Ken Borland

 

Hamilton is by no means as far down south as you can get in New Zealand, but it is still a rather cold, desolate place to make your Test debut, especially when you’re batting out of position and have to come out and open on the first morning in the typically damp, swing-friendly conditions found in that country.

There are many who believe Theunis de Bruyn was not given the best chance to succeed in his first Test back in March, scoring a three-ball duck in the first innings and then being run out for 12 in the second after a horrible mix-up with Hashim Amla, but the elegant right-hander says he was unfazed by it all and grateful that the chance came at all.

“The message I was sent was that the selectors wanted me to play, although obviously it was out of position. But I started my franchise career as an opener and as a number three batsman you face the new ball sometimes anyway. Obviously I was disappointed with how it went, but when I get to England, which is a big series, at least I have already played Test cricket.

“So I think it was worth it. Any debut is difficult with all the emotions of your dream coming true, singing the anthems, and then immediately going in on a green pitch. So it will only get easier in terms of emotion, if I play again hopefully I can just focus on watching the ball and making runs,” De Bruyn said.

“I’ll bat anywhere for the Proteas and I truly believe I can be a good opener. People chat about me being a middle-order batsman, but in my opinion, three or four is part of the top-order and you have to adapt your game to batting at 150 for one or 30 for three. It’s about switching your mind on.

‘So I’m not fazed about my debut, you never really start where you want to in Test cricket, you have to earn that right. So I’ll play where they need me,” the successful Knights captain added.

The whole brouhaha over the 24-year-old De Bruyn’s first Test threatens to obscure the positive news that he enjoyed a tremendous season, averaging 57.76 as he led the Knights to the Sunfoil Series title.

“All this focus on my debut suggests I had an horrendous season and I know with the media here that you’re a hero one day and zero the next, it’s part of professional sport. But I left my family behind in Pretoria to play for a new franchise, I won a trophy and made runs, and in two out of three formats I made my debut for South Africa, so it was a wonderful season. And it was just my third as a professional, I’m still young,” De Bruyn, who likes nothing better than to get out into the bush, pointed out.

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France gave them a tough time, but in the end the Springboks started their 2017 campaign with a highly satisfactory 37-14 win at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night.

There were enough positive signs to suggest coach Allister Coetzee and his team have the Springboks back on the right track after hitting rock bottom in 2016.

The Springboks were put on the front foot by a superb effort from their pack, which was clearly dominant. Enjoying the lion’s share of possession, the home team were not always direct enough on attack, sometimes becoming too lateral, so the scoreboard did not always reflect how in charge they seemed to be.

The French were able to create space out wide too easily at times and some moments of defensive frailty from the Springboks meant the visitors were very much in the game until the final quarter.

With the clock on the hour mark, the match was on an even keel with the Springboks leading 16-14 when the turning point came.

The quick-thinking of scrumhalf Ross Cronje and the clever boot of flyhalf Elton Jantjies saw the ball bouncing over the French line with Courtnall Skosan in hot pursuit down the left wing. He had the pace to get there first but, as he was reaching up for the ball, he was played by French fullback Brice Dulin and the ball went astray.

The Springboks called for the early tackle and the TMO, Englishman Rowan Kitt, and referee Glen Jackson made the ruling that the contact had been a split-second too early. It was a marginal call either way and it was desperately tough on the French to concede a penalty try and for Dulin to be yellow-carded.

The Springboks scored two more tries in the 10 minutes he was off the field and the contest was over with the lead 37-14 with 12 minutes to play.

The first try came from the training ground with a slick lineout move. Captain and eighthman Warren Whiteley shifted backwards to take a deep lineout throw and then, having barely held on to the ball, immediately passed it into the gap for Cronje to come roaring through and score a memorable try on debut.

Seven minutes later, turnover ball allowed replacement scrumhalf Francois Hougaard to go on a sniping run, before fullback Andries Coetzee hit the afterburners and stormed into the open spaces before sending centre Jan Serfontein on a diagonal road to the tryline.

