Ken Borland

The Bulls take on the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night in what should be a mouthwatering Super Rugby Unlocked game as both teams strive to gain momentum in the competition.

The Bulls struggled to victory in Pretoria over lowly Griquas and then lost to the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, while the Sharks, who were magnificent at the start of the year, have battlled to reach the same heights, losing badly to Jake White’s team on SuperFan Saturday at Loftus Versfeld and then meandering to a narrow win over the Lions in Durban.

Here are the areas to marvel over as Captain America takes on Black Panther:

The Sharks are out for revenge after losing 49-28 to the Bulls a month ago & have promised a different mindset – “We’re going with a totally different mindset. We took a squad of 30 that day and we wanted to look at combinations and youngsters who had shown progress to measure where they were. But it’s back to business now, we have a settled squad and a much more experienced team, with lessons learnt on that SuperFan day. It will certainly be a different ball game,” coach Sean Everitt said.

There will be pace & power aplenty in the loose forward battle as Vermeulen, Louw & Van Staden clash with Notshe, Buthelezi & Venter – “I’ve seen Elrigh Louw train for a while now and as soon as he arrived with us he showed such good energy. He’s young but confident, he loves to carry the ball and defend. Plus he’s like a sponge with how much he has picked up already. He’s an exciting player and I’m looking forward to playing alongside him.

“I played together for a couple of seasons with Sikhumbuzo Notshe at the Stormers and he has grown a lot as an eighthman. He was one of the star players in Super Rugby before Lockdown and I know what he can give, I’m looking forward to a really good match-up,” Duane Vermeulen said.

Both coaches, White & Everitt, are expecting their sides to find some rhythm on Saturday – “I would like to see more cohesion, but the guys have not played much together and we have been making changes to the team. I would just like to see more rhythm in attack and defence and the team that gets that right the quickest, that hits their straps first, will create the most problems. So far this competition has been very stop-start with lots of mistakes slowing everything down,” White said.

“Getting one’s rhythm back sometimes takes time and we were unfortunate that after SuperFan Saturday we had a bye with the Green and Gold game, we played the Lions and then we had another bye. It did not help our continuity, but I expect this weekend to see a performance from Super Rugby level. There’s no more time to hang around and wait to hit form, and I hope to see a spectacle on Saturday night,” Evertt said.

A tremendous tussle in the scrums with Marcel van der Merwe starting at tighthead for the Bulls for the first time since 2016, with Trevor Nyakane on the bench – “Marcel had surgery on his ankle but he has responded really well and now is his opportunity to showcase what he can do, he’s also a Springbok. Having played abroad he would have picked up different things and as a scrummager you learn quickly in the French league. Plus we have Trevor coming off the bench and everyone knows what he can provide,” Vermeulen said.

“When I coached Montpellier, Marcel played for Toulon and they had one of the strongest packs. He’s now had three or four weeks of practice, the conditioning team have worked hard on him and he’ll be right for Saturday. I’ve also been very impressed with Jacques van Rooyen at loosehead, Springbok scrum coach Daan Human was here this week to see him scrum and I think he was impressed too. I thought Lizo Gqoboka and Trevor Nyakane would be away with the Springboks and Jacques can scrum both sides and is an unbelievable team man,” White said.

Teams

Bulls:  David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (C), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Marcel van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Trevor Nyakane, Sintu Manjezi, Arno Botha, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (c), Marius Louw, Werner Kok, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Sikumbuzo Notshe, Phendulani Buthelezi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit, Dylan Richardson, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, John-Hubert Meyer, JJ van der Mescht, Henco Venter, Grant Williams, Jeremy Ward, Yaw Penxe.

Kickoff: 7pm.

“Trust us” was the anodyne plea made by Cricket South Africa on Thursday to both Sascoc and the cricket-loving public as they continued to try and justify why the complete Fundudzi Forensic Report cannot be made public.

CSA and Sascoc held a joint virtual press conference on Thursday, but far from presenting a unified front, it soon became apparent that the two organisations, both with distressing records in good governance, are at an impasse.

