Ken Borland

A phlegmatic Jake White said the Bulls’ loss to the Sharks in Durban at the weekend was hardly a terrible blow to their Currie Cup chances and he still believes his side are sitting pretty in the competition.

The Bulls were pipped 32-29, with Morne Steyn missing a relatively straightforward penalty after the final hooter for the draw, but White is right, his team are still in a strong position. They are five points clear at the top of the log, with matches against Griquas, the Lions and Pumas to come.

The win did a lot for the Sharks, however, who are in second place, with a game in hand over the Bulls. But Western Province and the Lions have played as many matches as the Bulls and are seven and eight points behind respectively.

“This doesn’t change our plan at all, we’ll put the game behind us as a wasted chance, but the margins are so small. It’s a long season and we will learn from it, but I’m very happy where we are. Our destiny is still in our hands and who would have thought that six months ago? What’s important is that we get to January 23 and win the final that day.

“So I’m not worried, we are playing good rugby but we wasted chances today, that will happen with a young squad that has only been together for six months and half of that was in Lockdown. You can see the disappointment in the guy’s faces in the changeroom, you can see losing means a lot to them. Going into halftime 14-9 down it was obviously very pleasing to take the lead, but you’ve got to make sure you get the win at the end of the day,” White said after the Kings Park thriller.

White paid credit to the Sharks for their much-improved display at the breakdown, where they made life much harder for the Bulls compared to when they were hammered 41-14 at Loftus Versfeld in October in Super Rugby Unlocked.

“They slowed down our ball so we couldn’t get much momentum, they had obviously relooked at how they defend at the breakdown, so credit to them. We did not get as much quick ball as in the last game, the Sharks’ breakdown game obviously went up a notch which is why we struggled to get momentum.

“But we can only blame ourselves for losing four balls in our own 22 at the end, twice through not controlling the kickoff properly and we also lost two lineouts. The Sharks stood in our lineout and listened in on our calls, which was amazing to see, but [replacement hooker] Schalk Erasmus has been injured since the Green and Gold game [October 3], so it’s understandable it was difficult for him to find his locks,” White said.

The postponement of the ICC T20 World Cup and the cascading effect it has had on all the other world cups will give a rebuilding Proteas side some breathing space, but it is probably a blow to the hopes of veterans such as Dale Steyn, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and Imran Tahir of playing in them.

The ICC have announced that the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia this October has been postponed by a year to October/November 2021, with another edition of the shortest-format world cup to be held at the same time in 2022.

The next 50-over World Cup will still be held in India in 2023, but it has also been pushed back, from February/March of that year to October/November.

But delaying the T20 World Cup by a year is probably good news for a new-look Proteas side that has battled to hit its straps in the format, winning just seven of their 14 matches since February 2019.

South Africa used 27 players in those matches, so their T20 unit is far from settled. With key player JP Duminy having retired, Faf du Plessis having scored just 65 runs in his last four innings and AB de Villiers not playing in nearly three years, there are plenty of questions to be answered in the batting department.

But De Villiers will be 37 by the next T20 World Cup and how willing he is to be seriously involved in the build-up to that competition will probably determine whether he gets one last hurrah.

Du Plessis will also be 37 and there is a chance that the Proteas selectors will just focus on building a settled, younger batting order with a middle-order built around the likes of David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen.

Steyn has bowled 19 overs for 166 runs and taken six wickets since last February and he will be 38 in October 2021, while champion leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who has played just once in the same period, will be 42.

The T20 squad needs to be using the extra 12 months of preparation they have been given to develop into a slick, tight unit, especially given how dismally South Africa performed in the previous world cup, the 50-over event in England last year. Integrating these veterans, given their various commitments all over the world, into that side is going to be a challenge for coach Mark Boucher.

Legendary South African paceman Dale Steyn said on Tuesday that if bowlers were banned from using saliva and sweat on the field of play then it would just be another blow to bowlers in their attempts to maintain the balance of the game as bats just get bigger and better in unrelenting fashion.

As cricket prepares to return to action, the International Cricket Council is devising medical regulations to ensure it is safe to play in this age of Covid-19. Their own cricket committee recommended that saliva be banned from being used on the ball, while the safety of using sweat to shine the ball is not certain.

“It’s just a habit using saliva and I use it more than sweat because as a child that’s what I saw on TV; it’s like deciding what guard to take, I guess I just saw bowlers licking their lips and fingers and then putting it on the ball. But if we’re only allowed to use sweat then it’s just another stupid rule taking away from the bowlers. It would be good to be playing back in the mid-2000s with the juicy mints they had back then!

