Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council might not yet quite be the beacons of good governance all lovers of the sport hope they become, but Wednesday night’s continuation of their AGM was an efficient 20-minute process in which they accepted Advocate Norman Arendse as an independent director and voted for all four members of the crucial Audit, Governance and Risk Committee to be independent directors as well.

The Members Council’s unanimous dissatisfaction with Arendse, a former president and lead independent director of CSA, was one of the flashpoints during the first sitting of the AGM at the weekend. The Nominations Committee agreed to reconsider but came back with the advocate as the best candidate.

Given that CSA’s new Memorandum of Incorporation makes it quite clear that the Nominations Committee have the final say, the Members Council wisely put up no resistance on Wednesday night.

The 63-year-old Arendse has been a controversial figure, attracting criticism for his continued interference in the selection of the national team and a brusque manner that has been described as bullying, and is not held in any particular fondness by the players.

With memories still fresh of how CSA’s previous Audit and Risk Committee failed so dismally to deal with the malfeasance and impropriety laid bare in the Fundudzi Report, it was pleasing to see the Members Council ensure this crucial body will be totally independent.

Seasoned governance and procurement expert Dr Lawson Naidoo will chair the committee, with Steven Budlender SC, a silk who has made his name in public interest litigation, Simo Lushaba, a leading figure from the Institute of Directors and governance expert who has sat on and chaired numerous boards,  and Mark Rayner, the former CEO of MultiChoice, the other members.

Benetton Treviso, the Bulls’ opponents in the Rainbow Cup final on Saturday, may have gone through the European leg of the competition unbeaten, but it is obvious they are a dark-horse club which is an unknown quantity for most South African rugby fans.

The vagaries of the European competition format and the resting of the big guns by clubs like Leinster, Munster and Ulster obviously helped Benetton, who failed to win a game in the preceding season of the Pro14 competition.

They are under the coaching of New Zealander Kieran Crowley, and it is his last game in charge before he becomes head coach of the Italian national side, replacing South African Franco Smith, who is moving to the position of head of high performance. The Benetton players will obviously be keen to send him off on a winning note.

Smith himself played for Benetton, and there is a history of South African involvement at the club. Fellow Springbok Marco Wentzel also pulled on the green jersey of Treviso, as did lock Corniel van Zyl. Michael Lynagh and John Kirwan are the two most famous former players of the 89-year-old club.

Former Stormers and SA A scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage is the current captain of Benetton, who also boast a pair of former Bulls locks in Irne Herbst and Eli Snyman, a former Bulls hooker in Corniel Els and Cradock-born loose forward Braam Steyn, who has played 44 times for Italy.

Second-choice flyhalf Tommaso Allan is the nephew of former Sharks and Springbok hooker John Allan.

In terms of style of play, Benetton are fond of scrummaging and using their physical defence to force turnovers, from which they are quick to counter-attack. They also have a reliable goalkicker in first-choice flyhalf Paolo Garbisi.

So they play a style of rugby that the Bulls themselves favour, although most people are expecting the visitors to be more proficient at it than their Italian hosts. But Benetton did push Montpellier, who went on to win the competition, all the way in their European Challenge Cup quarterfinal in April, losing by just six points.

Benetton will also have a crowd of 1000 spurring them on in the Stadio Monigo, which was chosen as the venue for the final before they qualified, but just happens to be their home stadium.

The much-vaunted Bulls pack was a bit of a sleeper in the first half of their decisive Rainbow Cup match against the Sharks at Kings Park at the weekend, but a thoroughly dominant third quarter laid the platform for a comfortable 34-22 win and Jake White said although it is the nature of coaching to always be critical of something, he was satisfied that their mission in Durban was accomplished.

With both sides scoring a try apiece in the first half, the Bulls held a narrow 13-10 lead at the break, but they had notched their crucial fourth, bonus point try by the hour mark. That assured them of their place in the Rainbow Cup final against Benetton in Treviso this weekend. The final quarter saw the Sharks fight back as the Bulls were given two yellow cards.

“I was very happy with our defence with 13 men because the Sharks have some really good attacking players, but I would have preferred to have 15 men finish the game. But our experience told at the end and it’s a difficult one to manage once we scored our fourth try because you want to protect players and give those on the bench a run, but it’s a balancing act because you don’t want to get caught out and you are also on the cusp of getting some momentum for the final.

“But we got what we wanted out of the game and the message the whole time to the players was to go for the win and play the way we always play. If it took until the 79^th minute, we had to believe that the fourth try would come, and we had to back our intensity and keeping the ball in play. I’m very happy we showed we can handle the pressure,” White said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said his team did not have any right to make excuses for their defeat.

“We put ourselves in position to get the four tries we needed, we had six entries into the Bulls’ 22 in the first half alone, but we only converted one of them so we can’t make any excuses. We just weren’t able to convert, losing the ball over the line, and then things unravelled in the second half with soft penalties. There was ill-discipline at times too, which the players must take responsibility for.

“We need to cut down on our error-rate. We wanted to get the ball into the wider channels, get it through the hands, like in Aphelele Fassi’s good runs and the Siya Kolisi try. Unfortunately at times we just could not get the ball there when we had the opportunity to do that, which comes down to decision-making and sticking to the plan, not holding on to the ball instead of moving it,” Everitt said.

Kagiso Rabada endured a 39-month break between five-wicket hauls before taking five for 34 on Saturday to wrap up an innings win for the Proteas in the first Test against the West Indies, but the fast bowler said even though he was relieved to end that dry spell, the failure to notch the statistical landmark was not frustrating for him.

“Cricket is a game where you’re measured by the highest accolades like scoring hundreds or taking five and 10-fors, so you always strive to do that, but it’s not like you’re looking for that or desperate for it because sometimes you can bowl really well and not get any wickets. It’s an old cliché but they do tend to repeat themselves.

“Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do the five-for thing for the last couple of years but I knew I just had to be consistent in my preparation. But I am quite relieved to get it, it’s like scoring a hundred, who wouldn’t be happy? I was really glad with my performance, but without the support of my team-mates this wouldn’t have happened.

“With Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje bowling exceptionally well and the batsmen coming to the party and putting runs on the board, this makes it easier for me. I just try and control what I can control and the cricketing gods were smiling at me today,” Rabada said after his 10^th five-wicket haul in just 46 Tests.

He is the seventh South African to join that club and he said the Proteas, by returning to basics and playing as a team, were ruthless as they battered the West Indies into submission.

“This game can be unforgiving but we have just tried to be consistent in our preparation and we’ve established how we want to play. And we stick to that. And if you do that then luck tends to be on your side more often than not. In previous games we were probably lacking in important periods, we let the game slip away. We would be good in patches and at other times quite sloppy.

“We’ve identified the moments in the past when we slackened off and in this Test we kept our foot on the throttle. We are a young team, we are rebuilding, and we will take a lot of confidence from this performance. We must keep building on what we have established in this Test and we will stick to our processes and not take anything for granted,” Rabada said.