Ken Borland

There has been a lot of talk recently around Gauteng cricket of revolutionising the game, but so far their only notable action has been to strip the most successful Black African coach in franchise cricket of his duties, making him the fall guy for a poor season by the Highveld Lions.

Geoff Toyana was the first Black African head coach of a franchise when he was appointed in 2012 and he steered the Lions to four trophies in the next four seasons. There have been lean pickings since then, but there have certainly been extenuating circumstances – Toyana has had to practically rebuild a whole team due to the matchfixing scandal and the retirement of several senior players.

Sure, Toyana will still be employed by the Gauteng Cricket Board as High Performance Coach, but there is little doubt that this is a demotion and a slap in the face for someone who has been at the forefront of transformation at franchise level.

The last season was particularly disappointing for the Lions – they finished last in the Sunfoil Series and fifth in both the Momentum One-Day Cup and RamSlam T20 Challenge – but when board members come into the changeroom mid-season and lambast the players with threats that eight of them will lose their contracts, it’s hardly conducive to inspirational performances.

Toyana will be the first to admit that he was probably not at his best as coach either, but again, a more sensitive administration would have understood the reasons why. It could not have been easy for the Soweto Cricket Club product to start the summer as the favourite to be the new Proteas coach and then watch it all unravel.

Add to that massive disappointment the family bereavements he also had to deal with, and it was clear Toyana was a man under severe pressure this last summer.

But the 44-year-old still had an additional year to run on his contract and surely the right thing to do, especially if one is serious about transformation and not just political powerplays, would have been to wipe the slate clean on the last season and allow Toyana to finish his term. Based on results, a less knee-jerk decision could then be taken.

Especially since this is a man who has added so much to the reputation of Gauteng cricket. Let’s not forget that before he became Highveld Lions coach, the franchise had won just one paltry trophy in eight seasons. Under Toyana’s watch, six new Test cricketers, ranging from Quinton de Kock to Stephen Cook, as well as six other limited-overs internationals were produced for the Proteas.

The talk in the Wanderers corridors is that Enoch Nkwe is in line to replace Toyana, which would make sense (at the right time) because the 35-year-old is intimately linked with Gauteng cricket. Currently the assistant coach of the national women’s side, and having fulfilled a similar role for the men’s team in the Netherlands, Nkwe played for the franchise for seven seasons before coaching the semi-pro provincial side.

But there is also talk that the Gauteng Cricket Board have got themselves into a tangle that has led to them axing Toyana. So confident were they that Toyana would be in the Proteas coaching set-up that they allegedly bought Nkwe out of his contract with Haarlemsche Cricket Club and the union now cannot afford to be paying the salaries of two head coaches at the same time.

Perhaps if the board were not so busy with putting out the regular fires that spring up from all the infighting and politicking – if it were all about the transformation needs of the game that would be fine, but the impression is that most of it is all about the personal benefit of the egos involved – then they would be more able to keep their eye on the ball and ensure the franchise is excelling where it really matters – out on the field.

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So the biggest question to come out of last weekend’s SuperRugby action was where has that Sharks team that put in two massive consecutive performances in New Zealand been hiding all season?!

The Sharks really put in a huge display in Napier and the Hurricanes were very lucky to win; the referee made some poor decisions at the back end of the game and that didn’t help the Sharks either. But Robert du Preez’s team were really in a position to win their second massive game in a row.

To see a New Zealand side struggle to cope with the pace and power of Jean-Luc du Preez and Andre Esterhuizen, especially the ease with which he went straight through from the lineout, was incredible. The Sharks would have won but for a late hit and a missed lineout that led to seven points down the other end, so that was obviously disappointing for them.

The Sharks had shown glimpses of this sort of form before, but probably not early enough in the season, so they are still 11 points off the pace in their group. Questions have to be asked as to why only now have they started to really play?

Maybe they’re more match-fit now, halfway through the competition, but the big thing is that their set-pieces are starting to function better. They’re getting good, clean lineout ball and are disrupting the opposition’s ball too, while Thomas du Toit is starting to settle at tighthead prop and that experiment is starting to not look so crazy. He’s getting his shoulders and the scrum has been stable enough to launch Esterhuizen, and the platform it provided for the Louis Schreuder try would have been really pleasing.

There are a lot of positives for the Sharks at the moment, but some of their first-phase defence and the way the wings defend needs to be better. Lukhanyo Am made one really poor decision at a lineout, he needed to be moving in instead of going out, and that provided the hole for a try.

