Ken Borland

Connacht may be the lowest-ranked of the Irish sides, in 10^th place in the United Rugby Championship, but Sharks captain Thomas du Toit is wary of them ahead of their match on Saturday at Kings Park because he views them as a threatening package that combines strong forwards with an attack that can do the unexpected.

The Sharks currently have 51 log points, the same as Munster and Ulster, one point behind the second-placed Stormers and 10 adrift of Leinster.

Connacht’s own playoff aspirations may be gone as they are 12 points off the pace with only two matches to play, but they showed last weekend in beating the Lions at altitude at Ellis Park that they have great determination, they never stop being competitive and they displayed composure under pressure. Being only the second northern hemisphere team to win in Johannesburg is a decent honour to have on their URC CV.

“The other Irish teams – Munster, Ulster and Leinster – all employ similar tactics to each other in attack and defence and they are more structured than Connacht,” Du Toit said on Tuesday.

“But Connacht are one of the most physical sides in the competition, and yet they also play with more freedom. But at the same time they are very well prepared and trained.

“We’re trying to stay in our structure a bit more and the top eight is not out aim, ensuring a home quarterfinal is our aim. That’s a massive focus for us and every game now is like a final.

“You cannot underestimate the value of being at home in the playoffs, and now that we’ve sussed out the competition, we are doing what South African teams do best,” Du Toit said.

On a personal level, the Springbok prop is unfazed about taking over the captaincy with Lukhanyo Am in Japan and Siya Kolisi left to concentrate on his own game.

“My title just changed – I used to just be tighthead prop but now it’s with a little ‘c’ next to it. I talk a lot more now in our meetings, but it hasn’t changed a lot on the field.

“A team like this has so many talented, young but experienced leaders. We enjoy playing a lot of rugby and trying different things,” Du Toit said.

The satisfaction of completing a successful summer with a 2-0 series win over Bangladesh was writ large on Dean Elgar’s face on Monday, but the South African captain knows that soon he will have to get busy analysing their Test campaigns and getting a handle on where they can improve for the bigger challenges that lie ahead later this year.

It does not get more convincing than their 332-run win over Bangladesh on Monday, their biggest ever at St George’s Park, but stiffer opposition lies ahead with tours to England and Australia later this year.

“Not a lot of people would have given us a chance of winning five out of seven Tests this summer and it’s great to have those numbers on our side,” Elgar said after Keshav Maharaj’s 7/40 had bowled the Proteas to victory.

“It’s been an extremely successful summer with a lot to build on, but my job is also to dissect our performances and get the negatives out.”

Elgar’s first and foremost concern was the batting and their failure to get more hundreds.

“From a batting point of view, we need to notch up more hundreds. Us senior guys are getting into position and we need to reach those three figures because we know how much pressure that then puts on the opposition.

“We haven’t quite nailed down the batting, and that’s on my own plate as well, so that’s the one main negative. But we’re extremely aware of it, we’re working bloody hard to fix it, maybe even trying too hard,” Elgar said.

The 34-year-old Elgar has been a hit as captain, introducing a hard-nosed, unrelenting style of cricket to the Proteas Test team. It has been a modus operandi that has resonated with the players and is a good fit with traditional South African values like determination and ruthlessness.

“I’ve been trying to install a way of playing that the team can buy into and we’ve come on leaps and bounds. As a captain, I’m now more experienced and I’ve been able to put my own leadership stamp on the group.

“I’ve gained confidence as I’ve been in the job and hopefully we have a style of play nailed down now that we can all follow. I know the players buy into it.

“I think the team is in a very special place, which means I’m a lot happier with what I’m doing as captain. Getting results and playing good, strong cricket definitely eases the burden of captaincy.

“I’m very grateful for the cricket we’ve played this summer and it’s been great to be competitive at this level,” Elgar said.

I don’t know whether Proteas captain Dean Elgar was boarding or not when he went to St Dominic’s College in Welkom in the early 2000s, but much of his language in the week building up to the second Test against Bangladesh was straight out of the manual of boarding school lingo.

To my horror as I wishfully think of myself as still being young, Elgar was born in 1987, the same year that I matriculated from boarding school.

But to hear phrases like “harden up”, “man up” and “dry your eyes” certainly took me back to my education, both at school and university.

