Ken Borland

Madosh Tambwe is enjoying a commanding United Rugby Championship campaign on the wing for the Bulls, but is set for a big payday in France with Bordeaux Begles reportedly making a large offer for his services, something the 24-year-old did not wish to comment on on Monday.

While the Kinshasa-born Tambwe is believed to not be eligible for the Springboks because he does not have a South African passport, his performances in the URC have certainly raised questions about whether he could one day play international rugby.

Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers, who played 15 of his 109 Tests on the wing, says the backing Bulls coach Jake White is giving Tambwe is paying off.

“Madosh is certainly playing well, but he’ll be coming up against the tougher teams now at full-strength. So if he can compete with them and put in good, consistent performances, we could see him stake a claim to step up to international level.

“He’s moved around quite a bit in his career, but we can see at the Bulls the impact a coach who believes in him is having. Madosh is a natural finisher, which is what you want in a wing.

“Look at Makazole Mapimpi: he has the ability to be in the right place and can score tries out of nothing, and I think Madosh could do the same.

“The way he handles the kicking game has been questioned in the past, but he has really improved there and his decision-making in defence has improved too,” De Villiers told The Citizen on Monday.

The 2007 World Cup winner said in order for Tambwe to force his way into a well-stocked Springbok back three, he needs to cut out the little mistakes that are amplified at Test level.

“At national level, you’re looking for a wing who can really limit his mistakes, that and finishing ability really make up the best wingers.

“Madosh just needs to bring his error-rate down a bit, things like losing the ball in contact or being tackled out into touch. But they are small things,” De Villiers said.

The Bulls are apparently willing to let Tambwe go early from his contract, with the compensation they will be paid by Bordeaux allowing the Pretoria franchise to target the signature of the Sharks’ World Cup winning wing Sbu Nkosi.

The Sharks have confirmed an offer from the Bulls is on the table, but “negotiations still have to happen”.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher was no doubt still feeling the sting of beating almighty England but still not advancing from their pool after just one defeat when he said “you can’t describe our campaign as successful” as they exited the T20 World Cup on Saturday.

South Africa beat previously unbeaten tournament favourites England by 10 runs in Sharjah, but failed to qualify for the semifinals because their nett run-rate – 0.739 – was lower than Australia’s (1.216), the only team to win against the Proteas. Having posted an impressive 189/2, South Africa needed to restrict England to less than 131 on Saturday night to make the final four.

“You can’t describe our campaign as successful because we were knocked out, but it’s a bitter pill to swallow because we beat the in-form side in white-ball cricket for the last few years, a very dangerous England side,” Boucher said.

“It’s a tough one. We were under pressure after we lost that first game to Australia and the equation today was very difficult for us to get through, even though we did the job today.

“That was a tight first game, but we just didn’t bat well enough. We lost the toss, it was the first game and we weren’t sure what would be a good total. We thought 160, but 130 would have done the job.

“Maybe we could have gone harder against Bangladesh, but the pitch was going all over the shop and we lost a couple of early wickets. It’s all ifs and buts and it’s no good starting with those now,” Boucher said.

But the Proteas, considering in what disarray they were in a year ago, have given plenty of reason to believe they are on the right track, especially with the next T20 World Cup coming up in less than a year’s time in Australia.

“The team knows they are on a journey, they are on an upward curve and this tournament will stand us in  good stead. We did really well in some highly pressurised games, we will take confidence from that and hopefully go from strength to strength.

“We are heading in the right direction and we have won a lot of games lately, even though we unfortunately did not pass the test at this World Cup. I’ve said all along that we are improving.

“It’s about results as well of course, but we have played some really good cricket for quite some time. The players have been upskilled and they are learning to play in different situations.

“We are not the finished product, but we are working hard to get back to where we should be in world cricket. It’s going to be an exciting next year and we just need to be patient and keep challenging the players,” Boucher said.