“The thing with sweat is that you don’t really want it to touch the ball if you’re trying to get reverse swing, the key is to keep the ball dry. But I guess in the greater scheme of things it’s not a big deal whether you use sweat or saliva, except in terms of trying to break habits. If neither are allowed then they really should give the umpire a can of polish that the bowlers can use. Why not? And then I’ll start a business selling the polish!” Steyn told The Citizen on Tuesday.

Apart from safety measures on the field and the players being isolated inside a bio-bubble, there will also be no spectators allowed when cricket resumes. But Steyn said crowd support was not really one of the major ingredients for his own tremendous success.

“I’d probably bowl better with no crowd because I grew up in Phalaborwa and there were no crowds watching me play cricket there! Also when someone like AB de Villiers has just smoked you for 24 runs in an over, you can go down to fine leg and not have the spectators abusing you, you can just drink your water and regather your thoughts.

“But cricket is made for people and entertainment, so it would be sad not to have crowds, but we just have to roll with it. In the IPL, whether you’re playing in front of 70 000 or nobody, you’re still going to have 200 people in the hotel reception. I guess I’ll just wave and give a peace sign from a hundred metres away. It just boils down to personal responsibility, not shaking hands and not getting in others’ personal space,” Steyn said.

Shaun Pollock, another South African fast bowling great, told the Following On cricket podcast recently that if players are isolated and tested before going into a bio-bubble then it should not matter what they shine the ball with.

Nollis Marais could be forgiven for shouting “Woe is me!” from the top of the Loftus Versfeld grandstand given the way injuries have hampered his pre-season preparation and the Bulls coach suffered another blow on Wednesday when highly-rated prop Lizo Gqoboka went down with a groin injury.

Following hot on the heels of the devastating news that flyhalf playmaker Handre Pollard has been ruled out for the season with ruptured knee ligaments, Gqoboka pulled out of this weekend’s warm-up match against the Lions in Polokwane with a groin strain an hour after being named in the squad.

Gqoboka will be out of action for a couple of weeks, joining senior loose forwards Lappies Labuschagne and Deon Stegmann, as well as youthful flank Roelof Smit, on the sidelines.

“You nurse Handre Pollard for weeks with his shoulder injury and then in a normal passing drill he hurts his leg. He was obviously a huge part of our plans, and Lizo too, plus Lappies and Steggies are out too. But the other guys must now step up. It’s a mind switch and the other guys must just get on with it,” Marais said at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.

Marais announced his best available team for Saturday’s match against the Lions with Springbok hooker Adriaan Strauss, named as the Super Rugby captain, set to lead the franchise for the first time.

“It’s a great privilege for me and I seem to play better when responsibility is on my shoulders. We’ve lost Handre and Deon, who are both great leaders, but Rudi Paige has made a massive step up in terms of leadership. The team has a lot of respect for him, he has a lot of authority and he makes great calls,” Strauss said.

Jesse Kriel, who played fullback when he announced himself to the world stage in last year’s Super Rugby competition, has been named at outside centre by Marais, with the exciting Warrick Gelant in the number 15 jersey.

“I see Jesse as a number 13, he played there when I coached the U21s, and he is the Springbok outside centre, so that was the easiest position to slot in, he understands what we’re trying to do. I’m not too keen on him at fullback. Bjorn Basson is also an option at 15, and Jamba Ulengo could move into 11. Maybe we’ll do that for the last 15 minutes on Saturday,” Marais said.

When Francois Brummer returned to Loftus Versfeld in November for the first time since 2010 on loan from the Pumas, the 26-year-old could not have foreseen how vital he would be for the Bulls’ Super Rugby plans. But the former Waterkloof High School star is now the starting flyhalf with Tian Schoeman on the bench.

Team – Warrick Gelant, Travis Ismaiel, Jesse Kriel, Jan Serfontein, Bjorn Basson, Francois Brummer, Rudy Paige, Arno Botha, Hanro Liebenberg, Nic de Jager, Grant Hattingh, RG Snyman, Marcel van der Merwe, Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane. Replacements: Jaco Visagie, Lizo Gqoboka, Jason Jenkins, Jannes Kirsten, Piet van Zyl, Tian Schoeman, Burger Odendaal, Werner Kruger, Pierre Schoeman, Jamba Ulengo, Jade Stighling.