Ken Borland

Jasper Wiese had big boots to fill standing in for the injured Duane Vermeulen but he says he is settling in at No.8 in the Springbok team and he certainly looked most comfy there in his barnstorming display against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium at the weekend.

The Leicester Tigers star was playing his fourth Test, having made his debut against Georgia at the beginning of last month and then starting the second and third Tests against the British and Irish Lions, which the Springboks won to take the series. Wiese carried the ball superbly against Argentina and was involved in almost aspects of play.

“I’m definitely settling in and the players around me give me confidence. Although I got man of the match, it was really a team performance. The guys are all so positive and lifting each other up, it’s an amazing squad. The first thing we have to do is put the team first and as individuals we must know our role. You put yourself behind the team’s interests.

“You are playing for something bigger than yourself; playing for yourself is the worst thing you can do, you can’t try to shine by yourself. It’s difficult to put into words how it felt coming into the team, I was half star-struck. There are players that you look up to so much and it is so special to share a field with them. A good individual game does not happen without the 14 other players around you,” Wiese said.

Hailing from Upington, Wiese played most of his senior rugby in the Free State before joining Leicester last year, and he has also looked at home doing Vermeulen’s trademark job of fielding the kickoffs and charging back at the opposition, establishing a bulkhead for the Springboks. Now that Vermeulen is back in the squad, the 25-year-old says he is delighted to have the World Cup hero around.

“Nobody else can be Duane Vermeulen. But I have taken confidence from him helping me at training sessions, the experience he brings, the way he puts the team first. He might not be playing but he’s really helping the guys. I really respect him and he helps you to reach into yourself and find something special. I’m sure he will be massive when he plays again. He’s such a unit,” Wiese said.

The impending series against the British and Irish Lions may be at the forefront of most rugby fans’ minds in South Africa at present, but the Springboks said on Thursday that their full attention is on Georgia at the moment ahead of the first Test at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

While Georgia are ranked 12^th in the world and it would be close to apocalyptic for the world champions to lose to them, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi said the match goes beyond just being a dress rehearsal for the Lions series. But he did acknowledge pretty much the same tried-and-tested game-plan that won the World Cup will be used against the Lions, and will be fine-tuned against the Lelos.

“First of all we want to win and then we want to make sure our plans and systems are working. We’re not looking that far ahead to the Lions series. Our game-plan will not change, although there are a few tweaks here and there. Of course we will bring the same physicality and hard work, the things you don’t need talent for. We want to do all we can in the system, but the coaches also want us to be able to express ourselves.

“We need to make sure it all comes together on the field, the focus is on coming together as a group and making sure we’re ready for when the time comes for the Lions series. We haven’t played in 20 months so we can’t be watching out for the games after Georgia now, we have to focus on our system and our game-plan. And we always give every opposition everything we can,” Kolisi said on Thursday.

Backline coach Mzwandile Stick said while they were eager for the players to express their individual talents, the Springboks will always call on their physicality as the starting point of their efforts.

“Certain things never change in rugby like playing between four lines and having 15 starters and eight on the bench, and likewise we will never neglect our physical side. It’s part of our DNA. Normally we have big, physical forwards who can really dominate the collisions. That area will be a challenge on Friday because Georgia have a lot of pride in their physical game.

“They have strong set-pieces and we know it’s going to be a physical challenge. But we also always try to empower the players to express themselves. Guys like Rosko Specman and Aphelele Fassi have x-factor and you can’t tell them not to step when they get the ball. Winning the World Cup was special for us, but now we are starting from scratch again,” Stick said.

I suppose one should pay Cricket South Africa’s Members Council their dues for the sort of sheer bloodymindedness and obstinacy that, if our batsmen could replicate it at the crease, would ensure that the Proteas never lose another Test match.

But now, with the game in this country teetering on the precipice, it really is time for them to give up the stonewalling and save us all a lot of time, effort and frustration, by accepting the inevitable changes in governance that will bring a majority independent board. Ultimately, they are trying to defy the sports minister, which is a pointless exercise reminiscent of when the SA Rugby Union, through their bombastic president Louis Luyt, took Nelson Mandela to court in 1998.

You may win the odd legal battle, but you are most certainly not going to win the war.

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of the Interim Board, this week detailed every step in the negotiations with the Members Council and it reminded me of those World War I soldiers who would fight for days in the muddy, bloody trenches to add just a metre or two to their frontline.

