Ken Borland

Despite Cricket South Africa and government currently being at loggerheads over the refusal of their Board to step down, England’s tour next month looks set to go ahead following a magnanimous gesture by government.

England is one of the designated high-risk countries when it comes to Covid-19, but reports overseas on Tuesday suggested the South African government have not only allowed their contingent of more than 40 people to enter the country but have also waived the usual quarantine requirements as long as the 50-over world champions remain in a biosecure bubble.

That means England will be allowed to train at the Western Province Cricket Club for the 10 days between their arrival on November 17 and the first match against the Proteas. The tourists are apparently going to stay at The Vineyard Hotel, along with the South African squad.

Three ODIs and three T20 internationals are on the schedule for England, with all the matches on tour being played either at Newlands in Cape Town or Boland Park in Paarl, without spectators.

The series will follow hot on the heels of the Indian Premier League, but both England captain Eoin Morgan and Proteas skipper Quinton de Kock expressed their enthusiasm for the series on Monday night when they spoke at a Chance to Shine charity event.

“There is a huge responsibility not just to get your home country’s fixtures underway, but a huge responsibility to facilitate other countries around the world. We will do what we can to try and get cricket back on, because it means a huge amount for people in Lockdown in their own countries, and also for Cricket South Africa financially.

“I know the worry we had about potentially not bowling a ball all summer and the detrimental impact that would have, probably to grassroots cricket more than any other part of the game. If the tour goes ahead, we’d love to come down, as the series we played last time was incredible,” Morgan said.

“If the boys do come over I’m sure it’ll be a good series once again,” De Kock said. “The world saw the last series between us, even though we lost, we still played unbelievable cricket, so did England. We are hoping it will go on, but with the pandemic, who knows?”

The Sharks were thumped 49-28 by the Bulls in a marvellous display of running rugby the last time they met – on SuperFan Saturday at the end of last month – giving the KwaZulu-Natalians plenty to think about ahead of their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

These are the areas they are pondering on the most:

• Matching the physicality of the Bulls – The Bulls dominated the Sharks from the outset with their power game, blowing them off the park up front. To fix that requires as much of a mental change as a physical response.

“The Bulls are a physical side so we expect that again and we have to match their physicality. That requires a change of mindset from us so we can do what we do best. It was a bad experience up there last time, but we learnt a lot,” scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba said on Tuesday.

• Kicking game – Normally a strength of the Sharks, but the Bulls, helped by all that front-foot ball, had the edge in their last meeting and three missed high balls cost Sean Everitt’s team dearly. The Sharks kickers need to sharpen up and be more accurate.

“Our kicking was not as sharp as it should have been, we need to fix that so we take the counter-attacking opportunities away; if we’re accurate with the boot then that’s sorted,” Nohamba said.

• Breakdowns – The Bulls dominated the gain-line and Marco van Staden had a pilferer’s field day in the rucks. The Sharks need a greater collective effort to get quicker ball and therefore the momentum their game-plan relies upon. Quick ball from source means good ball to use, slow ball makes it difficult to get momentum, to get over the gain-line and shift the pressure. Being under pressure themselves led to more turnovers – a vicious circle.
• Set-pieces – It’s not that the Sharks were terrible in the scrums and lineouts, but they know it’s an area where they cannot afford to give the Bulls an edge.

“The set-piece is always a work-on because every team is different so you have to prepare differently, your tactics change every week. It’s an obvious strength of the Bulls and we accept the challenge. Our front row is still gelling, Dylan Richardson is new at No.2 but is a very good hooker and everyone knows how destructive Ox Nche can be,” tighthead prop Thomas du Toit said on Tuesday.

While there is obvious disappointment in the Bulls camp over their loss to the Cheetahs last weekend, lock Sintu Manjezi says they are still in the early stages of the Super Rugby Unlocked competition and they are confident that if they focus on the type of rugby they are capable of producing, then they can see off the challenge of the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls have the pleasing memory of thumping the Sharks 49-28, with seven tries, in their last meeting, on SuperFan Saturday at the end of last month, and Manjezi said that match provides the template of how they want to play.

