Ken Borland

Blistering pace and a keen nose for the tryline meant Bryan Habana was like an arrow zeroing in on its target when it came to try-scoring and the Springbok wing holds the records for the World Cup, Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship, the Springboks and for South Africans in SuperRugby. It is heartening to see the 36-year-old show the same acumen now that he has retired and is in the business world.

A graduate of the Toulouse business school, Habana is now the co-founder of Retroviral, a digital sports marketing agency with a strong emphasis on tech. It’s a career move which probably has its roots back in the early 2000s when he signed up for a BSc IT degree at the then Rand Afrikaans University. But then rugby got in the way.

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically affected everyone’s lifestyles and is likely to force structural adjustments to the economy of just about everything. Sport has been especially hard hit with the global sports industry now projected to face losses of $62 billion.

The Lockdown has also provided much food for thought for entrepreneurs and, typical of the sharp minds of Habana, Mike Sharman and Ben Karpinski, the founders of Retroviral, they have come up with a great new idea that will assist the wellbeing of sportsmen and women as they look to navigate these tumultuous times.

MatchKit.co is a mobile tech platform that allows athletes to build their own website. And not those starchy looking ones that are never updated, have lots of photos that take forever to load and are low on substance.

Within five minutes, sports stars can build themselves a website that highlights their sponsors, automatically integrates into all the big social media channels and provides detailed stats of their engagements on those platforms, has a plug-and-play, secure e-commerce store that will enable them to sell anything from branded merchandise to video or audio shoutouts, and a portal that will enable people to donate to their foundation or favourite charity.

It has often proven a stiff task for sportspeople to promote themselves better, they tend to forget certain sponsors or, in many cases, not even have an Online presence. MatchKit.co certainly appears to be able to overcome these problems.

“I’m extremely excited, MatchKit will add tangible value to athletes and allow them to easily commercialise their brands around the world. I know I was all over the place after our 2007 World Cup win, but MatchKit now allows the athlete to control their commercial rights, it empowers them, while showcasing their sponsors.

“It came about after bouncing ideas off a South African venture capitalist who’s now in the United States and it has a simple set-up. You look at sportspeople Online and not even 10-15% will have their agent’s details there. What if corporates want to engage with them? What happens if they change their agent?” Habana said at the launch this week.

●●●●●●●

The great news to come out of the cricketing world in the last week is that the West Indies tour of England looks set to go ahead with the Caribbean squad arriving on Tuesday to quarantine ahead of a three-Test series that will start on July 8. The matches will be played behind closed doors in a bio-secure environment, with the first Test being held in Southampton, followed by two matches at Old Trafford, starting on July 16 and July 24 respectively.

That means the series will end on July 28. South Africa were scheduled to have played their first Test in the West Indies from July 23-27, with the second meant to start on July 31. With a lucrative T20 series against India lined up for the end of August, it now seems likely the Proteas will only meet the West Indians in September and there is still no clarity on whether that series will take place in the Caribbean or in South Africa, or even be moved to a neutral venue like England. The tour of the West Indies was originally meant to be of just over a month’s duration, so it doesn’t look possible to cram in the two Tests and five T20s that were meant to be played even if the Men in Maroon plant themselves in the UK and the Proteas fly over there and quarantine in the second half of July.

Christiaan Basson is one of the more consistent performers on the Sunshine Tour so his blistering eight-under-par 64 to claim the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is not a total shock, but the 33-year-old from Cape Town is battling his own mediocre record in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour.

Basson has played in 30 previous European Tour tournaments, making the cut in just 14 of them, with just a single top-10 finish, in the 2013 South African Open at Glendower. He has gone low in the first round a few times in co-sanctioned events, including last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship when he opened with a pair of 69s before fading on the weekend with rounds of 74 and 75.

“It’s a funny game and you never know when you’re going to get it right, so when you get it going you must capitalise on it. I think I need to stick with the same game plan – I just tried to hit fairways and tried to play for the right areas of the greens – it worked well, so why change it?” Basson said after his brilliant round at the prestigious course alongside the Crocodile River.

Basson is three shots ahead of the chasing pack on five-under-par which includes three-time champion Charl Schwartzel.

Schwartzel could not finish his round due to a thunderstorm that stopped play at 5.26pm on Thursday, but is looking in ominous form as he collected seven birdies through 17 holes, and missed a couple of makeable putts as well.

Mark Williams of Zimbabwe and Englishman Matt Ford, both of whom collected eagles – on the par-four fourth and par-five 13^th holes respectively- are the other golfers tied for second.

Niclas Fasth of Sweden, playing his 500^th European Tour event (the 31^st golfer to reach the mark) and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands are amongst the large group of golfers on four-under-par, while 2008 champion Richard Sterne is on three-under after 17 holes.

Another former champion, Pablo Martin, the winner of back-to-back titles in 2009/10, was rapidly climbing up the leaderboard as he moved to six-under-par through 15 holes. The Spaniard had started on the 10^th, but by the time he walked off the ninth green he was practically weeping as he closed with three successive bogeys to drop down into the group tied for 12^th.

Englishman Jeff Inglis had a similar story, starting with five successive birdies but then dropping two shots at the par-four eighth and picking up further bogeys at the 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to also finish on three-under.

Louis Oosthuizen started on the 10^th and birdied the par-four first hole to go to five-under-par and a share of the lead, but was then derailed by a double-bogey seven on the second, eventually finishing on a two-under-par 70, while defending champion Branden Grace was a stroke further back.

Eben Etzebeth

Physically imposing locks are common in South Africa, but there remains something special about Etzebeth. At 2.03m and 117kg he has the physical attributes needed for his set-piece roles, but the 23-year-old is also a formidable ball-carrier, a good linking man and a force at the breakdown. In his prime and with 37 caps to his name, the time is surely right for Etzebeth to explode on the world stage and prove himself a worthy successor to Bakkies Botha.

John Hardie

Dynamic openside flank John Hardie has proved his worth in SuperRugby for the Highlanders and now he needs to prove his commitment to the Scottish cause after controversially being parachuted into the squad, without being associated to a club in Scotland but having a Scottish grandmother. A consistent performer with a huge work-rate, he brings physicality and excellent skills and judgement to the crucial breakdown area.

Lelei Amanaki Mafi

Most Japanese rugby players are small and nippy, but eighthman Lelei Mafi weighs 111kg and is 6’2, which is sizeable for any back-rower. Strong, fast and athletic, Mafi is a marvellous support runner and a terrific force in the collisions that dominate rugby. The 25-year-old of Tongan heritage plays for NTT Shining Arcs.

Tim Nanai-Williams

The 26-year-old cousin of Sonny Bill Williams is a special talent with game-breaking skill who Samoa have mostly used at fullback, although he can play almost anywhere in the backline. Nanai-Williams has provided plenty of excitement in the colours of the pacy Chiefs side that won two Super Rugby titles, but gave up on his dream of playing for the All Blacks in favour of the land of his parents.

Takudzwa Ngwenya

The scorer of the 2007 try of the tournament when he skinned Bryan Habana (who would go on to be named IRB Player of the Year), is the USA’s star player and the first-choice wing of the Biarritz team which is trying to get out of the second division of French rugby. One of only three Americans to appear in the colours of the Barbarians, Ngwenya’s pace is still blistering and the 30-year-old will obviously be relishing a potential rematch with Habana along with the rest of us.