The road to victory was bumpy at first for the Springboks as the French driving maul earned them an early penalty, but flyhalf Jules Plisson missed.

With half-an-hour gone, South Africa only had two Jantjies penalties to their name. The first came after a lovely interchange of passes between hooker Malcolm Marx and wing Raymond Rhule led to the French being offsides. The visitors were up quickly in defence and combative in the tackle, but it was an area referee Jackson did police well.

The other Jantjies penalty came from a rolling maul, an area of the game in which the Springboks also showed pleasing work.

Marx produced a phenomenal first-half display, charging around the field like some intergalactic giant beast, and he provided the scoring pass for outside centre Jesse Kriel to go racing over for the first try in the 31st minute, after Coetzee, the other star up till then, had fought hard in the tackle and then burst clear.

The Springboks were 13-0 up with Jantjies’ conversion, but then the French began pulling back on the scoreboard.

The ease with which they were able to create space out wide is one of the aspects of play the Springboks will have to improve and, in the 36th minute, right wing Yoann Huget had acres of space and then chipped ahead, Coetzee totally missing the bouncing ball on the goal-line, allowing centre Henry Chavancy to dot down.

Jantjies, who did everything that could have been asked of him at flyhalf in a busy, courageous performance, scored the final points of the first half with a penalty to make it 16-7. The kicking of the Lions pivot was an obvious high point of his game as he succeeded with all six of his shots at goal.

The French scored the first points of the second half to keep the minds of the Springboks focused as Chavancy ran straight over Kriel in midfield, the Bulls player having to leave the field with concussion, and, from the next ruck, replacement scrumhalf Baptiste Serin dummied and went over the line.

Plisson’s second conversion narrowed the lead of the South Africans to just two points (16-14), but the final quarter belonged to the home side.

The physical effort of the Springboks never flagged, thanks to the impact off the bench of players like Jean-Luc du Preez, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Coenie Oosthuizen and Bongi Mbonambi, and the outstanding scrum was the other highlight of the performance.

It was just the sort of encouraging performance the Springboks needed to start their year.

Points scorers

South Africa: Try – Jesse Kriel, penalty try (7pts), Ross Cronje, Jan Serfontein. Conversion – Elton Jantjies (3). Penalties – Jantjies (3).

France: Tries – Henry Chavancy, Baptiste Serin. Conversions – Jules Plisson (2).

River Cottage in Malelane is a beautiful establishment situated just across the Crocodile River from the southern Kruger National Park and it’s an extremely productive spot for bird and animal watching, as well as providing great value for money in terms of decent accommodation.

From their vantage point above the river, birds are constantly flying along and animals are often venturing down to the water, so many classic sightings have been made from River Cottage’s front lawn. It’s the sort of place one expects to hear the famous Fish Eagle cry at regular intervals, and the Fever Trees and other well-established riverine vegetation on their side of the river also hold plenty of birds.

Although I heard African Fish Eagle, the only one I saw was a juvenile flying around away from the water, beyond the sandbanks and scrubby vegetation of the river and towards the S110 road within the park.

But there was a proper sighting of Martial Eagle soaring over the riverine bush, as well as African Hawk Eagle on a speculative foray over the river, where the stunning Saddlebilled Stork, one of my favourite birds, was foraging in stately fashion.

At other times, there were Grey Heron waiting patiently in the Crocodile River, while Squacco, Blackcrowned Night and Greenbacked herons and African Jacana flew past and Buffalo lolled at the water’s edge. Hippopotamus and African Elephant were also spotted.

In the morning, Brownheaded Parrots would fly away from their roost in one of the Fever Trees, flying over to the fruiting trees in the park.

Just walking around the gardens of River Cottage, as was my morning routine before breakfast, provides plenty of lovely sightings.

And it’s not all just lawns and majestic trees either; there are areas of rank grass, which were seeding and produced the charming and infrequent Redbacked Mannikin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of Kurrichane Thrush with their spotted juveniles, Laughing Dove with their young, a big group of Arrowmarked Babblers moved loudly through the trees, catching flying ants that emerged the night before after a thunderstorm, and several, very prominent Scarletchested Sunbirds.

