Ken Borland

The Sharks motored into a 12-0 lead after just 16 minutes, thanks to rapid recycles of the ball and tremendous direct rugby, but they then spluttered and allowed the Lions back into the game before eventually running rampant from the hour mark to win 37-10 in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park on Friday evening.

It was all smooth sailing for the Sharks at the start of the derby and, in the ninth minute, they kept possession through nine phases, after a strong carry by eighthman Phepsi Buthelezi, going right and then left before inside centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg broke the defensive line and passed inside for wing Makazole Mapimpi to score.

With 67% possession in the first half, the Sharks were soon back on attack and, after bashing away on the line against the stout Lions defence, they went wide, two short loop passes being followed by fullback Boeta Chamberlain knifing through for the try.

But the shift in momentum perhaps came straight afterwards as flank Jeandre Labuschagne misjudged the restart, dropping the ball, and Lions wing Edwill van der Merwe was on hand to kick through and score the try.

The Lions gained belief to go with their tireless efforts on defence, and despite making just 35 tackles to the visitors’ 105 in the first half, the Sharks went into halftime just 12-7 up.

Flyhalves Curwin Bosch and Jordan Hendrikse traded scrum penalties in the first six minutes of the second half, but the Sharks eventually showed why they were top of the log in southern hemisphere competition when SuperRugby was killed by Covid and remain one of the most highly-rated teams in Europe.

The turnaround came out of the blue as Chamberlain charged down a clearance by Lions fullback Andries Coetzee, centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg gathered and his pop pass found just the right player in scrumhalf Grant Williams, whose sheer speed from just outside the 22 made his try impossible to stop.

Having defended so much, perhaps fatigue set in for the Lions in the final quarter and they began to make basic errors. Centre Marius Louw strayed in front of the kicker, Jaden Hendrikse took a quick tap for the Sharks, Sikhumbuzo Notshe burst clear and Siya Kolisi rounded off the try.

The ever-busy Mapimpi then kicked through a dropped ball in the Lions backline, his second kick being a touch of Messi-like class, as he grabbed his second try at the death.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Makazole Mapimpi (2), Boeta Chamberlain, Grant Williams, Siya Kolisi. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2), Jaden Hendrikse. Penalties: Bosch, Lionel Cronje.

Lions – Try: Edwill van der Merwe. Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse. Penalty: Hendrikse.

The ICC do have a structure in place whereby the match referee rates the pitch for all international games, but Proteas captain Dean Elgar made sure his feelings were known about the Gabba snakepit as he said after South Africa’s six-wicket defeat in the first Test against Australia in Brisbane that it was not suitable for Test cricket.

Former West Indies captain Richie Richardson, the match referee on duty for the series, can rate the Gabba pitch as being ‘poor’ or ‘unfit’, which would lead to the International Cricket Council (ICC) requesting an explanation from Cricket Australia and possibly taking further action.

The general consensus on Sunday was that the grassy Brisbane pitch was very poor, with excessive sideways movement and inconsistent bounce, much of it steep from a good length. The Test was the second shortest since the Second World War and only the second two-day Test in Australia ever.

“For me, that’s not what Test cricket should look like. I would ask ‘Was it a good advert for the format?’ To have 34 wickets in two days means it was pretty one-sided towards the bowlers,” Elgar said after Australia had struggled to 35 for four to win, having bundled the Proteas out for just 99 earlier in the day.

“I’m a purist of this format and you want to see it go four or five days. But it was not a good Test pitch, there was some seriously steep bounce even with the old ball.

“When KG Rabada got Travis Head caught down the leg-side and Anrich Nortje was sending short ones over everyone’s heads, I asked the umpire when do they consider it dangerous? I didn’t get a reply, maybe they thought I was taking the mickey.

“The divots had a big role to play in the sideways movement, the up-and-down bounce, much of it steep. It was interesting to see how quickly the wicket started divoting,” Elgar said.

While the terrible pitch has taken some of the attention away from another poor batting performance by the Proteas, that is sure to come back under the microscope as the crucial second Test starting in Melbourne on Boxing Day gets closer. As captain of the good ship Proteas, Elgar needs to be shouting “Ahoy! There are rocky times ahead!”

But he, perhaps cleverly, pointed to the pitch as being the root of their problems.

“We need to be honest and realistic about what happened, we were absolutely jaffered out and they bowled properly,” Elgar said. “We were confident coming in to the game, we had practised bloody well. “We will now have some extra days to tap into our mental spaces. The biggest danger is to withdraw and not deal with what happened.

“I don’t see how hitting more balls is going to make us become better cricketers, we all know our games pretty well. It was just one of those games where we failed.

