Ken Borland

The Springboks have no idea when or where their next Rugby Championship appointment will be, but coach Jacques Nienaber said he was “unbelievably proud” of his team for getting over what he described as a “massive” hurdle when they beat Argentina 29-10 in their second Rugby Championship Test at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday evening.

For now, the Southern Hemisphere tournament is in limbo following New Zealand’s unilateral decision to not travel to Australia next week or host South Africa in their matches scheduled for September 25 and October 2. As accustomed to uncertainty the Springboks have had to become in these Covid times, Nienaber hinted that the shock developments on the eve of Saturday’s Test could well have rattled his team.

“I’m unbelievably proud of the squad because this was a massive Test for us, not far off the World Cup final, winning the Rugby Championship in Salta or the last Test against the Lions. I was actually very nervous about this game, we put lots of pressure on ourselves and the guys challenged themselves massively. Our focus had to be on this game and not if we’re going to stay in South Africa or travel to the UK or Brisbane or wherever.

“The players deserve all the credit, they are the ones who sacrifice their bodies for the country at the end of the day. I’m delighted for them. The game-management was excellent for the first three-quarters of the game, but we weren’t perfect because there were opportunities created that we did not finish. But you need to look at that from the perspective that we were up against a very desperate Argentina side,” Nienaber said after the win.

Despite their dominance, the Springboks only scored two tries, flyhalf Handre Pollard giving a polished goalkicking display as he added the other 19 points. Nienaber pointed to his team’s heavy schedule recently and the disruption caused by replacement scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse’s injury, which forced South Africa into playing the last eight minutes with only 14 men as wing Cheslin Kolbe had to shift to halfback, as mitigating factors.

“We’ve had to play six Tests on the trot, which you seldom have to do and doing that at this intensity takes its toll. We would have loved the bonus point and we went all out for it. But we also had to make changes because we need some guys to get more experience. We did that, we had to rotate and guys like Jaden Hendrikse, Damian Willemse and Kwagga Smith came on early.

“We were going full on at the end for the try that would have given us a bonus point and we said to them they should take chances, so I am not disappointed with the try we conceded in the last minute. It was absolutely worth it and it’s fantastic that we were in the position that we could go for it. But there were lots of things we also didn’t get right on our side,” Nienaber said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be a restless sleeper this week as he considers the high penalty count recently against his team as they head for their last two round-robin fixtures of the Currie Cup.

The Sharks are currently second on the Currie Cup log, four points behind the Bulls, and they close their regular season by visiting the Lions on Saturday and then hosting Western Province on August 28.

But the Sharks had a double-figure penalty count against them in the first half of their match against the Bulls and were similarly ill-disciplined at the weekend against the Free State Cheetahs. Even though the Cheetahs had suffered a red card early in the second half, they stayed in the game thanks to the Sharks’ lack of focus and the KwaZulu-Natalians finished the 38-31 win with 13 men thanks to two yellow cards in the closing minutes.

“We’re very happy with the five points against the Cheetahs, but there are two work-ons we have to get right before playing the Lions in Johannesburg. The first is our set-pieces and the second is the number of penalties we are conceding. Those are due to individual errors and not system faults. Up to the Bulls game we had conceded the least penalties in the competition.

“After the last two games we are probably sitting top of that list now. We can’t defend for the majority of a game due to discipline issues, we need to take the pressure off ourselves if we are going to play free-flowing rugby. We need to rectify the number of penalties we’re conceding because we won’t have enough possession if we keep giving away penalties,’ Everitt said.

Nevertheless, the Sharks did score six tries against the Cheetahs, exciting wing Thaakir Abrahams scoring twice, and some of their attacking play would have been enough to make the coach purr with delight.

“Thaakir is always a threat with ball in hand, he poses big problems for the opposition. It was unfortunate that we had an injury in the warm-up and Marnus Potgieter [hamstring] was not able to take the field, but we were very fortunate to be able to bring in someone like Yaw Penxe, who has been with the Springboks.

“It was Le Roux Roets’ third game in a row so he’s getting that consistency now and he was massive in his ball-carries and setting the maul, while it was also good to see Cameron Wright back on the field and Boeta Chamberlain get a start. Dylan Richardson is blessed with an engine that can just go and go, he had a big impact defensively and with his ball-carries,” Everitt said.

It is often said that rugby teams don’t care how they win, but knowing coach Sean Everitt’s philosophy, the Sharks will be disappointed in their performance even though they beat the Free State Cheetahs 38-31 in their Currie Cup match at Kings Park on Sunday.

The Sharks produced a messy first-half showing but still managed to go into the break 19-18 up. They then received what should have been an enormous boost when Cheetahs flank Jacques Potgieter was red-carded for a shoulder to the head of hooker Dylan Richardson in a rash tackle.