Thickbilled Weaver were hopping around, low down, between the buildings and a pair of Whitethroated Robin were in the dark undergrowth nearby.

Heuglin’s Robin hopped on to the lawn and investigated around the restaurant, outside of which a loud calling turned out to be a Little Sparrowhawk on its nest – a bowl of sticks between the branches of a tall tree.

Heading back to look out over the Crocodile River again, Whitefaced Duck were flying over, Blacksmith Plover were about with their confusing immature plumages and Bronze Mannikins were having a dip in a pool of water, while a Hamerkop flew along carrying nesting material.

Where is River Cottage?

Sightings List

Redeyed Dove

Kurrichane Thrush

Blackeyed Bulbul

Bronze Mannikin

Grey Heron

Blacksmith Plover

Water Dikkop

Egyptian Goose

Hippopotamus

Pied Kingfisher

Hadeda Ibis

Squacco Heron

Hamerkop

Little Egret

Lesser Striped Swallow

Cattle Egret

Wiretailed Swallow

Blackwinged Stilt

Blackcollared Barbet

Speckled Mousebird

Arrowmarked Babbler

Impala

Southern Tree Agama

Whitefaced Duck

African Buffalo

Blackbacked Puffback

Laughing Dove

Palm Swift

Yellowfronted Canary

Scarletchested Sunbird

Striped Skink

Great White Egret

African Elephant

Woodland Kingfisher

Spectacled Weaver

Whiterumped Swift

Little Swift

Saddlebilled Stork

Glossy Starling

African Hawk Eagle

Redbacked Mannikin

Thickbilled Weaver

Waterbuck

Threebanded Plover

African Jacana

Helmeted Guineafowl

Whitebellied Sunbird

Redfaced Mousebird

Whitethroated Robin

Brownheaded Parrot

Reed Cormorant

Whitebacked Vulture

Southern Greyheaded Sparrow

Greenbacked Heron

African Pied Wagtail

African Fish Eagle

Nile Crocodile

Whitewinged Widow

Little Sparrowhawk

Natal Francolin

Blackcrowned Night Heron

Heuglin’s Robin

Martial Eagle

 

 

It is almost a law of sport that teams can become victims of their own success in terms of competitors trying to lure a franchise’s star performers away, and the Highveld Lions are currently going through an unsettled period marked by the departures of key internationals Temba Bavuma and Eddie Leie, as well as their general manager, Heinrich Strydom.

But it could have been a lot worse because CEO Greg Fredericks reportedly tendered his resignation as well, but the board did not accept it and managed to convince the popular former MP to continue in his role, thus avoiding another major blow to a union that also lost several experienced players to matchfixing bans at the start of last season.

Fredericks did not want to comment on his alleged resignation, but told The Citizen, “I had an offer which I turned down. My job here is not done.”

Strydom, who was also the CEO of North-West Cricket, has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Dolphins franchise and the Lions have been forced into a time of change, which they are trying to manage as best they can.

There has also been speculation that Cricket South Africa want to groom Lions coach Geoff Toyana for greater things by appointing him as one of the Proteas’ assistant coaches, which would be another blow to the franchise.

“Geoff has just renewed his contract with us for another three years. But if anything happens, we obviously do have succession plans and one or two individuals in mind. We are also advertising for a batting coach at the moment,” Fredericks said.

“The board has expressed concern, however, over the performances of the Highveld Lions and the Gauteng Strikers over the last season, and a committee led by David Terbrugge will investigate and come up with proposals. But the team lost Alviro Petersen and Neil McKenzie, and that experience you can’t replace overnight. People might not also know the important roles of players like Kagiso Rabada, Thami Tsolekile, Pumi Matshikwe and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

“Heinrich was also a huge asset for us, but we are very happy for him. He’s a very hard-working person and we will miss him. But if our pipeline is strong, then we should be able to replicate our previous successes, it’s about ensuring our character and culture stay strong,” Fredericks said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20170525/282119226487652