Ken Borland

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Fast bowler David Wiese will be back in contention for the Unlimited Titans team tonight as they take on the bizhub Highveld Lions in their Momentum One-Day Cup match at the Wanderers.

The Titans attack will be eager to make up for their shoddy performance in their last outing, when they failed to defend 301 in 42 overs against the Dolphins at SuperSport Park, but coach Rob Walter said their best bowler of last season will not necessarily be rushed back into action after an ankle injury.

“David is available again although he’s maybe not quite 100% match ready, but few cricketers would be after four weeks out with an injury. So it’s a process getting him back, but he’s obviously the sort of player you want around,” Walter told The Citizen yesterday.

Marchant de Lange will be the one bowler who will be reasonably satisfied with his performance against the Dolphins, his pace and accuracy proving a handful and threatening to drag the Titans back into the game, until he conceded 19 runs in the 40^th over.

“When Marchant’s fit and firing he really is devastating and I don’t think that was a particularly poor over he delivered, his thinking was right. The batsmen are allowed to play good shots as well, but the big thing is his pace is up,” Walter said.

While the Titans batting was superb against the Dolphins, Theunis de Bruyn and Farhaan Behardien scoring centuries, they will be under pressure too against a Highveld Lions attack that visited all sorts of destruction upon them on their way to a 190-run victory in a four-day game three weeks ago at the Wanderers. The experienced Jacques Rudolph is also still out injured with stitches in his finger.

“We didn’t do very well against them in the four-day game, but then the last time we played them in the One-Day Cup we gave them a hiding. But they’re a really good team, very well balanced, and they’ve started with success, their tails are up and that makes them dangerous,” Walter said.

With all eyes on the World Cup towards the end of the summer, Behardien certainly made sure nobody forgets about him as he blazed 105 not out off just 67 balls.

“There was a smartness to the way he batted, he showed such great game intelligence, which was lovely to see. At the start of his innings, his focus was all on rotating the strike, and at the end, against two of the best death bowlers in the country [Kyle Abbott and Robbie Frylinck], he really asserted his dominance,” Walter said.

“And it was great to see the quality of cricket Theunis played, some of the shots he played, he’s certainly capable of big things.”

The Titans coach is adamant that his team have done all the preparation necessary to bounce back from their opening defeat.

“Obviously we were disappointed in our performance in the field against the Dolphins and it’s very hard when you know how hard the guys have worked and for so long. I think the desire to do well, to win the game for the batsmen, created more pressure, they have massive pride in their performance and that created more stress.

“But there’s certainly been no lack of preparation, maybe we were a bit game-rusty and we did some basics very poorly.”

The hunger is certainly there in the Titans squad for them to bounce back with victory at the Wanderers.

“Any loss really fires up the guys even more and there’s a burning desire to be successful. The hard yards have been put in and we’re in a position to do well,” Walter said.

Titans squad: Henry Davids, Heino Kuhn, Theunis de Bruyn, Dean Elgar, Farhaan Behardien, David Wiese, Mangaliso Mosehle, Roelof van der Merwe, Marchant de Lange, Rowan Richards, Ethy Mbhalati, Graeme van Buuren.

These have been interesting times for the organisers of the co-sanctioned events that highlight the summer golf season in South Africa, but the Sunshine Tour is expected to release details of at least the first half of the lucrative schedule this week.

The delay has mainly been due to the uncertainty of when to stage the South African Open, the flagship event of the summer and one for which the Sunshine Tour recently regained the commercial rights.

Unfortunately, the European Tour shifted their Volvo World Matchplay Championship from May to this week in the schedule, pushing their Tour Championship out to November 20-23, the week which had been used by the SA Open in recent years.

In what they described as “a shift in golf sponsorship strategy to focus on customers”, this will be the last time Volvo sponsor the famous matchplay event and they have also pulled the plug on the European Tour’s tournament of winners, the Volvo Golf Champions, which has been hosted by South Africa for the last three years.

While the loss of a high-profile European Tour event like that is obviously a great pity, it has left a gap in the schedule that could well now be filled by the SA Open.

January 8-11, 2015, is now the likely date of the SA Open and the talk amongst the pros is that Glendower Golf Club will once again host the prestigious event, for which big developments are expected in the near future.

The Sunshine Tour could lose another co-sanctioned event with the Nelson Mandela Championship in doubt due to both sponsorship and scheduling issues, taking the number of European Tour events in South Africa this summer down to six.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge will continue its strong new relationship with the European Tour from December 4-7 at Sun City, with the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek being held the following week.

Insiders say the Joburg, Africa and Tshwane Opens should all take place next year, although scheduling challenges do exist.

If the Nelson Mandela Championship does get the go-ahead, it could be staged at the Wild Coast Sun, moving from Durban, according to the professionals.

