Ken Borland

The old story of the wife who phones the changeroom and asks to speak to her husband, only to be told he’s batting and replies “I’ll hold” could have been told about the Titans on Sunday as they crashed to their lowest ever total and then lost four wickets in their follow-on innings on the fourth day of the 4-Day Domestic Series final against the Dolphins at Kingsmead.

Replying to the Dolphins’ first innings of 295, the Titans’ response was a diabolical procession as they were bundled out for a record low, both for them and in all matches at Kingsmead, of just 53. Those runs were scraped together in 43-and-a-half overs, which shows the utter stranglehold the outstanding Dolphins spinners had on the visitors.

Prenelan Subrayen was magnificent, the offspinner bowling an accurate line just outside off-stump and using variations in turn and pace to claim a career-best six for 24 in 22 overs as he opened the bowling. He was superbly supported by slow left-armer Senuran Muthusamy, who took three for 12 in 14.3 stifling overs.

As well as the spin duo bowled though, they were assisted by a Titans batting line-up that showed no commitment to any sort of run-scoring plan. Their negative attitude led to them digging a hole for themselves and breathed life into a contest that was always heading for a draw after most of the first two days were lost to rain.

With a lead of 242, the Dolphins were able to enforce the follow-on and it was obvious they would, given that they had suddenly been gifted with the time to bowl the Titans out a second time, win the match and claim the title for themselves rather than sharing it with the visitors.

The approach of the Titans batsmen was much more positive in the second innings, and although Dean Elgar (11) fell to the vagaries of the pitch, bowled by a Subrayen delivery that shot under the bat, Yaseen Valli and Theunis de Bruyn loosened the hold of the Dolphins’ bowlers with a stand of 56.

But the brilliance of Mangaliso Mosehle behind the stumps, and two excellent deliveries in successive overs from Muthusamy and Subrayen, removed both set batsmen.

De Bruyn (38) was beaten in the flight by a Muthusamy delivery that turned past the bat, Mosehle pulling off a lightning-quick stumping that caught the Proteas batsmen millimetres out of his ground, and Valli (37) was then yorked by a quicker ball from Subrayen, Mosehle having the bails off in a flash despite having to gather the ball out of the roughness of the crease.

Muthusamy claimed another wicket shortly before bad light stopped play, Sibonelo Makhanya (1) edging another fine delivery, that turned and bounced, to slip.

The Titans closed on 92 for four, still 150 behind, the staunchest of rearguard actions being required on Monday’s final day to save the game.

Playing all of their fixtures against the European sides on foreign shores is going to prejudice the hopes of the four South African teams in the Rainbow Cup, but Sharks coach Sean Everitt believes his team should still be competitive given their history of travelling well during SuperRugby.

The Rainbow Cup starts on April 24, with the South African franchises playing local derbies on the first three weekends. They then cross over to the Northern Hemisphere to play the existing Pro14 sides. While the fixtures for Rounds 4-6 have not yet been confirmed due to uncertainty over travel plans, those matches will all definitely be in Europe.

“We only have three domestic games and two of ours are not at Kings Park, but those are the cards we have been dealt and we just have to get on with it. But the Sharks have always travelled well and I expect the same. We will be there for two weeks before our first game so we can get used to conditions and I don’t think conditions will be as severe at the end of May as some people are expecting.

“We are looking forward to the challenge of playing against new teams and creating new memories and great experiences. But I think SuperRugby will be missed because it suited our style of play, we want to attack, it’s in our DNA, and it was a great competition. Our squad will stay the same as now, we’re only allowed to sign 45 players and I think we have to take 42 of them over there,” Everitt said at the weekend.

While the beloved free-flowing play of SuperRugby will be missed, Bulls coach Jake White said some of the less appealing features of the southern hemisphere competition once it expanded – such as the lopsided nature of the draw – will be repeated in the Rainbow Cup.

“We know our first three games are in South Africa so that’s our focus. But it’s not ideal to be playing all the European teams away, especially if conditions get helluva tough. But it’s going to be the same for all the South African sides. The Rainbow Cup is a very unique competition in that you have six games to get into the final and four of ours are away from home.