Sascoc president Aleck Skhosana said the mother body of all sports federations in South Africa are still resolved to set up an independent task team to investigate the affairs of CSA, and reiterated that the CSA Board and executive must step aside to ensure they have “unfettered access”.

But that task team will only be appointed after Sascoc have received the full forensic report, Skhosana saying this was necessary “so we don’t put the cart before the horse; if we choose the task team before we might put legal people on there instead of accounting; we need to know what kind of skills are required”.

But CSA are standing firm on their refusal to sideline their Board or executive, and will also only allow Sascoc to view the forensic report on the same basis as the Members Council last weekend – either just in summary form or at one of Bowman Gilfillan’s offices after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

CSA Acting President Beresford Williams said this was for legal reasons.

“It’s on the advice of our legal representatives, who cautioned against releasing it because there is a huge risk that it could compromise future litigation and legal matters that are already in process, plus open us up for future liability. The Members Council resolved unanimously that Sascoc’s access to the report should be under the same conditions as there’s was, in other words a summarised report,” Williams said.

Anne Vilas, the Central Gauteng Lions president and a member of the Members Council, made a plea for that body to be trusted, even though she could not state with 100% certainty whether the summary was written by Bowman Gilfillan, who are CSA’s lawyers and formerly employed controversial company secretary Welsh Gwaza, or by Fundudzi, the independent forensic investigators.

“I have been very vocal about the report but we had very enlightening discussions last weekend and we all understand CSA’s position that it would not be in the organisation’s best interest to make the report public. We don’t want to step on anybody’s rights, but further action will be taken if warranted and we will hold the Board responsible if necessary, you can trust us on that.

“No other investigations have been done to warrant the suspension of anyone other than Thabang Moroe right now, but stuff is going on and things will happen. But unless we firmly believe something is being withheld from us, there is not sufficient reason for the Board to stand down or anyone to resign. There’s nothing stopping any of the directors from standing at the AGM,” Vilas said when asked how the public were meant to believe CSA were not just hiding behind a shield of legal advice.

Williams would not give a straight answer as to whether CSA will comply with Sascoc, after Skhosana outlined the legal powers they have over CSA and their willingness to “take appropriate measures to ensure compliance”.

“Our engagement has been very positive and there has been great dialogue between the parties. We value Sascoc’s role and there’s no doubt that together we will find common ground. we are in engagement and that will continue. CSA responded in detail to Sascoc about our fiduciary duties and we are still engaging and talking to each other. I’m confident that we can move forward and find common ground,” Williams said in a top-class piece of obfuscation.

The former Western Province Cricket Association president also showed a distinct affection for denial when he said he and the other Board members had nothing to be held accountable over.

“I assure you that if there were any cases of concern in the report then we would have stood down. There were no negative findings to threaten the AGM and the Members Council unanimously agree that we should not be held accountable. I took the decision to continue to serve the game I’m passionate about, if I had acted irresponsibly or not in the best interests of CSA as a director then I would have moved on,” Williams said.

But “unanimously” is a word CSA have had a history of not understanding the proper meaning of and, as Skhosana himself said, “All trust has been lost in Cricket South Africa and we see evidence of that on a daily basis.”

It was an interesting day for CEOs of Cricket South Africa both past and present on Tuesday as the fired Thabang Moroe saw his plot to return to office delayed in the Labour Court and the acting incumbent Kugandrie Govender suffered the embarrassment of the organisation backtracking on her statement that White consultants would no longer be used unless there were exceptional circumstances.

Moroe approached the Labour Court on Tuesday to have his dismissal set aside because he believes the disciplinary process was unlawful, but he first of all had to convince the court that his application was urgent. CSA’s lawyers argued that the matter was not urgent and the court reserved judgement as to whether the matter should be held urgently or not. The court is expected to make its decision during the week.

