Ken Borland

South Africa are hosting the FIH Hockey Pro League in Potchefstroom over the next fortnight with high hopes of being competitive, but the multitude of unforced errors they made caused a most adverse outcome in their opening match against the Netherlands on Tuesday night as they were hammered 11-1.

The Netherlands scored first, in the seventh minute, through a penalty stroke by Tim Swaen after an early defensive mistake by the hosts.

And the third-ranked Dutch side stamped their dominance on the game from the second quarter as they went into halftime 4-1 up.

The floodgates really opened in the final quarter as the Netherlands more than doubled a 5-1 lead, scoring four goals in the first six minutes.

South Africa, ranked 14^th in the world, equalised at 1-1 in the 20^th minute through Bili Ntuli’s excellent deflection of a reverse-sticks cross from Mustapha Cassiem, but they didn’t have a prayer thereafter.

Their main failing was their inability to hold on to the ball, basic mistakes gifting possession to the Dutch, and there was also some naïve defending.

Jip Janssen, with two set-piece goals, Swaen, Thierry Brinkman and Thijs van Dam, with two goals apiece, were South Africa’s chief tormentors.

“We played badly against a good team,” South Africa coach Garreth Ewing summed up succinctly. “We lost our shape completely in the last 30 minutes. But hopefully we have all learnt a lot.

“There’s a lot to take on board. This was a reminder of where we are in world hockey. We will have to come out with the right attitude tomorrow night against India.”

India beat France 5-0 in Tuesday’s other game.

As they prepare to face the Sharks in a vital United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, the Bulls’ focus seems to not be so much on the way they play but the speed with which they execute their plans.

Sluggish would be one of the words to describe their grinding 21-13 win over the Lions last weekend, and it is clear coach Jake White has instructed his team to lift their intensity and therefore their pace of play when they take on the Sharks.

“We will take some confidence from the Lions game, but it is clear we still have a lot to learn,” scrumhalf Embrose Papier said. “It was a very slow game and we need to work on our breakdown.

“It’s going to be a tough game and a big physical battle against the Sharks because they are a really good side with a lot of Springboks. But as scrumhalves we have to be really fast. Our forwards do too, they need to set quickly because the Sharks scrumhalves like to snipe as well.

“We have taken quite a few positives out of the Lions game but there’s also been a lot to work on. It was a slow game, but when teams come up to Loftus and the altitude here, we must lift the tempo so we make it hard, especially for teams from the coast,” Papier said.

Apart from injecting more speed into his service from the breakdown, Papier has also been putting plenty of work into his kicking game with consultant Fourie du Preez, the great former Springbok scrumhalf.

“I just played running rugby at Garsfontein school and at U19s and U21s, but I made lots of mistakes and that’s why coaches devise plans. So I play more in the system now and I can still do my own thing in the system.

“I’ve been trying different styles of box-kicks and I now feel comfortable with the way I’m kicking. I need to do the basics right and stay in the system, get the balance right between passing and kicking.

“Fourie is a legend with lots of experience and I am learning a lot with him. We work a lot on passing, kicking and running lines. Fourie was one of the best ever at those and he also had a big work-rate,” Papier said.

The Bulls produced a performance full of senseless mistakes but played enough decent rugby to just see off the Lions 21-13 in their United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The home side endured a torrid first quarter, especially in the scrums where Lions tighthead Carlu Sadie was a massive figure both figuratively and literally. And the Bulls kept being forced to scrum because they made a number of handling errors – half-a-dozen in the first 15 minutes alone.

Considering their messy start, the Bulls were fortunate to be only 6-0 down after the first quarter, Lions flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel slotting two penalties.

While the Bulls were full of ambition in terms of playing ball-in-hand, expansive rugby and getting into the wide channels, they did it in rather frantic fashion and it was only once they started to keep the ball a bit tighter in the initial phases, earning the right to go wide, that they started to gain momentum in the game.

Keeping the ball tight among the forwards brought the first try when flank Marcell Coetzee forced his way over after a pick-and-go from a penalty under the poles.

And the Lions suffered a key blow just a minute before halftime when Sadie went head-first into a tackle, conceding a relieving penalty. The Bulls used a blindside move at the lineout, drawing another penalty, for offsides, and then their rolling maul went over for an important try, scored by hooker Johan Grobbelaar, to give them a 14-6 lead at the break.

There was little respite available for the Bulls in the second half though, as the admirable Lions pack continued to give their all. The Bulls continued to struggle in the scrums, even though referee Aimee Barrett-Theron gave them a couple of fortunate penalties, and the home side were just lucky that the Lions’ execution was poor, especially at lineout time.

It was typically scrappy derby rugby, brightened only by fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try in the 49^th minute. It was a turnover penalty won by Coetzee that led to concerted pressure by the Bulls, centre Lionel Mapoe’s slick pass giving Arendse the space to drift outside his man in wonderful fashion and dart over for the try.

The Lions eventually gained some reward for their dominant scrum in the final quarter, allowing them to set a lineout maul inside the Bulls’ 22, from which lock Ruben Schoeman scored to cut the gap to 13-21.

But the Lions failed to hang on to possession long enough in the remaining eight minutes to put the Bulls under further pressure.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Marcell Coetzee, Johan Grobbelaar, Kurt-Lee Arendse. Conversions: Morne Steyn (3).

Lions – Try: Ruben Schoeman. Conversion: Tiaan Swanepoel. Penalties: Swanepoel (2).

Wallabies centre Ben Tapuai might not be part of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match against the Stormers, but he this week provided the most apt description of the threat they will pose to the Sharks in Cape Town when he described their backline stars as almost having mutant powers.

Tapuai received a knock on his knee in training this week and so is not part of the Sharks squad going to Cape Town, but he had a first-hand view of just how dangerous the Stormers backline are in the 22-22 draw at Kings Park last weekend. The visitors made up a 19-3 deficit with half-an-hour to go thanks partly to some dazzling play by their backs, spearheaded by Warrick Gelant, Seabelo Senatla and Damian Willemse.

“The Stormers have some absolute freaks when it comes to stepping, so we have got to be very careful in that space,” Tapuai said.

“We delivered a good performance in the first 50 minutes of the match, but then you need to close out the game in the last 30. The Stormers will go up another level at home, so we have to match that.”

It is a warning that Sharks coach Sean Everitt reiterated later in the week, especially since the conditions in Cape Town are likely to be more conducive to running rugby.

“We have to play according to the conditions we are dealt, but the weather in Durban is pretty extreme at the moment with the humidity,” Everitt said. “Cape Town should be dry this time of year.

“So hopefully we are able to play differently and hold on to the ball for longer periods. But the Stormers backs are certainly full of x-factor.”

The Sharks will know they had plenty of opportunities to beat the Stormers last time out, but those chances and their hopes of a win were flushed down the sewer by poor execution and ill-discipline.

“It was disappointing how we drew the game, but the positive is that we had a lot of opportunities but we just didn’t execute,” Tapuai said. “So we’re kind of excited by that.

“We’re still learning and our combinations will click over time. There are miles of growth ahead of us because I can see a lot of youth in the squad and I’ve lost count how many Springboks there are.”

Getting those combinations to gel is helped by continuity in selection, and Everitt has brought almost the same squad down to Cape Town.

“It’s great to be able to build momentum through consistency of selection,” Everitt said. “It takes time to get that cohesion and the players have had limited time together on the field.

“Rugby is a game of cohesion, the more you play together, the better you get.”