Ken Borland

Veteran Springbok fullback Gio Aplon is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL ligament at the weekend but his likely replacement, David Kriel, is an exciting prospect for the Bulls, and the Sharks, who will no doubt be subjecting him to an aerial barrage at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, should be warned that the 21-year-old is a dangerous customer.

Aplon will undergo surgery on Wednesday and his recovery will take several months. The Super Rugby Unlocked competition ends on November 21, but will be followed by a Currie Cup competition, for which all log points will be transferred.

Kriel has so far been selected on the wing for the Bulls, but impressed when he moved to fullback to replace Aplon early on in the weekend’s game against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. Apart from Kriel’s threat with ball in hand – he is an elusive runner – the Potchefstroom-born product was also solid and composed under the high ball.

So who is David Kriel?

• He is the older brother of Richard, who has been at the Bulls since 2018. David was formerly part of the Stormers squad but did not get a game and moved to Pretoria in May. David and Richard opposed each other in last year’s national U21 final, both playing fullback for Western Province and the Blue Bulls respectively.

“The competition is good for both of us, even though I think my brother is the better rugby player. But it makes it easier to adapt to the move with him being here. Ever since our days at Grey College, when we only had half-a-season together in the 1^st XV before he got injured in 2017, my matric year, I’ve always dreamt of us reuniting. Ever since that season got cut short, I’ve wanted to play in the same team as him and I’m very happy to have him here with me,” David Kriel said on Monday.

• Given how quickly he has settled into the Super Rugby Unlocked team, he is clearly comfortable in Pretoria.

“Things have started happening quicker than I thought they would, but you have to always be ready for your opportunity and I like to think I was. Every day at Loftus is like a dream, I was a young kid when Morne Steyn won the series here against the British Lions, Gio Aplon was also a Springbok when I was growing up, so it’s an indescribable feeling to play with these guys. I feel very sorry for Gio and I wish him a speedy recovery, we will miss his experience. To have the faith of the senior men around here has really helped my learning curve, and every day it grows a bit more. And Fourie du Preez was here helping us the other day, he’s another World Cup winner so that can only be good,” Kriel said.

• Fullback is his first-choice position.

“I’m very excited to maybe be the first-choice fullback now, at 21 years old, not many have played in the No.15 jersey for the Bulls. I can’t wait to show off my worth, my first-choice position is fullback and having a big kicking boot helps there,” Kriel said.

• The Bulls may have lost last weekend to the Cheetahs, but Kriel has fond memories of his first match in the famous light blue jersey, when they hammered the Sharks on SuperFan Saturday last month.

“Obviously we didn’t want the loss in Bloemfontein, but I don’t think our self-confidence has taken a knock, we showed good character to come back against a quality side. As for the Sharks, our performance on SuperFan Saturday is still fresh in our memories and we will try to play like that again. The Sharks rely on a strong kicking game and I’m sure I’m ready, dealing with high balls is a fullback’s main job.

“We want to focus more on keeping ball-in-hand like we did on SuperFan Saturday. It was a friendly so we were all more comfortable expressing ourselves, but I think we should go with the same mentality even though it is a game with stakes and consequences. Overall it will mean we are more relaxed and therefore more clinical. That’s what Jake White said, we must keep the ball and be more relaxed,” Kriel said.

Victor Matfield, South Africa’s most-capped international ever with 127 appearances, has supported SA Rugby’s decision to withdraw the Springboks from the Rugby Championship, explaining why it would amount to gross negligence to throw the players into battle in Australia with so little game-time under their belts.

The maximum amount of game-time any locally-based Springbok has enjoyed for the last six months is 240 minutes, way off the 400-500 minutes the medical specialists have said is safe before playing Test rugby. And the lack of match fitness is exacerbated by the fact that the players are coming off a six-month hard Lockdown, which for much of the time meant being restricted to being at home.

“It’s a difficult one because we all would have loved to see the defending champions take part, but it’s all about player welfare and there are so many unanswered questions about that and what will happen when they get to Australia. Plus it’s not as if they’re just going over there for one game. Our guys have never been in the situation before where they’re out of action for six months.

“It’s normal for players to get injured and maybe miss a few games, and even at the end of the season you probably only have one month out and then you go into pre-season. But six months without playing rugby is massive, especially when a team like New Zealand has been playing for practically the whole time. It would be really unfair on our players to throw them into that,” Matfield told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

While there has been speculation over whether SA Rugby will be able to organise some Test action for the Springboks before the British and Irish Lions arrive in June 2021, Matfield said playing in Europe and having plenty of time for training camps will let new national coach Jacques Nienaber prepare the team properly.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if they do organise some warm-up Tests, but if our local players are all involved in a proper Pro16 then they should be ready. The Springbok team for the Lions tour will be mostly made up of the World Cup squad – probably 80% of that. So they all know how they want to play and what Jacques wants them to do.

“I’m sure Jacques will also hold a few warm-up camps, so I’m sure the Springboks will be ready. They’ll have lots of rugby under their belts and they understand what the coach wants,” Matfield said.

The fact that the Springboks will be missing the defence of their Rugby Championship title – and any international rugby at all this year – is obviously terrible but it is a courageous and correct decision by SA Rugby.

The fact that, for once, the players were not thrown under the bus, sacrificed on the altar of financial gain, speaks volumes for the integrity and willingness to do the right thing for the game of the people who made that extremely tough decision.