But they just could not stamp their mark on their game due mostly to their own dreadful ill-discipline, but also a failure to do the hard yards first before trying to play fancy rugby. They also lost the territory battle and tried to do too much in their own half.

And so, when the final 10 minutes arrived, the Sharks only had a 38-26 lead when disaster struck them and flank Henco Venter and lock Emile van Heerden were both yellow-carded in the space of a minute as the Cheetahs piled on the pressure and referee Stuart Berry tired of repeated infringements.

The short-handed defence did their best but eventually cracked in the 79^th minute when Robert Ebersohn, back in Free State colours for the first time in eight years, went over for a try in the corner. Replacement flyhalf Reinhardt Fortuin missed the tricky conversion and substitute flank James Venter then won the crucial turnover in injury time to ensure the Sharks finished in front.

The Sharks had moved into a 26-18 lead straight after Potgieter’s red card as centres Marius Louw and Jeremy Ward broke through in midfield, with scrumhalf Cameron Wright on hand to round off the try, and then went 33-21 up when hooker Kerron van Vuuren went over for the second time in a lineout drive.

Another moment of ill-discipline – this time a tip-tackle by replacement lock Jeandre Labuschagne straight after he came on the field – led to a try for Cheetahs substitute prop Cameron Dawson, but the Sharks struck back when Louw’s excellent kick into the Cheetahs’ in-goal area was chased down by wing Thaakir Abrahams.

They then spent most of the rest of the match clinging on by their fingertips in their own half.

The Cheetahs have conceded plenty of points in recent weeks and, having dominated the first half, two moments of poor defence cost them two tries and the lead. The first came in the 12^th minute when they left a big gap next to a maul and Wright was able to burst clear before passing a long pass out wide to Abrahams, who showed his searing pace to score.

Then, on the half-hour, Henco Venter was able to pick up at the base of a scrum and make it almost to the tryline without being challenged, then crashing through two tackles to score.

The Sharks will find themselves up against much tougher and more clinical opposition as the Currie Cup heads to a finish in the coming weeks and will have to regain their focus.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Thaakir Abrahams (2), Kerron van Vuuren (2), Henco Venter, Cameron Wright. Conversions: Boeta Chamberlain (3), Lionel Cronje.

Free State Cheetahs – Tries: Evardi Boshoff, Craig Barry, Cameron Dawson, Robert Ebersohn. Conversion: Brandon Thomson. Penalties: Thomson (3).

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber would have been delighted that his gamble in selection in bringing in several fresh faces and bodies for the opening Rugby Championship Test against Argentina paid off as his team dominated the contact areas en route to a comfortable 32-12 victory.

A new front row, centre pairing and back three was chosen for a crucial Test against difficult, physical opposition just a week after the gruelling series against the British and Irish Lions, and the energy they brought paid off as the Springboks made 21 less carries than Argentina but made 112 more metres with ball-in-hand. And the Pumas are generally considered to be one of the foremost teams when it comes to carrying the ball up.

“We made a few changes because of player welfare and the new guys coming in were nice and fresh. The guys who played last Saturday against the Lions are still a bit sore, but the new guys were climbing in today and we got a lot of energy from them. It’s only the second Test Argentina have lost since the World Cup and they’ve played New Zealand, Australia and Wales all twice.

“Our analysis and game-plan was spot-on though and the players really followed through. But we are only one-third of the way through our season and we have to box smart in terms of how we keep the players fresh. I compliment Daan Human on the new front row really taking their chance, he has an unbelievable vibe going in terms of competition between the front rowers,” Nienaber said on Saturday night.

It looked as if the Springboks would rue going to sleep a bit in the second half and not turning their dominance into more tries, and Nienaber admitted afterwards that he had forgotten that in the Rugby Championship the bonus point is awarded for scoring three more tries than the opposition and scoring four tries is not necessary.

The Springboks may have binned their marvellous display against the British and Irish Lions and are focused on defending their Rugby Championship title, but the mental challenge of getting up again after climbing such a high mountain in their last two games was also going to be a major factor against Argentina.

“We did really well because Argentina are a difficult team to play against. We had to try and keep our emotional intensity after the Lions series and that challenged us. We had to pull through somehow this week and I think it was a really excellent effort by the players,” Nienaber said.

The coach said the experience of players like Frans Steyn, who shored up the inside centre channel very effectively, Jesse Kriel and Elton Jantjies had also been a big factor in the Springboks being able to celebrate another victory.

“A lot went into this week after we had a couple of beers after winning the Lions series, and there was awesome work put in by the players. The guys were clued up and tuned in straight away and guys like Frans, Jesse and Elton brought nice stability. We needed some maturity out there and they brought a lot of calmness and composure,” Nienaber said.