Ken Borland

The domestic cricket season starts on Friday in Kimberley and the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout Competition should highlight some of the exciting young batting talent coming through, starting with the Western Province duo of Johnny Bird and Tony de Zorzi and the Central Gauteng Lions trio of Josh Richards, Mitchell van Buuren and Shane Dadswell.

The Lions and Western Province are the two First Division sides in the pool so they will be the favourites to advance, but hosts Northern Cape, who have a couple of thrilling strikers of their own in Beyers Swanepoel and Evan Jones, and South-Western Districts, led by Jean du Plessis and Hanno Kotze, should not be discounted.

The 23-year-old Dadswell, who is something of a Pukke legend for his big-hitting exploits for them, has joined the Wanderers fold along with two other young North-West products in Ruan Haasbroek and Louren Steenkamp. The Lions are coached by Wandile Gwavu, who steered the franchise team to last season’s T20 title in February and, even though only two players return from that final, he will not want to bend the knee to anybody this early in the season.

Ryan Rickelton is one of the returnees and he has been named as Central Gauteng’s captain for the T20 competition, being joined by Sisanda Magala, who will be the Lions’ key bowler.

Whereas the Lions franchise used to slowly strangle teams in T20 cricket with their brilliant spin duo of Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso, that option is not available to Gwavu now and he will be looking to pace to blow opposition batsmen away. Magala has Lutho Sipamla to share the new ball with and the likes of left-arm quick Carmi le Toux, Tladi Bokako and Aya Myoli are in the squad for Kimberley.

Former Knights offie Tshepo Ntuli, who was born and raised in Kimberley, is the chief spinner in the squad and Gwavu could be looking to the likes of Haasbroek and Dadswell for some part-time overs.

The Lions and Western Province meet in the season opener on Friday, followed by Northern Cape versus South-Western Districts. The Pool A games conclude on Sunday with the top two teams going through to the quarterfinals.

Being 1-0 down in a three-Test series, the Springboks know what they have to do in the coming week: they simply have to find a way to win the second Test against the British and Irish Lions next Saturday and coach Jacques Nienaber believes they are still capable of doing this.

“The series is definitely salvageable next weekend, we have to, there’s no other choice. The things that have been highlighted are definitely things we can sort out – our mauls, our kicking game and the aerial contest. We also need to step up at the breakdown and we had a big discussion about our discipline, it was sad that that was highlighted at halftime and then it wasn’t great in the second half,” Nienaber said.

Scrumhalf Faf de Klerk echoed his coach’s determination that the Springboks have the capacity to win the second Test, also in Cape Town, and level the series.

“It’s not ideal losing the first Test but there are still two to go and I’m sure we can pull it back. There are a lot of things to get right, but a few of the guys had not played rugby for a bit. In the first half we played really well, we got a lot of balls back from our kicking game, we were getting good outcomes. But in the second half the Lions got the loose balls in the aerial contest.

“The Lions are a quality side and the other challenge was that the guys that came off the bench for them are as good if not better that the players they replaced. Our discipline just slipped in the second half and if we could replay the first five minutes after halftime then the match would probably have had a different outcome. But we are a proud team and we will definitely make sure we rectify our mistakes,” De Klerk said.

Another area South Africa need to look at is their bench, which had surprisingly little impact, even though Nienaber denied they had adulterated the Springbok effort, saying he was “not disappointed in them”.

The starting front row of Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane and Bongi Mbonambi had had an excellent first half, but they were replaced en masse at the start of the second half, which turned out to be a big mistake. Nche did express some surprise that he had been taken off, particularly since he had been standing up very well to highly-rated tighthead Tadhg Furlong in the scrums.

“I didn’t think the Bomb Squad would come on that early. We practise for a full game, that’s our fitness levels. But whatever the coaches feel is right is what we go with. I did my homework on Furlong because I knew how highly-rated he is. So I knew how he scrummed, I was prepared,” Nche said.

The British and Irish Lions will be coming to Loftus Versfeld after all and they have invited the Sharks to once again be their opposition in a hastily-arranged match that will take place on Saturday.

The Lions were originally scheduled to play the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday, but that game has been postponed due to positive Covid tests in the Bulls camp.

But just as the Springboks, who have had their second Test against Georgia cancelled, are concerned about lack of game time ahead of the Test series against the Lions, so too are the tourists desperate not to miss out on any matches on their roster. Coach Warren Gatland would have carefully planned out giving his whole squad certain opportunities ahead of the first match against South Africa on July 24, and games not being played would throw all of that out of kilter.

The Sharks, who were hammered 54-7 by the Lions at Ellis Park on Wednesday night, were still in Gauteng on Thursday and have agreed to stay on the Highveld and play the tourists again. This will necessitate the postponement of their scheduled Currie Cup match on Saturday, against the Gauteng Lions at Kings Park, and SA Rugby are expected to communicate these details later on Thursday.

There had been speculation that the European Lions would want to get down to Cape Town, where they are meant to play SA A on Wednesday, as soon as possible to escape the epicentre of Covid in Gauteng. But their desperation to not lose out on game time has won the day.

And the Sharks have 36 players in Johannesburg, ready and willing to play. And hopefully second time around they will be better up to speed and able to provide more stern competition for the Lions.

“Our understanding is coming along nicely,” outside centre Marco Jansen van Vuren says of his midfield partnership with Cornal Hendricks, which has been one of the most unlikely success stories for the Bulls as they dominate local rugby.

It no doubt gives coach Jake White immense delight that he has moved a wing and a scrumhalf into midfield and made them a centre pairing that has proven to be one of the strengths of the Bulls on their way to winning the Currie Cup and now standing poised to reach the Rainbow Cup final.

The 24-year-old Jansen van Vuren had previously shuttled between the Lions, Valke and Bulls, battling to get decent game time as a scrumhalf. Coaches acknowledged that he was a talented footballer, but they just couldn’t find a regular slot for him. His Bulls appearances were initially on the wing, until White had the bright idea to shift him closer to the action when Springbok Sevens star Stedman Gans was injured.

Jansen van Vuren and Hendricks have certainly hit it off.

“Cornal has been really good at No.12 and as a centre pairing you have to understand each other. It was a challenge for me at first and then when Stedman was injured just before the Currie Cup semi-final I had to adapt as quickly as possible. The most important thing is understanding, knowing when and where to support each other. But it’s lekker to be next to Cornal, he’s a Springbok, one of the leaders.

“And he’s a good person – he even listens to me when I tell him he’s not doing the right thing! But it’s been quite a challenge for me to play in that channel, although now, playing a few games in a row for the first time, I feel like I’m finding my feet and getting that confidence there. I’m playing 80 minutes a game too so I’m settling in,” Jansen van Vuren said.

On Saturday in the decisive Rainbow Cup match against the Sharks in Durban, he will come up against Lukhanyo Am, one of the coolest cats wearing the No.13 jersey anywhere in the world.

“Lukhanyo is a great player, he won the World Cup, he’s one of the best in the world. It’s a lovely challenge, I’ve played against him a couple of times and he’s always up for it. But with the defensive system we have, we all trust each other and that makes it easier, especially when the wings and Cornal are doing very well.

“As a scrumhalf you are mostly just behind the defensive line and covering, you don’t spend much time in the frontline. But as an outside centre you have to make more decisions, is the ball going front door or back door? You need to make good decisions. But now I think it would be a big challenge for me to shift back to scrumhalf!” the 1.88m, 90kg Jansen van Vuren said.