“Personally, I’m still confident going into the next Test, and you still want to give your batsmen confidence and positivity,” Elgar said.

South Africa’s attack went from being a sleek, powerful sports car to a battered old bakkie in the space of an hour as Travis Head bashed a punishing unbeaten half-century to put Australia on the brink of seizing the lead after the first day of the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday.

Replying to South Africa’s mediocre 152 all out, Australia reached stumps on 145 for five, with Head producing a great knock of 78 not out off just 77 balls.

The Proteas made a great start in the field as Kagiso Rabada delivered a pinpoint short ball to David Warner first up, the left-hander trying to fend the ball away, but Khaya Zondo, leaping up at short-leg, taking a miraculous one-handed catch.

Left-arm quick Marco Jansen then struck with his first ball as he had Marnus Labuschagne (11) caught in the slips, and in the next over, Anrich Nortje removed Usman Khawaja, also for 11, 12^th man Simon Harmer taking a sharp catch in the slips.

Australia were 27 for three and the Proteas pace attack was looking like a mean machine. Steven Smith and Head then dug in initially, but once they had doubled the score, they shifted gears. Smith pulled and drove Nortje for boundaries in the 18th over, and Head collected a couple of fours in the next over, as spinner Keshav Maharaj was introduced to the attack.

The Proteas began losing their lines and lengths and boundary balls were regularly on offer, with Head and Smith seizing their opportunities to score with alacrity. In the six overs from the 18^th to the 23^rd, 58 runs were hammered as the momentum was emphatically shifted.

South Africa did regain their composure at the end of the day though, as Nortje produced a superb delivery to rip through Smith’s gate and bowl him for 36, while Rabada nipped the ball away from nightwatchman Scott Boland (1) to have him caught behind with what became the last ball of the day.

The Proteas batting continues to confound even the most expert panel of batting coaches as they were dismissed in just 48.2 overs before tea, crumbling from 125 for four to 152 all out.

Sent in to bat on a pitch that was just a slightly paler shade of green than the outfield, South Africa’s top-order was blasted out with just 27 runs on the board. Captain Dean Elgar (3) and Rassie van der Dussen (5) were both caught behind, off Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins (12.2-3-35-2) respectively, before Boland (11-2-28-2) took two wickets in his second over, having Sarel Erwee well-caught by Cameron Green in the gully for 10 and then trapping Zondo lbw for a two-ball duck.

But Temba Bavuma and Kyle Verreynne are probably two of the most determined batsmen in the Proteas line-up and they did invaluable repair work with a fifth-wicket stand of 98.

Verreynne counter-attacked and belted eight fours and a six in his 64, while Bavuma was typically defiant in putting up 38 vital runs.

Left-arm paceman Starc (14-1-41-3) made the breakthrough when he swung the ball back into Bavuma from over the wicket, the batsman inside-edging into his stumps.

Jansen (2) then tried to hammer off-spinner Nathan Lyon (8-2-14-3) out of the ground but could only sky a catch, leaving the bowlers exposed and they were quickly removed by the Australians.

Springbok wing Sbu Nkosi is an adult and clearly able to look after himself, but his three-week absence from Loftus Versfeld and an eerie silence from his cellphone has the Bulls and his agents so worried that he has been reported missing to the police.

The 26-year-old has not reported to training since November 14 and has not responded to messages from the Bulls, nor from his family, including his mother, and agents, Roc Nation.

“We are in direct contact with the Bulls and monitoring the situation,” Roc Nation director Isaac Lugudde told The Citizen on Saturday. “We have also been unsuccessful with a lot of attempts to contact him.

“We are all alarmed and worried, and we just hope that wherever he is, he is safe. Those who know of his whereabouts, please contact us or the Bulls.”

Nkosi was out of action after injuring his rib against the Sharks on October 30, which kept him out of the Springboks’ end-of-year tour as well.

“All I can say is that we hope Sbu is at least keeping safe despite his seclusion,” Edgar Rathbone, the Bulls’ CEO, was quoted as telling local media.

“We’ve been attempting tirelessly to make contact with him, but these efforts have been in vain to date. Everybody is really concerned.”

Since signing for the Bulls in the off-season, Nkosi has already been in disciplinary trouble, being sent on a flight home from Ireland in October after he was late for a team meeting having been given permission to visit a friend in Dublin the day before.

Nkosi has also had problems in the Springbok space, not being industrious enough to renew his passport in time for a Test against Wales last year, despite numerous requests to do so.

While those sort of misdemeanours could be written off as the behaviour of an aero-head, there are now genuine concerns for the well-being of Nkosi, who also has a career as a rapper, having released a song in July called Glock in a Safe.