Ken Borland

The Senegal rugby side is not the first team – nor will they be the last – to have masked any technical deficiencies with sheer passion and commitment to the cause and the men from the West African republic are making waves on their continent.

Despite only playing regular international rugby since 2003, Senegal are already ranked in the top eight in Africa and are 43rd in the world. Although they are out of contention to qualify for the 2015 World Cup, they have certainly shown that they can compete with the other African countries, having lost to the big men of Namibia by just two points in 2012 and by only three in 2008.

“Our scrums and lineouts are sometimes not that good, but our men are very brave, we have very aggressive defence which shows there is a lot of solidarity in the team. When we play against Namibia, they only just beat us,” Jérôme Gérard, the secretary-general of the Fédération Sénégalaise de Rugby (FSR) says.

This rapid improvement has all come about because of the FSR’s focus on making rugby an attractive sport for the local population, rather than just a pursuit of immigrants.

“Rugby has been played in Senegal by French colonialists since the 1920s and they created a union in 1960. But it was only for the French; for 20-30 years rugby was a game only for the French colonists and the military.

“But Senegalese youngsters became curious and in the late 1990s there was real development thanks to a new policy aiming to develop rugby in the schools. The FSR increased the visibility of the game, before that it was really unknown.

“Rugby took off in 2005 when Senegal participated in their first Rugby World Cup qualifying and played six international games. The union identified players of Senegal origin in France and we tried to build a strong national team with expats to raise the profile of the game,” Gérard explains.

All of this has led to the International Rugby Board (IRB) increasing their generous development grant every year, Senegal being one of the few African nations to enjoy these increases.

“This recognition of our work is obviously very pleasing and it shows that we are growing rugby in Senegal. We also get technical and training support from the IRB and the Confederation of African Rugby [CAR] – professionals come to Senegal and deliver short, intense courses,” Gérard says.

The health of the game is, of course, inextricably linked to the state of refereeing and Gérard is particularly grateful for the IRB’s assistance in this regard.

“We have had very good support to train our referees. Top referees have come from France since 2006/7 for one or two weeks every year. It has allowed us to build a training strategy for referees, which is very important for us. You can’t play rugby without referees.”

Sylvain Mane is a product of these programs, the 22-year-old being Senegal’s first international referee, currently undergoing high-level training in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

The FSR is also working to change the concentration of rugby clubs in the capital, Dakar.

“In the past two to three years, the union has aimed to extend our programs to other regions and there are now seven or eight new entities, especially in the northern city of Saint-Louis. Not all of these clubs play 15s, some of them start with Sevens,” Gérard says.

In 2005, the national rugby championships comprised just five clubs, all of them made up of French immigrants; eight years later, there were 12 clubs and all but one of them was fully Senegalese. This year 18 clubs came to at least one of the national championships, whether it be men’s, women’s, 15s or Sevens.

The FSR have achieved all this with just two paid employees!

“We remain a humble organisation, only two people extract a salary, all the rest are volunteers. We are amazed at the budgets some teams had for the Africa Cup 1B in Tunisia last month – it was almost what we have for an entire year! And yet we’ve stayed in the top eight for the last three years,” Gérard says.

Such economic constraints mean the FSR operate without much leeway, but Gérard says qualifying for the 2019 World Cup is the target, but this won’t happen without improved financial resources.

“If we can generate more revenue, get more sponsors, then qualifying for the 2019 World Cup could be a real target. But it’s very difficult for us to get on TV, from time to time they will send a reporter, a few times a year. Last year, when we hosted the Africa Cup Group B, we negotiated coverage for the first time and we hope to get a magazine show going on TV. But we need resources to do that and we’ll try and get one or two sponsors as well,” Gérard says.

The passion on the field is clearly being matched in the boardroom and, the rest of Africa be warned, Senegalese rugby is on the rise.

http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/regional/newsid=2072262.html#senegal+ready+make+move

While the Proteas are in Sri Lanka, South Africa’s next tier of internationals – the SA A side – will be heading off to Australia soon and coach Vincent Barnes says one of his most important tasks will be to mentally prepare the up-and-coming players for a country in which character assassination seems as much of a goal as taking wickets or scoring runs.

The SA A squad play their first match in a triangular series with the Australian and Indian A sides on July 20 and are busy preparing for a tough tour at the CSA Centre of Excellence in Pretoria. Barnes will be able to take fully-fledged internationals such as captain Justin Ontong, Marchant de Lange, Beuran Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Farhaan Behardien, Aaron Phangiso and Vaughn van Jaarsveld in his party, but there are numerous younger players, several of whom have never been to Australia before.

“The tour is designed to give our fringe players top-quality opposition and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play in Australia even though it’s winter. There are four recent Proteas [Hendricks, Phangiso, Kleinveldt & Behardien], but it’s a nice blend with a lot of senior players and quite a few young debutants.

