weather in Cape Town is expected to be poor, so it is excellent news for the Sharks that the booming boot of flyhalf Curwin Bosch is back.

“It’s great to have Curwin back. Everyone goes through disappointments in sport, it’s not the first time he’s had it and he’s over what happened with the Springboks. But he’ll want to make sure he puts in a good performance to show Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber that he can step up if needed. He has a huge boot and that could be a deciding factor.

“It’s beautiful weather in Durban today – 28⁰ – so it’s going to be a bit of a change in Cape Town. I see the Junior Boks were playing in torrential rain on a muddy pitch in Stellenbosch, but we have the game-plan for those conditions and we are able to do the kicking game if needed. But we don’t want to bring a one-dimensional approach either,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward (c), Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Mpilo Gumede, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Khutha Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, JJ van der Mescht, Reniel Hugo, Dylan Richardson, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.

The Springbok camp was rocked by three positive Covid tests on Sunday, but director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said the notion that this would put the two Tests against Georgia and the entire British and Irish Lions tour in doubt was incorrect.

Erasmus revealed that Durban-based wing Sbu Nkosi, tighthead prop Vincent Koch of Saracens and scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, who has already had Covid, were the three players who tested positive when the squad gathered at their Johannesburg hotel. All three players are asymptomatic but training on Sunday was cancelled as a precautionary measure.

“We’ve been in camp for three weeks without any problems, but this was the first time everyone really assembled, the first time we’ve had all squad members with guys coming in from all over. The three guys who tested positive have to be confined as we fall in now with British and Irish Lions tour protocols. We have advised the tour medical committee and now we wait for the next step.

“But it’s not a big worry for us, I’m fairly confident these are isolated cases, those players have just been unlucky. We’ve followed very strict protocols at our hotel, we weren’t allowed to be in one room before testing and the guys could not go to their own rooms for five to seven hours until they got the results – just to make sure that contacts are minimal.

“I don’t think the Georgia game on Friday is in any doubt, we have a squad of 45 especially for this reason. We will never not have enough players, we can draft players in because they are on testing regimes with their provinces. I’m fairly sure very few guys are infected, this came from something external and the guys have not done anything wrong,” Erasmus said on Sunday.

While the positive tests have spiked the Springboks’ plans on Sunday, most of the groundwork for the first Test against Georgia will already have been laid down. Coach Jacques Nienaber said the Springboks had to be adaptable in these harrowing times.

“It’s not ideal, we would have loved a normal week flow, but it’s important in these times of Covid and changing environments, that we are adaptable, that is key,” Nienaber said.

Both Nkosi and Jantjies were likely to feature in the squad for the Georgia Test at Loftus Versfeld, but the heavy frame of powerhouse Koch was only likely to be seen later because he has been in England and has not been working with the Springboks over the last three weeks.

The scent of mourning hung around South African cricket on Tuesday with the news that their much-loved, and longest-serving manager, Goolam Rajah, had passed away, another victim of Covid-19.

The 74-year-old Rajah had been on a ventilator for the last couple of months in a Johannesburg hospital.

In many ways, Rajah was the glue as the Proteas made their way back into international cricket in 1991 and went through tumultuous times such as the 1999 World Cup semi-final tie, the fall of Hansie Cronje, and further World Cup disappointments in 2003, 2007 and 2011 (the year he retired); as well as the highs of becoming the No.1 side in Test cricket through numerous memorable wins on tour.

Apart from being the most meticulous man, his logistical and man-management skills were phenomenal, Rajah was the epitome of a gentleman. Softly-spoken, but with a warm smile, any time spent in his company would leave one feeling better for the experience.

A qualified pharmacist, Rajah was the perfect manager. Extremely organised, with a high sense of integrity, he was also a great servant of the game.

Former Proteas captain and coach Gary Kirsten summed up Rajah perfectly in his autobiography:

“Goolam was probably the most unsung hero I have ever encountered. I can categorically state that I never met a more selfless person in the entire decade we were together. Goolam’s approach to his job was to add as much value and make life as pleasant and as trouble-free as possible for the people around him. His own goals and ambitions were never apparent.

“The solitary target he set himself on tour was to allow his team to focus all their mental and physical energy on cricket. If they were worried or distracted by anything else, Goolam treated it as a personal failure on his part. He allowed no detail to escape his attention and he was a shrewd deal-maker too. He was generous to a fault and there were times I wished Goolam would just take half-an-hour for himself,” Kirsten said.

It may have been fewer minutes than he would have liked, but the fact that Handre Pollard was on the field helping to steer Montpellier to victory in the Challenge Cup final last month, coupled with the intensive training the Springboks have been doing, has the flyhalf feeling enfranchised to once again be his team’s general as they resume international competition against Georgia at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

Pollard suffered a serious knee injury last September, but returned for the Challenge Cup semifinal and final, with Montpellier edging out Leicester 18-17 at Twickenham.

“To be back in this environment, it’s a special group of players, is very exciting. To tear your ACL and not miss a single Test is a pretty good bargain and I’ve worked very hard to get back. I’ve played a bit for Montpellier and although I would maybe have liked a few more minutes of game time, it was massive playing in high-pressure games again.

“I really enjoyed that excitement and intensity, and now I’ve been training very hard with the Springboks. I’m fit and ready to try and lead the team in the right direction and contribute positively. And it’s going to be great to have my Montpellier scrumhalf Cobus Reinach with me, we’ve become good mates and we have a very good understanding,” Pollard said on Tuesday.

While Georgia should be dispatched relatively easily on Friday, the British and Irish Lions are from a weak side and Pollard said the tourists’ weekend warm-up against Japan had given them plenty of food for thought.

“We know Japan like to keep ball-in-hand and play an attacking brand. The Lions showed what we expected in certain areas, but in certain areas they didn’t. It’s still just the first game though and a lot will change before the Tests. But we can see the Lions have some star players, a lot of firepower, and I thought they played really well.

“Dan Biggar is a quality player at flyhalf, he shone as expected. He has a great kicking game, he’s physical and he’s excellent in the air. But the Lions have three brilliant flyhalves and it will come down to combinations. Whoever they pick is going to be a great player. And I think they’re going to be focused on their physicality and a kicking game,” Pollard added.