But it’s going to be a big game this weekend in Durban because whoever loses between the Sharks and the Bulls will have a hard way back to get into a playoff spot. It’s going to be a massive derby.

But as I said, there are a lot of positives for the Sharks to take into the game – their willingness to offload in the wide channels, their ball-carriers going hard and an astute kicking game by Schreuder at scrumhalf. But they still need to tighten their defence – they’ve conceded 10 tries in two games.

As for their performances over the last night fortnight providing a blueprint for how to beat New Zealand, one thing is certain and that is that historically it takes a miracle to score more than five tries against the All Blacks. So you can’t be conceding five tries per game. It is pleasing that the Sharks are scoring so many points, but they need to concede less.

The Bulls had a great win against the Stormers two weeks ago and should be refreshed after their bye round. Handre Pollard had a really good game with the boot and exposed the positional play of the back three of the Stormers and he will be hoping to do the same this weekend. What was also impressive was the two tries they scored with their driving maul but the main thing for them will be to defend well in Durban because the Sharks are definitely scoring tries. They will have to contain the power running of Esterhuizen, Jean-Luc du Preez and Am. I’ve also been impressed by Robert du Preez’s ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over with his excellent goalkicking.

So the Bulls will have to be at their best defensively and very good in terms of discipline. The penalty count will need to be less than 10 so they will have to make very good decisions at the breakdown and strive for set-piece excellence.

The Lions, after their setbacks of the last few weeks, came out full of intent against the Stormers and Madosh Tambwe was outstanding.

For his first try, from the chip, Damian Willemse’s kick was from too deep. With his footwork, he needs to be flat and bringing runners into the game, and that chip needed to be behind the centres. It was just in the wrong spot and he doesn’t yet have the tactical boot and appreciation for space.

So that try had the Stormers under pressure from practically the first minute and then the ability of Elton Jantjies to pick up Tambwe on the kick into space and the wing himself showing he can also go into the hard channels led to his other two tries for an astonishing hat-trick in 13 minutes.

The Lions certainly seem to have a pool of wings now, with Ruan Combrinck back and Aphiwe Dyantyi close to returning, plus Courtnall Skosan on the sidelines, they have four really quality players. Four years ago, our wing stocks were really low in South Africa, but now we have those four plus Sbu Nkosi of the Sharks and Travis Ismaiel of the Bulls.

However, a lot of the defensive decisions of South African wingers this year have been poor. Yes, you have to put pressure on but you also have to make the tackles! Springbok defence coach Jacques Nienaber will have a different approach to guys like John Mitchell and Paul Feeney, who are using a rush defence at the Bulls and Stormers respectively. They want their wings to get in amongst the opposition, but that leaves you open to the bridge-pass and the kick-pass because they get disconnected from their centres. Jacques in the past wanted his wings behind the centres, to shadow the opposition and force them towards the touchline.

We are seeing so much of the kick-pass to the wide channels these days and wings have so much on their plate defensively, not to mention the big guys with serious gas and stepping ability they have to contend with as well.

The Springbok alignment camps are on the go and obviously the guys don’t train at those, but it’s a good chance for the national coaching staff to impart their philosophies. They will reveal the calling system and defensive lingo to be used, basically it’s a chance for them to give the players their messages for the year. It involves a heck of a lot of study because it’s all about how the Springboks will play this year.

There’s certainly some exciting talent available for Rassie Erasmus, and how his predecessor, Alistair Coetzee, would have loved to have seen the 30-cap overseas player rule relaxed. Why was this policy in place for two years and now it’s suddenly lifted?

It’s probably been changed for the likes of Faf de Klerk and Vincent Koch, they are the two players affected who really spring to mind.

Faf has been playing quite well for Sale, and has also been goalkicking, plus he’s proven at Test level. With Ross Cronje not invited to the alignment camps, I also rate Schreuder very highly at scrumhalf, he definitely has the skill-set to play at that level – he has a good kicking game, he’s a good organiser and he has the ability to finish, he’s no slouch with ball in hand.

Koch is being looked at because obviously South Africa’s tighthead stocks are a bit low. The Springboks have Wilco Louw and Ruan Dreyer, but you always need three guys in the crucial positions and there will always be five props in the Springbok squad.

England have some big guys up front and I’m sure Koch has had many training sessions against Mako Vunipola at Saracens, so he would be a good pick for the Springboks in terms of inside knowledge.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

Last weekend’s SuperRugby action was filled with some tremendous games of rugby and superb individual performances.

