Ken Borland

Rugby is a much-changed landscape from a year ago and one of the most positive aspects of this new age for South African rugby is that the Currie Cup looks set to return to being the top-class competition it once was.

By signing a naming rights sponsor like Carling Black Label, SA Rugby are pretty much ensuring that the oldest provincial competition in the sport, and surely one of the most-loved, is returned to the fans, such is the reputation of the biggest-selling beer brand in the country. Carling Black Label has a history of really focusing on fan participation, they are extremely innovative in that space and they are a brand of the people.

“We want to make the Currie Cup more accessible, more democratic in a way. Take the Eastern Cape for example, to be able to give rugby back to that region excites me and if ever there was a time to grow the game in that area then it is now. We want to give a voice to the fans, we want to bring them on board.

“Our dream is to explode the Currie Cup back into the forefront, back to its rightful place – it should be the premier provincial tournament in the world. How do we do local rugby in a new way? We’re not just there to put our brand up, we want to acknowledge the fans and bring their passion to the game. We want to bring the Currie Cup to life and closer to the fans,” brand director Arne Rust told me at the launch of their sponsorship this week at Melrose Arch.

The Currie Cup is a prime property in SA Rugby’s stable, probably second only in value to the Springboks, so it is great that the disentanglement from Super Rugby and the move to Europe has allowed for some much-needed attention to be paid to the competition.

Where SA Rugby and SA Breweries are getting it right is in realising that the customer is their primary stakeholder and in rugby’s case, their customer is ultimately the fan, whether watching on TV or (hopefully one day soon) at the ground.

Unfortunately, as has so often been the case recently, Cricket South Africa are being shown up badly by their counterparts in the sports business.

This week saw the much-anticipated return-to-play, after an eight-month Covid-enforced break, of the country’s leading cricketers as the Four-Day Franchise Series kicked off the new season. But this momentous occasion may as well have happened in a black hole, such was the lack of fanfare from CSA.

Firstly, no spectators were allowed, which is possibly a decision that is out of their hands due to Covid safety measures. But it does seem ridiculous considering people can mix and misbehave in shopping centres, pubs and clubs quite legally, while a cricket field situated in the great outdoors with plenty of space for social distancing in the stands or on the grass banks is illegal.

But where CSA really dropped the ball was in ensuring the publc who wanted to follow the games could keep track of what was happening. Unlike most other Test-playing nations, there is no live-streaming option for our four-day cricket, which is a story all in itself.

But even trying to find the location of live scores for the matches was almost a mission impossible. That’s because CSA, in their wisdom, have sold the rights to all their match data, including the scores, to the overseas company Opta.

The idea was that other outlets would then buy the scores from Opta, but competitively it has been a disaster with just about nobody willing to do that. Unsurprisingly, because shouldn’t scores be in the public domain anyway? You would think CSA would want as much publicity for the game as possible …

But like the company that priced itself out of its market and went bankrupt, CSA, who need as many supporters as they can get given how poor their image is, once again sent the message that they actually don’t care about their fans. “You’re interested in the cricket, well we’ve made it as hard as possible for you to follow it,” seems to be their attitude.

It was heartening, however, that in their first meeting, the new interim board made a point of noting this unsatisfactory situation and they have tasked Judith February, who is well-versed in the media, to investigate the capacity and competency in CSA to deal with their stakeholders.

A tremendous Theunis de Bruyn century and terrific lower-order support from Junior Dala carried the Titans to a thrilling come-from-behind win over the Cape Cobras in their 4-Day Domestic Series match at Newlands on Thursday.

Set 316 to win after trailing by 114 runs on first innings, the Titans made it to their target with just two wickets in hand thanks to De Bruyn’s magnificent 127 off 204 deliveries.

The Titans began the final day on 195 for three, but they slumped to 233 for six as left-arm spinner George Linde claimed his eighth and ninth wickets of the match. But De Bruyn was still there and Dala helped him add a crucial 54 for the seventh wicket.

De Bruyn was dismissed 29 runs short of victory as left-arm spinner David Schierhout turned a delivery sharply to have him well-taken low at slip by Zubayr Hamza, but Dala held his nerve to steer the Titans home with a defiant, matchwinning 41 not out.

In Durban, an inspired Dolphins side beat the defending champion Imperial Lions by nine wickets.

The Lions went into the final day on 75 for three, still trailing by 125 runs, and they were bowled out for 210 in 47.4 more overs on Thursday as Proteas left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj took six for 101 in 38.4 overs and off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen claimed three for 63 in 28 overs.

That left the Dolphins with just 11 runs to win, which they knocked off in 2.4 overs to start their season in fine style.

In Bloemfontein, the Warriors lost their last three wickets for the addition of just 13 runs to lose by 179 runs to the Knights.