Yes, not playing in the Rugby Championship is going to mean South African rugby, already bleeding due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is going to lose out on millions of rand. Fortunately some of the financial blow will be mitigated by some clever work in negotiation that has a clause written into the Sanzaar contract that if a country is unable to play due to circumstances beyond their control, then they still get a share of the revenue.

It is precisely that sort of integrity and willingness to act for the greater good of the game that is entirely missing from the Cricket South Africa Board.

What can we say about a person’s integrity and service to cricket when the forensic report they personally played a role in instituting implicates them in wrongdoing; and when both Sascoc, the controlling body for all high-performance sport in this country, and the Minister of Sport call for them to stand aside to allow for a proper investigation; but they stubbornly refuse to go, even at the risk of the ICC suspending the Proteas from international action?

As someone who has covered top-level cricket and rugby in this country for more than 25 years, I cannot escape the irony of where SA Rugby stands at the moment in terms of public credibility in comparison to Cricket South Africa.

CSA used to be leading the way in terms of transformation and good governance, and the Proteas, despite their miserable World Cup record, were consistently amongst the top three in global cricket. Rugby, slow to transform and with the tail (all the minor provinces) wagging the dog in terms of decision-making, delivered World Cups in 1995 and 2007, but there were many dark times on and off the field in between and after.

One of rugby’s lowest moments came when they tried to take on government, even forcing Nelson Mandela to testify in court. They took a long time to recover from that disgrace.

But with Rassie Erasmus and Jurie Roux leading the way, a third World Cup title was won last year with a marvellously transformed team that was loved by the public at large.

Rugby has learnt the lesson that you should never pick a fight with the sports minister: you might win a battle, but you will definitely ultimately lose the war. The arrogant CSA Board, judging by the awful letter acting president Beresford Williams sent to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, clearly still need to learn this lesson.

The ICC may be the global governing body of the sport, but they are generally reluctant to get involved in the affairs of their individual members. In fact, they will only step in if a member complains to the ICC itself, which is why there have been numerous thoroughly dysfunctional administrations about which nothing has been done.

Haroon Lorgat, the former chief executive of both the ICC and CSA, has also drawn the important distinction between government interference and intervention. By forewarning CSA and the ICC – he gave them a very generous two weeks grace – Mthethwa has signalled that his stepping in is an intervention rather than interference. There are very few people other than the CSA Board who will not consider it a welcome intervention, so long and revolting this imbroglio has become.

Mthethwa issued his statement, which is one of the most dramatic in South African cricket history, on Wednesday. By Friday afternoon we were still waiting for any response from CSA to what amounts to a massive motion of no confidence in the organisation.

Perhaps they don’t know what to do, given the rank incompetence of so many of their directors. Well here’s a suggestion for the obstinate CSA Board: Do the right thing.

In my mind that involves anyone implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report immediately standing down, so Sascoc can do a thorough investigation of CSA’s affairs without these self-serving, power-hungry administrators  continually being in the picture.

That’s the sort of compromise that might just get Mthethwa off cricket’s back and stop him from doing something that could really lead to catastrophe for the sport.

For the sake of cricket, the game you have all professed to love so much, please just stand aside.

Schalk Burger was usually at the vanguard when it came to setting a high intensity for the Springboks, but the legendary loose forward does not see that same intensity yet in the current crop of players as they return from Lockdown, which is why he does not believe the national team are ready to compete in the Rugby Championship.

The South African-based players have only had a maximum of three games each – the SuperFan Saturday warm-up, the dour Springbok Showdown and just the opening round of Super Rugby Unlocked. But a decision is due to be made on Friday as to whether they travel to Australia for the Rugby Championship, which is due to start on November 7, with the Springboks taking on Argentina in Brisbane.

“At the moment the Boks are not ready. I just haven’t seen the intensity to match the intensity we saw in the All Blacks/Australia game on the weekend. For us to perform away from home, I think the guys are a few games short. Rassie Erasmus said he wanted them to have six games before playing Test rugby, but if it is true that the November 7 match has already been postponed then they will have more time.

“But we have magnificent players and we play differently to the All Blacks and Wallabies, especially in the way we defend. It was so easy for Australia to get width with just one or two passes, but we rush up and make that so difficult. And we pride ourselves on our scrums and lineouts, so we would have put Australia under so much more pressure,” Burger said in a Laureus Sport For Good Foundation webinar on Wednesday night.

Burger also added that he was concerned about the injury suffered on a French field by Handre Pollard and the lack of certainty over who will back up Elton Jantjies at flyhalf, as well as the injuries at lock.

“Lock and flyhalf are real concerns. Lood de Jager, Handre Pollard and RG Snyman have all suffered major injuries and they are nine-to-10-month injuries, so one wonders if they will be ready for the British Lions tour next year, which is a red-letter event for South Africa. I’m waiting for a few young locks to really stand up, there’s massive scope for that now.

“At flyhalf, Elton is the most natural choice to take over from Handre, but we need someone else too. The question is whether that is Damian Willemse or Curwin Bosch. Kicking for poles will be very important and that’s probably Damian’s most inconsistent area. Or do they use Frans Steyn as cover for flyhalf? That’s all got to unfold over the next year and there are still lots of questions to be answered,” Burger said.

“But the biggest worry is that the guys have not played much rugby. Their intensity is not sharp enough and it looks like they are having difficulty handling the fact that there are no crowds and they need to adapt to that.”