Ken Borland

It’s been three long years since the All Blacks lost to the Springboks – and 22 Tests since their previous defeat against anyone (v England at Twickenham on 1 December 2012) – but their coach Steve Hansen is not as concerned with maintaining the winning streak as he is with delivering a quality performance on Saturday at Ellis Park.

Of course, he is in the lovely position of not having to worry if they lose on Saturday, while Bok coach Heyneke Meyer will bear the full brunt of the public’s obsession with beating the number one side in the world for the first time in six attempts.

“For us, it’s not about the winning streak but about the quality of performance, that’s hugely important. Our heads need to be in the right place, our preparation is about getting that right, and then Saturday is fun time.

“But it’s no fun if you don’t play well. But we have a quite a bit of talent in this group and if we play as well as we can, then it will take a good team to beat us,” Hansen said on Thursday.

With some people, including former coach Graham Henry, warning that the All Blacks are setting themselves up for a fall at the World Cup, there have even been suggestions that defeat might be good for New Zealand. Hansen dismissed such notions.

“I’ve never concurred with people saying you need to lose to learn. It hurts to lose, so why do you want to go through that to learn? We learn when we review games that maybe we should have lost, but we won.

“People say sometimes you have to get burnt to learn, but you can tell a flame is hot, you don’t need to put your hand in it,” Hansen said.

The All Blacks coach said Saturday’s Test would be decided by the tight fives and injury has forced the visitors to go with relative rookies at loosehead prop and tighthead lock.

Wyatt Crockett withdrew from selection with bad cuts to the face and has been replaced by Crusaders prop Joe Moody, who comes to his first Test start with a junior commonwealth games bronze medal in wrestling to his name.

Jeremy Thrush will partner with Sam Whitelock in the second row after Brodie Retallick failed to recover from concussion.

The 26-year-old Moody seemed pretty relaxed and was even able to make a subtle dig at his opposite number, the vastly-experienced Jannie du Plessis.

“Jannie is a bit different to what we normally get in New Zealand, he attacks the hooker much more, while our tightheads normally scrum straighter. But we’ve done our homework and I’m sure the scrums will go well,” Moody said.

The All Blacks’ winning streak is about thorough preparation and supreme conditioning, but it’s also about the character of the players under pressure, as Hansen stressed.

“We’ve been able to keep our composure in really tight situations, but we’ve had a bit of luck as well. We practise the moment without pressure so we can do it under pressure. As a group, this team has shown it is mentally strong and has great composure,” Hansen said.

All Blacks team: 15-Israel Dagg, 14-Ben Smith, 13-Conrad Smith, 12-Malakai Fekitoa, 11-Julian Savea, 10-Beauden Barrett, 9-Aaron Smith, 8-Kieran Read, 7-Richie McCaw, 6-Jerome Kaino, 5-Samuel Whitelock, 4-Jeremy Thrush, 3-Owen Franks, 2-Keven Mealamu, 1-Joe Moody. Reserves – 16-Dane Coles, 17-Ben Franks, 18-Charlie Faumuina, 19-Steven Luatua, 20-Liam Messam, 21-Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22-Colin Slade, 23-Ryan Crotty.

Cell C Sharks coach Brad Macleod-Henderson said that the returns to fitness of young and old props Thomas du Toit and Matt Stevens was timely given the strength of the Golden Lions scrum that they will face in their Absa Currie Cup match at King’s Park on Friday.

The Lions have boasted the form scrum in the Currie Cup this season and that has prompted Macleod-Henderson to return Du Toit to the loosehead prop position and also choose an entire front-row on the bench, with England and British Lions international Stevens joining Dale Chadwick and either Monde Hadebe or Franco Marais amongst the replacements.

Hadebe has been bracketed with hooker Kyle Cooper, who needs to pass a fitness test on a knee injury, in the starting line-up.

“The Lions have a strong scrum, they’ve enjoyed great continuity from SuperRugby and they like to play an exciting brand of rugby and keep the ball in hand. We will need to sort our scrum out, defensively we will need to be strong and we’ll look for a few chinks in their armour that we’ll try to exploit.

“But the Lions have really set the Currie Cup alight since the first round, so we know we’ve got a huge challenge on our hands and we are looking forward to it,” Macleod-Henderson said on Wednesday.

The Sharks tight five has also been boosted by the return to the starting line-up of Springbok Stephan Lewies, relegating the promising JC Astle to the bench, while veteran flank Jacques Botes is also back for a match that will also be a tribute for the most-capped Currie Cup player ever on potentially his last game at King’s Park.

“I said earlier in the week that the word legend is maybe used too often these days, but Jacques is really a legend both on the field and off it. As a team man, I don’t think you’ll find better anywhere in the world. We’ll be going out to make sure he ends with a victory,” Macleod-Henderson said.

A new-look bench, split five-two between forwards and backs, also features the return of flyhalf Fred Zeilinga to the match-day squad, the 21-year-old being chosen ahead of Tim Swiel.

The release of wing Lwazi Mvovo from the Springboks means the Sharks will field the same backline that shone in beating the EP Kings 53-24 last weekend.

Victory for the third-placed Sharks, who trail the Lions by five points, is obviously crucial if the Durbanites are to have any chance of hosting a semi-final.

Sharks team: 15-SP Marais, 14-S’bura Sithole, 13-Paul Jordaan, 12-Andre Esterhuizen, 11-Lwazi Mvovo, 10-Lionel Cronje, 9-Cameron Wright, 8-Tera Mtembu, 7-Etienne Oosthuizen, 6-Jacques Botes, 5-Marco Wentzel, 4-Stephan Lewies, 3-Lourens Adriaanse, 2-Kyle Cooper/Monde Hadebe, 1-Thomas du Toit. Replacements – 16-Monde Hadebe/Franco Marais, 17-Dale Chadwick, 18-Matt Stevens, 19-JC Astle, 20-Khaya Majola, 21-Conrad Hoffmann, 22-Fred Zeilinga.

Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke on Sunday praised his team’s mental strength and belief after they rose from the canvas like a champion boxer and beat the Toyota Free State Cheetahs 31-22 in their crucial Absa Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein at the weekend.

The game was effectively a knockout fixture for the Bulls because defeat would have ended their chances of making the semi-finals, and their worst fears seem to have been realised when Free State flyhalf Willie du Plessis landed a drop goal in the 73^rd minute to give the home side a 22-21 lead.

But the Bulls then kept the ball for multiple phases, showing excellent ball-retention, and the relentless driving of their forwards and some good incursions by outside backs Sampie Mastriet and Ulrich Beyers set up a penalty for Jacques-Louis Potgieter.

The Bulls then had to defend their 24-22 lead with all their might as the Cheetahs battered away on attack, before replacement flank Wian Liebenberg charged down another attempted drop goal by Du Plessis, the ball rebounding for Mastriet to streak away for a try, Potgieter’s angled conversion denying the home side what could be a crucial bonus point.

“It’s the first time since 2008 that we’ve won in a Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein and that shows what a special effort that was. So I’m very happy, mentally to be able to come back after they had taken the lead was great. Normally when a home side does that at the end of a game, they hang on to win. But we had the belief and we worked the ball around well at the end and it was a huge defensive effort,” Ludeke told The Citizen on Sunday.

Ludeke singled out the finishing of wing Mastriet, who is certainly giving the Bulls plenty of spark on attack, for praise.

“Sampie was the difference between the two sides with his finishing. But there were a lot of other positives, we had control for a long time and our scrum was another highlight,” Ludeke said.

The Cheetahs were getting such a hiding in that set-piece that barely a scrum was completed without referee Marius van der Westhuizen penalising them.

When Mastriet scored his first try in the 23^rd minute, the Bulls had opened up a solid 11-3 lead, but their discipline then went awry, allowing Du Plessis to kick two penalties. Potgieter was yellow-carded just before half-time and lock Paul Willemse followed him on the hour mark, getting the Cheetahs strongly back into the game.

“Ja, discipline was a factor, they were able to maul from penalties and that got the Cheetahs back into the game. But discipline we can easily fix, sometimes the guys were just too keen to get turnovers. We just need to make better decisions, at the mauls too in terms of when to contest because if you miss in the air then you’re in a position of weakness to defend,” Ludeke said.

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Cricket took another major step towards properly integrating the game this weekend when the domestic season began with the new quota/target/requirement of at least two Black Africans per franchise … and the world did not end.

In fact, Temba Bavuma showed that he is one of the most promising batsmen in the country with a delightful innings at the Wanderers, handling the pace of Marchant de Lange with aplomb, Kagiso Rabada showed that he has a tremendous cricketing brain inside that athletic 19-year-old body, while Ethy Mbhalati and Tumi Masekela both bowled tidily, the latter for the Knights against the Warriors in Bloemfontein.

There was a predictable outcry when Cricket South Africa first announced this new “target” in mid-year, but 20 years of democracy has proven that some sectors of society are still recalcitrant when it comes to righting the wrongs of the past and trying to level the playing fields when it comes to opportunity, which is surely one of the basic premises of all sport.

Some people require a push in the right direction. But if the moral imperatives of fair play and equal opportunity aren’t incentive enough, then economic and sporting reality should be. Sports like cricket and rugby are still only tapping into a tiny proportion of the population, and therefore the talent in this country; by opening the doors of opportunity to more people, it stands to reason that our teams will become stronger.

While I am pleased that Black African cricketers will now have more opportunity at first-class level, therefore deepening the talent pool available to the Proteas, I was even more delighted with the news that Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has handed Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje a start in today’s Test against the Wallabies.

At least now maybe the storms of accusation that have been circulating on electronic and social media will end.

It is perfectly understandable that some people, after all the years of suffering under Apartheid, still have a chip on their shoulders, but as a nation we should be trying to discuss these issues with less emotion.

There are so many armchair, semi-knowledgeable coaches out there and yet they feel they know better than a highly-qualified and decorated coach like Meyer when it comes to rugby reasons for selection? Worst of all, Meyer was accused of racism.

This is patently ridiculous when you consider that it was Meyer who recognised the raw material in Mohoje and brought him into the Springbok squad after he had started just five SuperRugby matches, all of them at home.

That’s the sort of affirmative action I fully support, but the peanut gallery who then wanted Mohoje to be hurried into the Rugby Championship starting XV are likely to harm his future prospects rather than help them.

Sure, Juan Smith leapfrogged Mohoje and had a bad game against Argentina but who can blame a coach, with his job on the line, for backing the pedigree of an experienced player who had performed brilliantly in the Heineken Cup? And places on the bench generally don’t necessarily go to the next best player, but to the player who can bring the most value to the side in terms of impact and utility value.

And those people saying Mohoje has been treated differently to someone like Arno Botha should note that the Bulls loose forward played 22 SuperRugby matches before making his debut against Italy and Scotland, the same team the Cheetahs flank began his international career against.

Perhaps the days are not far off when South African rugby franchises, like their cricketing counterparts, will have to play a couple of Black Africans. Only then will Meyer not have to manipulate the system and try and fast-track players. Selection is a gamble at the best of times and political sensitivities make it an absolute minefield.