“But we’re lucky because some teams [the Sharks] have five away games. It’s a great opportunity to prepare for when we actually do play Pro16, but it’s a bit like SuperRugby if you didn’t have the favourable draw. Like if you had to play the Crusaders, Chiefs and Hurricanes away, you had a very much more difficult draw than the teams that played them in South Africa,” White said.

As they prepare to wade their way into turbulent European waters, Bulls coach Jake White said the heavy defeat his team suffered at the hands of the Sharks in Durban this weekend was a valuable “learning curve” for his youngsters.

The second-string Bulls emerged from their Kings Park clash like up-country visitors battered by the Ballito breakers as they were on the wrong end of a 45-12 scoreline.

“After 25 minutes we were 31-5 down but we did not let them score again until the 74^th minute when we only had 13 men on the field. It’s never nice to be on the wrong end of that sort of result but there was fighting sprit and we can build on that. The Sharks played really well and they created some really good tries with their catch-and-pass style. But it was almost their exact team from the Currie Cup final.

“We were a bit inexperienced and it was difficult weather. But if we’re not winning then we’re learning and I’m very chuffed with the way we came back, you’ve got to be proud of the effort and commitment. It could have been a 70-pointer, but we’ll take it as being all part of the learning curve for these guys. Overall I’m very happy with the preparation series,” White said.

So impressive was the Sharks’ handling in the sodden conditions of a Kings Park swamp in those opening stages that it seemed some voodoo must have been involved.

“I thought it was an outstanding first half-hour and then unfortunately things went a little awry. But they were very difficult conditions – humid and wet – and the guys were very brave with ball in hand. We wanted to play quickly, we moved the ball around and the skill level was very high. Our plan was to up the pace as much as we could.

“There’s a certain style of rugby we want to play and we counter-attacked really well. We did not play much in our own half, but it’s not all about kicking, it’s about getting the balance right and from turnover ball you have about a 10-second window to move the ball and we managed to move it so quickly. Our set-piece also did really well at the start,” a pleased Sharks coach Sean Everitt said.

Cricket South Africa on Saturday evening confirmed that former England captain Karen Smithies has lodged a grievance against the organisation in the labour court for how her interview for the position of team manager of the national women’s team was handled, but stressed that director of cricket Graeme Smith will not be involved in the matter despite “mischievous” attempts to embroil him in it.

The Citizen earlier on Saturday reported on how Smithies has alleged she was discriminated against in her unsuccessful application because recordings of the post-interview discussion between the panellists revealed that disgraced former CSA head of human resources Chantal Moon had raised her sexuality as counting against her.

Moon said there was a risk that Smithies would get “involved in some darling-darling relationship with one of the players” despite captain Dane van Niekerk being married to team-mate Marizanne Kapp, as well as there being other ongoing relationships between squad members. Head coach Hilton Moreeng is a man, but no-one has ever cautioned against the possibility of him having a relationship with one of the players.

Smithies confirmed to The Citizen that Smith had been a member of the interview panel but left before the offensive conversation took place. Unfortunately, a report in The Times of London has painted Smith, presumably because of his high profile, as having a major role in the dispute.

“The article has mischievously attempted to sensationalise the role of Smith in the dispute by incorrectly reporting that [he] has been served with legal papers in relation to Smithies’ claim, whereas Smithies has instituted proceedings in the Labour Court against Cricket South Africa. The article further misleadingly and incorrectly infers that Smith was party to discussions subsequent to Smithies’ interview process, whereas Smith had left the meeting directly after the interview was concluded,” CSA said in a statement on Saturday evening. 

Former CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul, who was at the helm when Smithies’ interview took place last June and has been her long-term boss at the Titans, confirmed to The Citizen that he had reported her complaint to the CSA Board’s Social and Ethics Committee under former director Steve Cornelissen.

The flow of what happened next though becomes as murky as the Hennops River, with Smithies saying she was bitterly disappointed that to this day she has received no reply from CSA to her complaint.

Faul stood down as acting CEO soon after the incident and it is believed his replacement, Kugandrie Govender, was then tasked by the board with sorting out the issue. No progress was made during her four months in the role and the Interim Board then apparently took over handling the matter.

Sources say former chairman of the Interim Board, Judge Zak Yacoob made the decision to fight against Smithies’ claims in court. This is despite the recording of the discriminatory slurs being on the record.