The Bulls versus Stormers game at Loftus Versfeld took us back to the good old days of real war on the gainline, full of big hits and turnover attempts.

The Stormers will be disappointed to lose because they had opportunities they didn’t take, but the Bulls will be very excited to return to winning ways after their tour. They were under pressure after losing four in a row and questions would certainly have been asked if they had lost last weekend too.

What made the difference in the match was the kicking game of the Bulls, their ability to get the ball behind the Stormers wings and then put in a good chase, and they scored two excellent maul tries.

The Bulls were obviously all motivated to put in a big performance for Adriaan Strauss in his record appearance. I remember him wandering up to my office at Loftus as a 19-year-old, many moons ago, and then when he was 21, at the end of 2006, he decided to further his career with the Free State Cheetahs. And then he came back to Pretoria as a seasoned Springbok.

Adriaan is currently in great shape, the rest he took during last year’s Currie Cup clearly did him good and he is still a really quality player. Directing things at the back of the maul, where you have to sense when and where the momentum is, is not an easy job.

Stormers flyhalf Damian Willemse, for all the hype, really struggled against the pressure the Bulls exerted on him through the rush defence. His option-taking was not great and he wanted to kick or go around the rush defence, when actually you must go through it and then you have lots of numbers on the fullback. If you go around the rush defence then the fullback is in the defensive line and it closes down your options.

Jake White did not do young Willemse any favours with his comments about the 19-year-old needing to be picked for the Springboks right now. Willemse still needs time to develop.

He is, however, a real talent and you have to credit Stormers coach Robbie Fleck for playing him so early. Willemse has a lot of strengths – he tackles well and has silky running skills, but the tactical appreciation is not quite there, which is so important. He doesn’t have the kicking game yet, that appreciation of space that allows a flyhalf to play the suffocation game that is so important in Test rugby. I don’t think Rassie Erasmus will change the blueprint he presented to us when we were the Springboks coaching staff – a strong kicking game and a big pack of forwards.

I thought the two Bulls flankers, Hendre Stassen and Roelof Smit, had a huge effect on the breakdown. It’s interesting because the Stormers had Nizaam Carr and Siya Kolisi, both possible Springboks later this year, but there’s no doubt that the Bulls did win the breakdown battle at the back end of the game.

Stassen is just 20 and will be a heck of a player. In the last few weeks he has really announced himself, he’s tough and he goes hard on the ball.

For both teams, the defence on the wings was not good, guys shot up and opened holes in the defensive line. It’s a concern in our game at the moment that we don’t seem to get the right decisions being made in defence out wide. We have Springbok wingers there and they are not covering themselves in glory on the outside at the moment.

For the Sharks, what a turnaround!

To score 63 points in New Zealand when they were really under pressure, what a response that was! To out-score a New Zealand side so convincingly deserves great credit.

I could certainly see the effect of Dick Muir in the coaching staff, they played with no fear whatsoever. Jean-Luc du Preez had a colossal game and to see him swatting off defenders really bodes well for the Springboks later this year.

Flyhalf Robert du Preez may be in the Springboks mix himself, along with Handre Pollard. Du Preez is a consistent goal-kicker, he has steered teams to big wins in finals before, and he knows where the space is behind. He’s also a big guy, but he does struggle a bit to find the right level to hit guys when defending. But Du Preez can certainly win you a game.

It’s been a funny four weeks for the Lions, starting when they came so close in the Blues game, with the TMO overturning a try. But in SuperRugby, every team goes through some sort of mini-crisis because it is such a tough competition. It’s about how you deal with it and recover.

After the bad result in Argentina, the Lions gave the Crusaders a huge run for their money and 14-8 is not a typical Lions score. Coach Swys de Bruin takes great pride in outscoring the opposition, but it was good to see their defensive system function well, even though they did not do enough to get the win.

They are missing their captain, Warren Whiteley, hugely; just the calmness he brings and he is much more comfortable with the tactical side of the job. Franco Mostert is also an inspirational captain but he is more of the follow-me type leader.

As far as the Lions not taking that kick at goal at that penalty midway through the second half, sometimes the coach will put on a message to kick for the corner because he believes the momentum is with his side; but sometimes a captain just goes for the corner when the coach wants the team to go for poles!

It happens in rugby and is reminiscent of that famous SuperRugby semi-final at Loftus Versfeld in 2013.

John McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls as their defence coach. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

He is currently the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game.