Now I know Elgar’s statement that Test cricket is a man’s game has raised some eyebrows for bordering on sexism, but, as ever, it is important to consider the context and intent of such a declaration. What is far more sexist to me is that the world’s best women cricketers hardly ever play any Test cricket at all these days, which is why such a legend as Mignon du Preez retired this week having played just one Test in her 15-year career.

I also believe Bangladesh have deserved such criticism.

They won the toss at Kingsmead in the first Test, but were too scared to give their batsmen first use of the facilities. This was basically admitted by coach Russell Domingo – who it later emerged had urged them to bat first – when he used words like “uncertainty”, “lack of confidence”,  and “not able to front up” to explain the decision at the toss.

While the inconsistency of the Proteas team suggests they could do with the services of a sports psychologist on the staff, Bangladesh, it seems, should hire a mental toughness coach.

They matched South Africa blow-for-blow for most of the Test match, following on the steel and intent they showed in the ODI series, only to then fold completely in the last two sessions.

I would suggest their problems started when they began to blame the umpires, and judging by the reports coming out of Bangladesh media, some of the team went so far as to accuse Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock of being biased in favour of the Proteas.

Covid has forced the ICC into dispensing with neutral umpires – although it probably is time to reinstate them – and for an umpire of Erasmus’s quality (he is also the reigning ICC Umpire of the Year award-winner), he did not have the best of matches. Holdstock, who has proven he is a quality umpire as well, also made a few mistakes.

But to accuse them of bias was ridiculous, particularly since of the eight decisions overturned on review, four of them were against South Africa.

The Proteas certainly don’t have a reputation for being silent on the field, and we’ve got a real chatterbox in Sarel Erwee, although his talk is more a stream-of-consciousness jumble designed to distract rather than a concerted plan to annoy.

But for Bangladesh to allege that South Africa’s sledging was “unbearable” or “deplorable” does not fit with the reality of what was seen at Kingsmead, either at the ground or for those watching and listening on TV.

The only memorable flashpoint of the Test was when Ebadot Hossain had a go at Elgar, and even that was within the bounds of normal fast bowler grumpiness.

Without detracting from the way Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer weaved their magic in the second innings, it was clear Bangladesh had lost focus and had become distracted by their perceived grievances at the umpires and opposition.

There is a reason teams talk about focusing on the controllables (like your own performance) and not the uncontrollable (what other people are doing or the conditions). Bangladesh’s focus was on matters they could not control and it led to a batting display that rapidly spiralled into ignominy.

There is another phrase from my boarding school days that could be used to describe the tourists in the first Test – sore losers.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar said on Thursday that “If we want success then we need consistency in selection” as he indicated that much the same South Africa team will take the field at St George’s Park on Friday for the second Test against Bangladesh.

For the first time since 1970, South Africa played two frontline spinners in a home Test during last week’s thumping win over Bangladesh in the first Test in Durban, and Elgar said he expected conditions to be similar. So Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer look set to both play again and even struggling all-rounder Wiaan Mulder remains in contention for the starting XI.

“If we want success we need consistency in selection and it’s normally a similar sort of pitch here as it is at Kingsmead,” Elgar said. “So I don’t think there will be many changes.

“I like the adaptability of our attack and I would love to have used Wiaan more. But when we saw the conditions, we decided to keep the pressure on with our world-class spinners.

“It might be different here in PE, especially if the ball swings, and then we’re more likely to use Wiaan to showcase his skills. The wind is a massive factor and it hasn’t stopped blowing since we got here.

“If it comes over the scoreboard then the locals call it the ‘Swing Wind’. But the players need to adapt to whatever circumstances come their way and the seamers might have a lot more work in this Test,” Elgar said.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, have apparently lodged a formal complaint with the ICC over the Proteas’ alleged sledging during the first Test, which they say was ignored by the South African umpires.

Elgar, in typically hard-nosed fashion, said the tourists have to harden up to the realities of Test cricket.

“It’s not justified what they said towards the South African side. We do play hard, but we were just giving back what we got. And there was certainly no swearing, we do everything with dignity.

“They need to harden up and play at the Test level of intensity. It’s Test cricket and they must dry their eyes. There’s a lot that’s not seen, there are off-camera incidents as well.

“But we would not intentionally intimidate a young player with language, but with skill. When I started Test cricket, the environment was much harsher than it is now.

“We still want to win though, so if some mind-games can help you with that then why not use them? Maybe Bangladesh got caught up in the moment a bit … ” Elgar said.