Govender stated last week in a text message to Sport24 that following a meeting with the minister of sport Nathi Mthethwa, CSA “are now required to enforce Black consultants only until such time as the numbers are moving in the right direction and we can then revise this. It’s an internal measure to enforce that the change that should have happened organically over the years but didn’t, does actually now happen”.

The announcement created a storm of protest, with civil rights lobby group AfriForum threatening legal action against CSA and the Institute for Race Relations writing to the International Cricket Council to report the organisation for failing to respect the governing body’s constitution in terms of racial discrimination and political interference.

CSA issued a statement on Tuesday saying they were saddened by the media reports around their use of consultants. They called the stories “factually incorrect” even though they were quoting their own CEO verbatim.

“CSA has not taken and will not take a decision to work exclusively with Black consultants. The media reports around the statements made by our Acting Chief Executive are not a correct reflection of the sentiment that CSA had sought to convey. CSA therefore reiterates that it does not have a policy of excluding any racial grouping.

“As part of our corporate business model, CSA has adopted and subscribes to the country’s BBBEE Act and Affirmative Action policy. This means CSA has a moral and legal obligation to implement these two prescripts, while still embracing the need for all South Africans to live their cricketing dreams regardless of background, culture or ethnicity, and this includes the services that we procure from external service providers,” their statement said.

CSA went on to say transformation is a pillar for the organisation.

“It is, therefore, imperative that we constantly remind ourselves of its [transformation] importance in the way in which we conduct our business. As a democratic and non-racial institution, CSA is well aware of the need to provide equality and quality of opportunity to all and we do also emphasise that this has to be seen in the context of our unhappy history that for more than a century deprived the majority of our population from living their cricket dreams both on the field of play and in many other areas.”

The change of stance by CSA will now obviously attract the attention of Minister Mthethwa, who has been critical of the number of White faces in prominent positions at CSA. It is believed using exclusively Black consultants unless there are none available at the level required in order to keep the Proteas at the top end of the world rankings is exactly what CSA promised Mthethwa at their meeting last week.

It is also a loss of face for Govender, whose meteoric rise at CSA saw her appointed acting CEO on August 19 after Jacques Faul stepped down.

GolfRSA chief executive Grant Hepburn on Friday extended an olive branch to all those in the golf industry who have been without work and frustrated golfers unable to play, saying the organisation’s patient approach to government had paid off as clubs and courses can now open for both amateurs and professionals.

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture announced on Friday that any member of a federation, agency, club or body may begin playing golf again from Saturday, subject to certain regulations. Clubs need to complete the Confirmation of Compliance Document and submit it to GolfRSA before they can open their facilities.

“These have been incredibly difficult times with the stress of Lockdown and the number of jobs lost, and we have been aware of the frayed tempers and frustrations. We have been in the same boat with friends and colleagues losing work. But we just had to be patient, we knew government were listening to us and they had given us assurances. But it’s been a very complex time and a massive challenge for golf bodies.

“But we believed in the process we were following with the Department, they were always extremely positive and the whole way through they engaged with us in the right way. We wanted to do the right thing and we needed to wait for the new directives. The most important priority is to save lives and mitigate the risk, and the time it has taken us has allowed us to prepare and put things in place at the clubs,” Hepburn said on Friday.

The CEO warned however that golfers could not just rush out on Saturday and expect everything to be back to normal; the golf industry, which contributes R48 billion to the South African economy, would take time to become a well-oiled machine again.

“The job is not yet done, this is not about celebrating. It’s a step in the right direction but there are still many people involved in golf who still can’t put food on their table. So I hope people continue to support clubs and I know our golfers and clubs will be responsible when it comes to the scanning and the monitoring process. Through the HealthDocs app we’ve bought for all clubs, information can be sent back to government at the push of a button.

“We need to control the numbers of golfers and the times they arrive and leave, but it’s time to get busy now with saving golf clubs through the safe return of golfers, which will generate the income for them to survive and save thousands of jobs, especially of those in the vulnerable sector, which makes up 85% of the industry. We know our clubs can comply and sport can help government because exercise is good at reducing comorbidities,” Hepburn said.