Ken Borland

Stormers great Bob Skinstad played 24 Tests in South Africa’s No.8 jersey and he believes his former team’s current eighthman, Evan Roos, has much to offer in a Springboks squad.

Roos is an integral part of the Stormers team that will be playing in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals this weekend, hosting Edinburgh in Cape Town, but he will also be thinking about the possibility of being named in the Springbok squad for the first time. National coach Jacques Nienaber has said he will only announce his squad once the playoffs are over.

Skinstad, who played 42 Tests in all and was one of the best ball-players South African rugby has ever seen, said on Monday that he is thrilled by the expansive rugby the Stormers backs are playing, but said it is inspired by the work of the forwards on their inside.

“I love watching the Stormers matches because they are playing such great counter-attacking rugby. They’re trying to win by scoring more points than the opposition, rather than by just squeezing them.

“Leolin Zas is the leading try-scorer in the competition and an amazing finisher, but he’s doing it off the breaks of the players inside him. The beauty of the Stormers’ play is the linking between their carrying forwards.

“Like Evan Roos, who gets those extra three or four metres and then puts in the little offload, which can really break open the game. He also brings ball-carrying in the wide channels and is very hard to stop from five metres out.

“Evan would be an asset for the Springboks, although he won’t just necessarily burst into the starting line-up. But he can certainly add value in and around the squad, or even off the bench,” Skinstad, who is part of the Premier Sports broadcast team for the URC, said.

With more peace in the Western Province RFU boardroom these days and the team having done so well in the URC, Skinstad also said the Stormers, with an eye on the European Champions Cup next season, should be prime candidates for the sort of equity partners that have elevated the Sharks and Bulls.

“The Stormers have been in a bit of a state of flux lately, but their results have not been bad now, so there is a germ of real value there. If I was a big sports group I would really think there’s incredible value there.

“They have an incredible player base, school system, stadium and Cape Town is an amazing place,” Skinstad said.

Tristan Stubbs, the sensational young Warriors batting talent, will have his first taste of international action when he tours India with the Proteas T20 squad next month and his Eastern Province coach, Robin Peterson, believes the 21-year-old will only get better as he gains more experience in the shortest format.

Stubbs’s maiden Proteas call-up came on Tuesday following two outstanding T20 campaigns for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

“We’re very proud of Tristan and very chuffed that he is getting this opportunity,” Peterson told The Citizen on Tuesday. “It’s a testament to his hard work. He’s a very natural player and being aware of the situation is where he has really improved.

“His biggest strength is that he reads the game well. And he doesn’t feel the pressure because he has the skills to get off strike quickly, get in and then explode.

“He comes in in different situations and he will only get better as he builds a database of doing it in different conditions against different opposition.

“Hopefully his IPL experience now with the Mumbai Indians will help make the transition to international cricket smoother. Mixing with Kieron Pollard, he’s getting some elite thinking on middle-order batting, and he has a great opportunity to play alongside David Miller now in the Proteas side,” Peterson, who represented South Africa in 100 white-ball matches, said.

As befitting someone who could come to the crease with three wickets down inside the powerplay, or with just 20 balls left in the innings, Stubbs has the all-round game for all circumstances.

“He has sound thinking around the game and he has all the natural attributes for the middle-order – he plays spin well, he can hit sixes and he runs hard so he doesn’t use up a lot of dot balls,” Peterson said.

“He loves his golf and was a great hockey player, which is probably why he has such good wrists.

“He’s a very laid-back surfer-boy from Knysna, but very competitive and very driven to succeed. It’s been a meteoric rise for him, but I just hope people are patient with him,” coach Peterson said.

Thirteen of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad have been selected for the series in India, with Stubbs and left-arm quick Marco Jansen the only inclusions who have not yet played in the shortest format at international level.

All-rounder Wayne Parnell has also earned a recall, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje is fit again and available for South Africa for the first time since last November.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.

Sbu Nkosi was born in Barberton 26 years ago and will now wear a Barberton Daisy on his rugby jersey, saying on Thursday that he believes a move to the Bulls is just the fresh start he needs to return to being the top-class wing who helped win the 2019 World Cup.