Quinton de Kock said on Thursday that he comes from a mixed-race family and has always believed Black lives matter, and he will now be taking a knee along with the rest of the Proteas team in the remainder of their T20 World Cup campaign in the United Arab Emirates.

De Kock’s turnaround came after he issued a statement strongly denying any racist intent in his refusal to take a knee before this week’s match against the West Indies, as directed by the CSA Board, and his subsequent withdrawal from the game. The wicketkeeper/batsman said he was deeply hurt by people calling him a racist.

The chairman of the CSA Board, Lawson Naidoo, and two other directors also met virtually with the Proteas on Wednesday night to engage with the players and clarify why they wanted a unified stance on Black Lives Matter from the squad and management. According to a CSA statement, De Kock then agreed to follow the directive and issued an apology for his actions on Thursday morning.

“For those who don’t know, I come from a mixed-race family. My half-sisters are Coloured and my step-mom is Black,” De Kock revealed in his statement. “For me, Black lives have mattered since I was born. Not just because there was an international movement.

“I was raised to understand that we all have rights, and they are important. I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told.

“We were previously told we had the choice to do what we felt we wanted to do. … I didn’t understand why I had to prove it with a gesture, when I live and learn and love people from all walks of life every day.

“When you are told what to do, with no discussion, I felt like it takes away the meaning. If I was racist, I could easily have taken the knee and lied, which is wrong and doesn’t build a better society,” De Kock said. 

The key batsman is therefore available for South Africa’s match against Sri Lanka on Saturday and the whole BLM saga, that has rumbled on for over a year, is hopefully now over.

De Kock’s initial defiance is also, however, a warning to the new CSA Board that reactionary leadership and issuing edicts from upon high without properly consulting the players is only going to cause further divisions.

Even CSA’s apology for the timing of its directive – on the morning of a key match – is mealy-mouthed, merely saying that they “regret … that the timing … may have been unsettling for the players”.

The one man who is emerging from this week’s crisis with credit, however, is Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma, who De Kock praised in his statement when he said “he is a flipping amazing leader”.

“We did not bat according to plan but we threw everything into it in the field,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said after South Africa began their T20 World Cup campaign in disappointing fashion with a five-wicket loss to Australia in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The comment about the batting is an understatement after the Proteas could only muster together 118 for nine in their 20 overs. As bad as their batting was, they certainly gave it their all with the ball and in the field as they made Australia sweat, the target only being chased down with two balls to spare.

Going into the last four overs, it even looked possible for South Africa to snatch victory at the death as Australia, having just lost two wickets in four balls, had two new batsmen at the crease, needing 36 runs off 24 balls to win.

But those batsmen were Marcus Stoinis (24* off 15) and Matthew Wade (15* off 10) and they fought hard to deny the Proteas with their unbroken stand of 40 off 29 balls.

“It was quite tough in the second half of the game knowing we only posted 118,” Bavuma said. “So I just asked the bowlers to stick with the plan and execute as well as they can, and for the fielders to throw everything into it.

“We wanted to try and build some pressure and I felt we did that. We spoke about being resilient and it was a great effort for the majority of the Australia innings.

“We did not bat according to plan and there’s a lot us batsmen need to improve. The bowlers did quite well, although at the end it was a bit frantic and maybe that’s something we can talk about.

“The fielding was good, barring one or two incidents. But we will obviously be looking to improve by a couple of percentage points in all departments,” Bavuma said.

If there has been one area of the game where South Africa have disappointed in recent times, it would be the batting, and they are relying on better starts from Quinton de Kock and Bavuma so the middle-order are able to come in and dominate.

The Proteas are now in a group with both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who although they had to qualify, are now in groove and playing in conditions that suit them. South Africa play the West Indies next in Dubai on Tuesday and they are going to need their batsmen to stand up quickly, because another defeat would probably mean the end of their challenge.

“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are two subcontinent teams playing in their own conditions, so that makes the group a lot tougher. We know now that every game we are going to have to bring our best cricket,” Bavuma admitted.