“I’m doing a lot of mental work with them because I want us to go across there with presence, our body language is important. The biggest challenge in Australia is mentally and quite a few of the guys are on their first tour there. They’re going to have to deal with those mental pressures and learn how to overcome them,” Barnes told The Pretoria News on Wednesday.

Warriors opening batsman David White and Highveld Lions pace bowler Kagiso Rabada are two of the rookies in the squad, but they are both excited by the learning opportunities they will have in Australia.

“It’s a great honour to be chosen for the A side, I feel very privileged and I’m very excited. I want to learn as much as I can so I can build on my game for the Warriors, after I put in some nice performances for them in four-day cricket last season. Obviously the goal is to play Test cricket for the Proteas, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

“I have huge respect for the guys I’m playing with, there are some great cricketers and I’m going to learn as much as possible from them. Especially Justin Ontong, because he’s been around the block and has a lot of information to share,” White said.

Rabada was shining for the SA U19 Junior World Cup-winning side at the start of the year and his selection in both the four-day and limited-overs squads completes a whirlwind six months for the St Stithians product.

“Everything has happened so quickly, I went straight into the franchise team from the U19s and now I’m playing for SA A. I hope to learn from it and become a better cricketer. If I just play my best then the other things will take care of themselves, but my main goal is to play for the Proteas and long-term to be one of the best fast bowlers in the world,” Rabada said.

Five members of last season’s SA A squad – Kyle Abbott, Stiaan van Zyl, Dean Elgar, Hendricks and Phangiso will be involved in the Proteas’ tour of Sri Lanka and Barnes is excited by the possibilities that lie ahead for this year’s intake.

“Having so many young players has been refreshing and they’ve brought a lot of freshness and energy to the squad,” Barnes said.

And let’s not forget that next year’s World Cup will be held in Australia and history suggests a player or two from this A squad could well be involved with the full national team by then. While the wintry conditions in the sub-tropical far north will be different to those experienced at the height of the 2014/15 summer, it will do them the world of good to acclimatise to the abrasive Australian way of playing the game and all the other off-field quirks over there.

SA A squads

Four-day squad: Justin Ontong, Temba Bavuma, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Eddie Leie, Mangaliso Mosehle, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Hardus Viljoen, David White, Khaya Zondo.

Limited-overs squad: Justin Ontong, Farhaan Behardien, Cody Chetty, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Mangaliso Mosehle, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

Itinerary: July 20 v Australia National Performance Squad (Northline); July 22 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 24 v Australia A (Northline); July 26 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 29 v Australia A (Marrara); July 31 v Australia National Performance Squad (Gardens Oval); August 2 1v2, 3v4 (Northern Territory); August 7-10 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium); August 14-17 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium).

Man of the Match Warwick Tecklenburg scores under the poles having started the sweeping move with the turnover deep in the Lions’ half.

Turning a 14-17 deficit midway through the second half into a convincing 34-17 victory over the Melbourne Rebels was a “very satisfying” proof of the character in the Lions’ team, their coach Johan Ackermann said after their weekend Vodacom SuperRugby match at Ellis Park.

The Lions tore into the Rebels in the final quarter to score two more tries and notch a comfortable win in a match that had been closely-contested until that point. Although the Lions were frustrated not to get the bonus point for four tries, their sixth win of the campaign (their most since the Cats were dissolved at the end of 2005) means they go into the final round of fixtures in 13th position.

They take on the 14th-placed Cheetahs, who are just two points behind them, but the Lions cannot finish last on the log unless the Rebels claim an unlikely bonus point victory over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.

“”We don’t want to be lying 13th, we want to be in the playoffs, but in January people were saying we wouldn’t win a game.

“We didn’t set winning six games as our goal, we just wanted to perform well, week by week, and we’ve shown that we can play at this level. The team has grown, they stay calm, there’s no panic. There’s a rustigheid even though you do get frustrated,” Ackermann said.

A lesser team might well have panicked when the Rebels dominated the third quarter to claim a 17-14 lead and really seemed to be getting into their stride.

But with the Rebels pressing hard deep inside the Lions half, flank Warwick Tecklenburg won a key turnover and lock Franco Mostert burst clear. A sweeping move then carried the home side into the Rebels’ 22, with replacement wing Lionel Mapoe, flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff and replacement prop Ruan Dreyer all prominent, before it was Tecklenburg who finished the thrilling move, which featured some wonderful offloads, under the poles.

The opposition then narrowly avoided – thanks to fullback Jack Debreczeni’s last-ditch tackle – conceding an extraordinary 60m intercept try to replacement hooker Armand van der Merwe, but Boshoff nevertheless extended the Lions’ lead to 27-17 with penalties in the 65th and 67th minutes.

That the tide had inextricably turned against the Rebels was confirmed in the 71st minute when eighthman and captain Scott Higginbotham, as ever one of the most physical figures on the field, was somewhat harshly yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle when clearing replacement lock Willie Britz off a ruck.