Left-arm paceman Mbulelo Budaza finished with four for 47, while opener Matthew Breetzke was left stranded on a dogged 77 not out.

The Springboks will not be withdrawing from the Rugby Championship permanently, but with the tournament probably being played in the same late winter to spring window, they will not be deriving any battle-hardened preparedness from it ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour next year.

And that could be a problem for the world champions, according to former Springbok captain John Smit, who led South Africa to victory over the Lions in 2009.

The tourists will be in South Africa from the end of June to August 8, which will put pressure on SA Rugby to organise warm-up games for the Springboks once the Pro16 ends. SA Rugby president Mark Alexander said on Thursday that director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is busy lining up three or four games which will need WorldRugby permission.

“The absence of proper Test match action is going to be the biggest difficulty and the Springboks will have a new coach too even though Jacques Nienaber was obviously a big part of the system before. But we’ve had 13 Tests called off this year and a coach always worries that his team will be undercooked. There could also be an over-reliance on the 2019 group because of it.

“Franchise rugby will help, but Test rugby is a different level and the Springboks will need to be battle-hardened, so they will need warm-up games. We had one-and-a-half years after our World Cup win in 2007 to get into the groove and understand the Peter de Villiers way. The current Springboks have skipped a year, which is great for the body, but not so good for the systems or being battle-hardened,” Smit said on Thursday at FNB Stadium where the announcement of Castle Lager as the series sponsor was made.

Smit added that playing the Lions was when he felt under the most pressure as Springbok captain, the perihelion of his career.

“That week before the first Test was probably the most nervous I had ever been because you’re not sure what to expect and you know you’re up against formidable opponents. That’s why it’s so important to get the first ‘punch’ in. The ability to deal with the hype is so important and the current team have a bit of experience of that from Japan. But it’s really important that first week is good.

“Motivation will be at an all-time high and the uniqueness of the series adds to the hype. And beating the Lions is just becoming more and more of a challenge, they’ve beaten Australia and drawn with New Zealand in their last two series. The days of saying rugby in the North is not at the same level are over and both sides will have a massive amount to play for,” Smit said.

The Cheetahs are famous for the expansive, running rugby they can bring, but Sharks coach Sean Everitt has warned that the Free Staters also have some industrial-strength forward power that his team will need to combat in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Kings Park on Friday night.

Playing at a high tempo is something the Sharks are comfortable with, but matching big, powerful packs in the set-pieces and the collisions has been something they have struggled with at times this year, and the Cheetahs will surely be aiming to use physicality as a weapon on Friday night.

“I think the Cheetahs are going to pose the same challenge up front as the Pumas and Bulls did. They have a lot of synergy in their lineout and scrum, so those are an obvious threat then. Plus with Frans Steyn at 12 it gives them a different dimension in terms of his kicking, carrying and his running from set-piece. We’re going to have to keep them out with really aggressive defence.

“The Cheetahs also like to maul a lot, from all areas of the field, but fortunately JJ van der Mescht was outstanding for us in that department against the Pumas – he pretty much stopped three mauls on his own. But I think the break will have motivated the Cheetahs, they won’t be happy about just getting two points against the Lions and they’ll be raring to go after that abandoned game and a bye,” Everitt said.

Despite dominating the Super Rugby competition at the start of the year, the Sharks have been taking baby steps since the return-to-play. Everitt showed patience by not prematurely throwing his toys out of the pram, but he believes his team are now settled and have laid the platform to now improve every week. He does not expect to see any more signs of rust from the Sharks.

“We’re no longer finding our feet, we’ve been together for a while now. Our confidence is back and we should be improving weekly now. I’m expecting a high-tempo game and we need guys who are going to have an impact, and I’m certain our bench will bring that and give us the opportunity to change the game if necessary. There’s healthy competition in our squad.

“But this competition as a whole is really strong and everyone has strengthened their squads since the start of the year. It’s been a great platform for South African rugby and every one of the our players knows they have the opportunity to get noticed now. We’ve settled in well now,” Everitt said.

Teams

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, JJ van der Mescht, John-Hubert Meyer, Dan Jooste, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, Michael Kumbirai, Ruben van Heerden, Thembelani Bholi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Werner Kok.

Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Malcolm Jaer, William Small-Smith, Francois Steyn, Rosko Specman, Tian Schoeman, Tian Meyer, Aidon Davis, Junior Pokomela (captain), Andisa Ntsila, JP du Preez, Carl Wegner, Luan de Bruin, Reinach Venter, Charles Marais. Replacements – Jacques du Toit, Boan Venter, Khutha Mchunu, Oupa Mohoje, Jeandré Rudolph, Ruben de Haas, Reinhardt Fortuin, Chris Smit.

Kickoff: 19h00