The teams that supposedly did not have a prayer in SuperRugby this year were the most impressive South African sides in a rather depressing seventh round over the weekend.

While the Cheetahs claimed their fourth successive victory and climbed into the playoff places with their comprehensive victory over the Melbourne Rebels, and the Southern Kings once again shone in defeat, both the Bulls and Stormers paid the fee for terrible set-pieces and slumped to defeat against the Brumbies and the Crusaders respectively.

The Cheetahs are really beginning to bloom and their 34-16 win over the Rebels featured five tries, all scored by backline players – fullback Hennie Daniller, left wing Raymond Rhule, right wing Willie le Roux, outside centre Johann Sadie and replacement wing Rayno Benjamin.

The Rebels were far stronger opposition than they were last weekend against the Sharks and, apart from the manner in which the Cheetahs put them away in the second half, the other impressive feature of their victory was that they had just arrived from overseas.

“The guys had jet lag and we needed to start fresh after our success overseas, so I would have been happy with just the victory,” coach Naka Drotske said.

The Cheetahs started the match energetically enough, going 3-0 up inside the first 10 minutes, but they then fell asleep and allowed the Rebels to dictate terms and take a 6-3 lead before the last 10 minutes of the first half, when Le Roux’s exquisitely-timed pass allowed Sadie to burst through a gap and put Daniller away for the try.

The Cheetahs had spurned two clear try-scoring chances a few minutes earlier, so it was necessary for them to really switch on in the second half.

They did that and the backline were superb – Le Roux, inside centre Robert Ebersohn, Sadie and Rhule looked lethal every time they had the ball. Credit should also go to Burton Francis, the Cheetahs’ third-choice flyhalf, who gave a polished all-round display despite being rushed into the pivot position when Riaan Smit tore his hamstring while kicking before the match.

Amongst the forwards, the scrum finished strongly, hooker Adriaan Strauss had some inspirational moments and Coenie Oosthuizen was practically impossible to stop on the advantage line. Lock Lood de Jager made a few mistakes, but he had presence, while loose forward Lappies Labuschagne was once again hugely impressive.

Le Roux said after the game that he loved playing in a Cheetahs team “that has no structure”, at the same time having a dig at the structure of the Bulls and Stormers, but for all his wonderful skills with ball-in-hand, the 23-year-old from the Western Cape is clearly not gifted with the most astute tactical brain.

Rugby becomes a very difficult game to play successfully without any structure (who’s going to attend the breakdown for instance?) and the Cheetahs’ four-match winning streak – equalling their best ever in 2011 – has more to do with the huge improvement in their defensive structure than their willingness to run from anywhere.

Of course, Le Roux is at his best when the game becomes open and unstructured and the Cheetahs are certainly masters at playing ad lib, while the Bulls and Stormers can become stifled by their own precise planning.

While structure has become the watchword of modern rugby, ensuring you have a solid scrum and lineout has been law since those set-pieces were introduced.

Sadly, both the Bulls and Stormers seem to have ignored the importance of those facets and, as a result, slumped into even more trouble in the competition as they both suffered their third defeats.

The Stormers were 11-0 up after 23 minutes of their crunch clash with the Crusaders at Newlands, but could score just three more points in the next hour as they were beaten 19-14.

The Crusaders, despite missing Dan Carter, Kieran Read and Richie McCaw, losing Israel Dagg on the day of the game and Owen Franks and Johnny McNicholl early in the match, played with more precision and brought more ferocity to the breakdowns than the Newlands faithful have seen all season. Young Tyler Bleyendaal stepped into Carter’s considerable boots at flyhalf more than adequately and dictated the flow of the game as he comprehensively won the territorial battle.

But more than anything else, the Stormers were condemned by their awful lineout. Retreaded flank Deon Fourie’s throwing has always been dodgy but questions also have to be asked of Andries Bekker, who was comprehensively outplayed by the brilliant Sam Whitelock, but continued to call lineout throws to himself when he was heavily marked.

Stormers coach Allister Coetzee also owes flyhalf Elton Jantjies a bit more faith. The Lions recruit was sublime last week in the victory over the Brumbies; against the Crusaders he looked a bit-player as Joe Pietersen was given the goalkicking duties and Jantjies was very seldom used as the first receiver. Unsurprisingly, he lacked confidence and was replaced midway through the second half.

Jake White is as sly a coach as you get but his Brumbies were disappointing in beating the Bulls 23-20 in Canberra, needing a controversial penalty after the hooter to beat a visiting side who were horribly mediocre themselves.

The Bulls had been typically reliant on kicking for position, but did so poorly, the Brumbies beating them at their own game. When the tourists did go wide with ball-in-hand, they had been physically dominated by the imposing Brumbies trio of wings Henry Speight and Jo Tomane and outside centre Tevita Kuridrani, leading to turnovers.