“Last weekend didn’t go our way which was obviously disappointing, but we missed a few opportunities in the 22 and that’s something we’ll look to rectify. We just need to keep our focus, we’re only two games into the competition and we need to stick to our basics and stay within the system which protects us. We need to stick to what we do well.

“The type of rugby we want to play is to move the ball, but we’ve also shown that we can play it tight and keep the ball moving up in the forwards. The positive from SuperFan Saturday was that we were able to play off the Sharks’ mistakes and able to convert those opportunities. But the Sharks will also try to play off turnovers and they will put us under pressure with kicks,” Manjezi said.

The 25-year-old powerhouse said that while coach Jake White has encouraged his players to play with freedom, he still expects his trusty lieutenants up front to do the groundwork, as the Bulls pack certainly did against the Sharks in their previous clash.

“Coach Jake allows us to express ourselves, we’re not stuck in a box and not allowed to play the rugby we want to. But to play the rugby we want to, we need to sap the opposition forwards, get front-foot ball and play in the right areas. We want to win those set-pieces, and we’ve been good up front, we didn’t concede any maul tries against the Cheetahs.

“We also won 14 out of 17 lineouts and we contested well, which gave us good results. The forwards have got to show up again on Saturday to make the difference because the Sharks have a decent set-piece. We will try to put them under pressure, and then we can move the ball, but we know us forwards have to really pitch up to do that,” Manjezi said.

The Joburg Open will return to being a standalone co-sanctioned tournament with the European Tour and will be held in a biosecure commune at Randpark Golf Club from November 19-22, the Sunshine Tour and the City of Joburg announced on Tuesday.

The Joburg Open was founded in 2007 and had one of the larger fields on the European Tour schedule, but in 2018 it was ‘nicked’ by the South African Open, with the two tournaments amalgamating into a 240-man mega-event hosted by Randpark’s two courses – Firethorn and Bushwillow. But now the events have been split again, with the SA Open due to be played after the Joburg Open, with Sunshine Tour commissioner Thomas Abt confirming it would not be held in Johannesburg this summer.

“The Joburg Open will have a field of 156 professionals, split between the Sunshine Tour and 70 from the European Tour, with everyone in a biobubble; golfers, caddies and essential staff will all be put in various local hotels and once in the bubble they cannot leave. They will have breakfast, lunch and dinner within the bubble. And they will be tested.

“They will be allowed to practise outside the bubble and there will be a pro-am, but all participants will need a negative Covid test before playing. There will be no spectators at the Joburg Open, but there will be a VIP facility in the Randpark clubhouse, which will be outside the bubble. These are some of the extensive safety measures in place, which includes isolation centres,” Abt said at Randpark on Tuesday.

The Joburg Open will be held the week after the Masters, but Abt is still hopeful that they will be able to get a top-class field for the co-sanctioned event.

“It’s impossible to know now what sort of regulations will be in place at the time of hosting the event, and we don’t have confirmation yet of which overseas players will be coming, but the European Tour have to fill those 70 spots and we have sent out a letter to our international golfing superstars requesting their support. There are no quarantine regulations in place, if a player has a Covid business visa and a negative test then he can arrive on the Monday and be in the tournament,” Abt said.

Hosting such an ambitious, massive event in this time of pandemic-induced change will put the tournament under the glare of public scrutiny, but City of Joburg executive mayor Geoffrey Makhubo stressed the benefits of putting on the tournament, which has prizemoney of R19.5 million, R2 million more than the SA Open held in January at the same venue.

“By separating this event from the SA Open, we will be able to promote the City of Joburg and mark our readiness to be open for tourism and business. Plus there are the potential new jobs the tournament will create. We recognise that Covid-19 is still a threat, but hosting the Joburg Open is an excellent opportunity to start returning to life as normal and golf has the green light from government.

“We want to save lives as well as livelihoods and the importance of golf to the tourism industry cannot be overstated. The tournament will also be staged in honour of struggle stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, who played in various Joburg Open pro-ams and attended as a guest several times. It is the first tournament we will host since he passed on,” Makhubo said.