Nkosi famously filled in for an injured Cheslin Kolbe in the World Cup semi-final against Wales, but then did not play in the Tests against the British and Irish Lions last year and has endured a rotten run of injuries and illness this year. Given his limited playing time for the Sharks, it is unlikely that Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber still sees him as being in the top three wings for the national team.

“Injuries happen but it’s a chance for me to completely reset and build afresh, being here is a massive chance to be part of a good thing going on in Pretoria,” Nkosi said at Loftus Versfeld on Thursday.

“I am very grateful to the Sharks, they are the reason my career has gone the way it has, they developed me and taught me to be a man. But moving to the Bulls is the best decision for me.

“I felt like a new chapter needed to be opened so I can get my career back to the Sbu Nkosi everyone knows. It doesn’t matter what union you play for when it comes to making the World Cup squad.

“That is judged purely on performance and I need to be fit and ready to play to even start thinking about being in the reckoning for selection,” Nkosi, who arrived on crutches following ankle surgery but was sporting an extremely smart navy blue jacket with a pocket square in the light blue colour of his new team, said.

Nkosi was headhunted by Bulls director of rugby Jake White to replace Madosh Tambwe, who is heading to Bordeaux Begles, the pair having first met while the wing was at Jeppe High School. Nkosi said he was honoured to be coming to such a proud union and was determined to do the business on the field.

“Jake and I have a relationship that dates back to high school and he actually signed me to the Sharks straight from school. We agree on certain values, which was a big motivating factor to come here.

“In a way I’ve come full circle and I want to be part of Jake’s work, dig into his mind a bit. The general mix in the Bulls’ style of play is extremely exciting, they are getting it right.

“It’s always nice to be at a place with a full trophy room and the Bulls have a legendary legacy. I understand the history and that rugby is like the fourth meal of the day here in Pretoria!

“I feel very privileged to be picked out by a coach like Jake and I’m looking to improve my decision-making, which is a very crucial part of the game. Keeping a cool head at the right time is what separates players. Understanding the game is way more important than a sidestep,” Nkosi said.

Former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick is willing to endorse the Six Nations as the best tournament in rugby outside of the World Cup, but the All Blacks great believes it would be a terrible idea for South Africa to join that Northern Hemisphere competition.

Speculation has been rife recently that the world champion Springboks will follow their domestic franchises into European rugby, breaking from their traditional Sanzaar alliance with New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, and joining France, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, and maybe Italy, in a new-look Six Nations.

“The Six Nations is arguably the best tournament outside the World Cup,” Fitzpatrick told a Laureus World Sports Academy media opportunity on Wednesday. “The first three rounds have been compelling viewing.

“There has obviously been a lot of talk in New Zealand and up north about South Africa joining, but why add to something when it is not broken? I don’t like the idea of Southern Hemisphere teams in the Six Nations because the history of the competition is Northern Hemisphere.

“And I don’t think the Southern Hemisphere can afford to lose South Africa from the Rugby Championship, it will be devastating to lose them. If they join, it would be a Seven Nations because Italy can’t just be ejected, they have a right of veto.

“So starting a new competition would add a pretty big new international window. It would be a sad day for rugby,” Fitzpatrick said.

The current form of the All Blacks has many of their fans already having kittens, but the chairman of the Laureus World Sport Academy said he was confident they were on track, while acknowledging the demise of the old Super Rugby competition that included South Africa has hurt them.

“Ian Foster [head coach] knows where he is going for sure,” Fitzpatrick said. “Traditionally the All Blacks have not worked on four-year cycles, they try and win every year.

“But I think this time they are building for the World Cup. The results have been disappointing but Ian has exposed a lot of players to international rugby. In 2019 they were exposed a bit in the heat of World Cup battle.

“Super Rugby has not turned out to be the competition it should be. Super Rugby Aoteroa in 2020 was fantastic, everyone loved it, coming back to New Zealand, it was very tribal.

“But last year was different and we’ve missed South Africa. Super 12 was such a good product, but they got greedy going to 14, 16, 18 teams and it blew out because it was unsustainable,” Fitzpatrick said.