But, most importantly, the Bulls scrum had been an absolute disaster, conceding a string of penalties and ultimately a yellow card to loosehead prop Morné Mellett for repeated infringements.

Having reported on many Tests during White’s tenure with the Springboks when they failed to dominate seemingly “weak” Australian scrums, it was ironic to see a Brumbies pack shoving a Blue Bulls scrum all over the place. But White has always been a student of the game and is strong on traditional values like building a solid scrum around a powerful tighthead prop (Dan Palmer in this case).

But even though they had such a good platform, the Brumbies struggled to put the Bulls away and were clearly not on top of their game, perhaps due to the burden of travelling back from South Africa.

And it almost cost them as, on the stroke of full-time, lock Juandré Kruger ripped the ball off the Brumbies and fed replacement prop Frik Kirsten, who burst clear before outside centre JJ Engelbrecht sped away for the try. Flyhalf Morné Steyn was practically on the touchline as he provided the conversion that brought the Bulls back on to level terms (20-20).

Sadly for the Bulls, they then tried to run from the kick-off, Arno Botha taking the ball up and being penalised for holding on, even though Brumbies scrumhalf Nic White was clearly not on his feet as he played the ball at the ruck.

The slick Christian Lealiifano stepped up and kicked the penalty and there was little doubt the Brumbies deserved the win marginally more than the Bulls.

The Kings went down 46-30 to the Hurricanes in Wellington but there continues to be improvement in the rookies’ game.

There can be few more threatening attacking sides than the Hurricanes and the Kings were better in defence even though they conceded six tries.

There were three tries for the Kings and, in the third quarter, there were moments when the Eastern Cape side looked capable of winning as they closed the gap to 23-29 and had the Hurricanes under pressure in their own half.

 http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-02-superrugby-wrap-cheetahs-stretch-winning-run/#.VGX0rfmUde8

Vodacom Blue Bulls captain Deon Stegmann said his team is starting to believe they can still be strong contenders for the Absa Currie Cup trophy after they warmed up for the semi-finals with a 46-12 victory over GWK Griquas at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

The Bulls finished the round-robin phase of the competition in fourth place and will therefore have to travel down to Cape Town to take on table-topping Western Province in their semi-final next Saturday. The Bulls won just six of their 10 regular-season games, but three of those have been in the last three weeks and there is a definite sense of late momentum building at Loftus Versfeld after a poor start to the campaign.

“All the criticism has pulled the guys together and we are really starting to believe,” Stegmann said after the victory over Griquas. “We’ve become a band of brothers, we have each other’s backs, and it’s a good feeling to have everything come together now at the end of the competition.”

The Bulls suffered a blow at the weekend with hard-hitting inside centre Burger Odendaal, probably their find of the season, suffering a suspected broken arm. It might just work in their favour, however, with Handre Pollard possibly moving into the number 12 jersey and the Bulls fielding two tactical kickers in him and flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter in what will surely be a tense, tight knockout game against Western Province.

“Unfortunately, Burger’s injury looks serious, maybe a broken arm. He’s made huge steps this year, he’s a real threat on the gain-line and he gives the forwards a lot of momentum. He’s also very creative, it’s what you need in midfield,” coach Frans Ludeke said before confirming that either Pollard or regular fullback Ulrich Beyers, who moved to inside centre during the game, will take Odendaal’s place for the semi-final because Dries Swanepoel is injured.

With wing Bjorn Basson returning to form with a sparkling all-round display against Griquas that included scoring a hat-trick, Western Province should be warned that the Bulls have some dangerous weapons for knockout rugby.

Basson is the best player in the air in South Africa and with both Pollard and Potgieter possibly playing, there is the threat of an aerial bombardment for the hosts to deal with, and their record in the past in that facet of play is not all that flash.

Pollard is also a tremendous threat with ball in hand, as he showed again in the final quarter against Griquas, while the Bulls pack is in great form at the set-pieces and is always difficult to stop once their fearsome ball-carriers get on the front foot.

“That we were able to come back from a backs-to-the-wall situation this season reflects well on the leadership. This was our final run before the playoffs and we created a lot of opportunities, even though there were lots of mistakes, but that’s just eagerness by the players. As we’ve seen, if we just stay patient, the results will come.

“I was impressed with Deon and how he mixed things up on attack, we were able to keep Griquas guessing on the gain-line and we got good momentum there. That last try, when Pollard chipped over the top, was something different and that’s exactly what you need.

“Plus Bjorn had a great game, he showed how dangerous he is in broken field. He’s experienced, he’s a Test player so he’ll be used to the pressure at Newlands, and he creates opportunities,” Ludeke said.