The penalty was kicked to touch for a lineout and Higginbotham’s opposite number, Warren Whiteley, who enjoyed another top-class game, swivveled over for a clinching try.

“It was a huge momentum swing when we were 17-14 up and putting the Lions under a lot of pressure, and then came a turnover,” Rebels coach Tony McGahan conceded after the match. “That put them in front and Boshoff then just kicked his goals. We could have had two more tries but both were just in touch, so it was small margins but I’m proud of the effort.”

The Lions had made a great start to the game with wing Anthony Volmink scoring in the second minute after centre Mitch Inman had dropped a regulation pass under his poles from the kick-off.

Boshoff, who succeeded with seven of his nine kicks at goal but had an even better day when it came to getting his backline away, then kicked a penalty after the Rebels sacked a rolling maul (8-0).

In the 22nd minute, the Lions came within a whisker of stretching that lead, but centre Stokkies Hanekom couldn’t gather a deft stab-through over the tryline from Boshoff. Instead, a try up the other end of the field gave the Rebels a foothold in the match.

Flank Scott Fuglistaller won a turnover penalty, scrumhalf Luke Burgess darted over the advantage line and the ball went wide where wing Tom English had plenty of space to show the Lions cover-defence a clean pair of heels.

English broke free again six minutes later, but Debreczeni missed a simple penalty that came at the resultant scrum, before succeeding in the 35th minute, sandwiched by two Boshoff penalties as the Lions went into the break 14-10 up.

When the Rebels gave the hosts a taste of their own medicine with flank Colby Fainga’a scoring from a rolling maul in the 52nd minute, Debreczeni converting, it was clear the Lions had a massive task on their hands to prevent the Melburnians from claiming their first win on South African soil.

By the end, there were no protests that the better side had not won.

“It was really good play by the Lions, they put a lot of pressure on us,” McGahan admitted.

The heroes for the Lions were their loose trio, which played like wild curs, while halfbacks Ross Cronje and Boshoff dished up quality ball for their backs.

In discussion with new SA U19 coach Lawrence Mahatlane

Lawrence Mahatlane is the new man in charge of South Africa’s U19 cricket talent and he says their future success will be down to how self-aware and mentally equipped they are for the challenges of the professional game.

Mahatlane has big boots to fill, succeeding Ray Jennings after he steered the U19s to Junior World Cup glory in Dubai on March 1, but he is already bringing a new emphasis to the development of South Africa’s young stars.

“My job is to get them ready, mentally as much as anything. It’s about how they adapt to match situations and we need to accelerate the process of their up-skilling.

“It’s all linked in to their self-awareness. Are they comfortable with their own technique? Technical matters can create doubt – thinking about your head falling over or your hands not going through the ball while you’re batting is not ideal,” Mahatlane told The Pretoria News on Monday at the University of Pretoria, where the U19s are having trials.

“If you’re worrying about your technique, worried about where your toes are pointing when someone as fast as Dale Steyn is running in to bowl at you, then you’re in a lot of trouble. A player is going to run into a hundred coaches through his career and if you’re not self-aware, you will struggle emotionally. You need to understand your technique and grow with it. The game is a lot more about the mental aspect higher up and the youngsters need to be able to survive the heat.

“So that’s why I’ve had them all fill in questionnaires about how they see their own games. By writing it down, they become more self-aware and then we have video analysis to see if they are actually doing it – it’s a different thing doing it under pressure in the middle,” Mahatlane explained.

Mahatlane is taking over the SA U19s at a time of natural change, when a procession of new cricketers come through the age-groups; there are only three players eligible for selection from the World Cup-winning squad.

The first engagement for Mahatlane and his team is a tour to England. A month today they will be playing the first “Test” against England in Cambridge. The tour includes two four-day internationals and then five ODIs.

“We’ll take 15 over from these trials and it’s going to be quite a challenge for them. There’s only a couple of players available from our World Cup squad, while England have just about their whole team back. But there have been some very impressive performances at this camp,” Mahatlane said.

The SA U19 job marks a return to mentoring junior cricketers for the 37-year-old, who was previously the Highveld Lions assistant coach and the head coach of Pirates Cricket Club, but first made his name as the 2002 SA U19 assistant coach. The next year, he was in charge as the team won the Junior Commonwealth Games title, and he also worked under current Proteas coach Russell Domingo in the 2004 Junior World Cup in Bangladesh.

Although Mahatlane has the credentials and respect in cricketing circles, his appointment to succeed the popular Jennings so soon after the Junior World Cup triumph was controversial and poorly handled by Cricket South Africa. Many have seen it as a hospital pass for the well-known radio commentator.

“I don’t see it as daunting, I see it as exciting. At this age-group, every year there is change and growth and if players are going to perform at such a young age, then they need to be mentored better and for longer,” Mahatlane said.

That 2003 U19 side included AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Vernon Philander, JP Duminy and Aaron Phangiso. There’s no doubt Mahatlane’s early mentoring was good for their careers and he will be hoping to have a similar impact for the current crop of young talent.