And now, the handful of recalcitrants on the Members Council who scuppered the Special General Meeting last weekend are considering legal action to stop both a new constitution and Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s punitive action that is yet to be announced. CSA is an organisation that has spent millions and millions on legal fees in the last couple of years, robbing the game itself of much-needed resources, so it might seem a bit unfair that the Interim Board (their antagonists) now have to give their approval in order for the Members Council to enlist the help of lawyers in their battle, but thank goodness it is the case.

Much of the Members Council’s delaying tactics seem to have revolved around deliberate misrepresentations of what the Interim Board’s new Memorandum of Incorporation actually says. And Nicolaou confirmed this week that, apart from a majority independent board and an independent chair, everything else is negotiable. Which has not been the picture portrayed by the recalcitrants.

Do the Members Council want a 15-person board? That’s fine, then the equation will be eight independent directors, five non-independent and the two executives (CEO & CFO). Or a 13-strong board? Then the make-up will be 7-4-2; even a board of 11 is possible, with six independents, three non-independents and the two executives.

In terms of the criteria for directors, the nominations committee can decide whether they want an emphasis on a cricket background or skills in legal affairs, accounting or finance. There is no need for these criteria to be stipulated in the MoI.

What has been put in the MoI is the make-up of the all-important nominations committee that will select the independent directors. It is pleasing to see the six-person panel will include either a men’s or women’s former international player nominated by SACA, alongside a former CSA president nominated by the Interim Board, a Members Council representative and people from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Directors and the Legal Practice Council.

And the definition of an independent director precludes anyone involved in the administration of the game at provincial or national level, not everyone involved in the game such as coaches or former players.

This MoI has been debated and pored over and modified since the first meeting of the working group, made up of three representatives each from the Members Council and Interim Board, on January 31. According to Nicolaou, on April 15, two days before the ill-fated SGM, the Members Council had agreed to the new MoI.

Their sudden about-turn, orchestrated in the most scheming, underhand manner, has meant all those months of effort have been wasted. As Nicolaou pointed out, “the Members Council continuing to kick this can down the road has awful consequences on the hard-working employees of CSA and the players”.

And think of Anne Vilas, the Central Gauteng Lions president who has been at the forefront of taking a public stand against the recalcitrants. In fact, think of her husband Doug, who has hardly seen his wife for the last few months such has been the number of late-night meetings she has had to attend as the Interim Board and the Members Council have wrangled.

For all our sakes, let’s hope the Members Council relents while there is still time.

Nizaam Carr is a Springbok loose forward who hasn’t had much game time since joining the Bulls, but he said on Tuesday that working with coach Jake White has been one of the best relationships of his career and the desire at Loftus Versfeld is strong to avoid what the player called “the same fate as Liverpool”.

With the talismanic Duane Vermeulen currently unavailable after minor knee surgery, Carr could well get his chance to shine in the preparation series that starts this weekend, with the Bulls taking on Eastern Province in Pretoria on Sunday. The former Stormers and Wasps star said the message from White has been clear: Even though several of the stars who won both SuperRugby Unlocked and the Currie Cup might not be playing, the Bulls are looking to improve their game still further.

“The message from Jake was that we have to take it to the next level, whether that’s in our diet, our training, our gym or whatever. What happened to Liverpool, what my friends have been telling me about them because I’m not a big football fan … we don’t want to suffer the same fate. So we need to do something different to stay on top, we need to take our game up a notch.

“This series is the perfect opportunity for us to prepare and you can see everyone want this opportunity. I always back myself to start but I will do whatever I can to help the team, like I had to do for the Currie Cup final. But I have a good understanding with Jake and the other coaches, in fact my relationship with Jake is one of the best I’ve experienced with a coach. It’s been fantastic to continue my journey with these fantastic people,” Carr said on Tuesday.

Carr is probably competing with former Springbok Sevens star Tim Agaba for the eighthman berth vacated by Vermeulen. While Agaba will bring work-rate and physicality to the role, Carr said he sees his strength as being the more classical ability to link with the backs.

“I want to play eighthman, I feel I am best there, but it is nice that I can cover a lot of options and different coaches want different things from their eighthman. My strength is linking, mixing it up with the forwards and backs, doing the dirty work if necessary and bringing a high tackle count. I’m also a lineout option although I’m not the biggest guy.

“I’m not one of those 120kg or 1.95 metres guys, but I bring something else to the party. I have not played as much as I would have liked here, so it feels like my first game again, something I am really looking forward to. It’s a big opportunity, that’s the motivator for all of us, we want to showcase what we’ve got, show that we can turn up at this level, given the opportunity,” Carr said.