Ken Borland

The Bulls have already broken their 10-year trophy-drought this season by winning the SuperRugby Unlocked title, but at the end of the day, the Currie Cup is the big prize they are after according to coach Jake White.

The Bulls won the SuperRugby Unlocked competition by four points and those points were then carried over to the Currie Cup. White’s charges have subsequently finished top of the log in the Currie Cup as well, but this time they have to get through two knockout matches to claim the silverware, starting with their semi-final against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re not trying to be arrogant, but we said at the start of the season that we wanted to play in the final and win the Currie Cup. So we’ve now got two weeks left to play, whether you look at this season as one or two competitions or two competitions in one, at the end of the day we are in the playoffs. Now we want to get to the last round and win the trophy.

“We’ve done the hard work to get into the final, we’ve put the hard yards in to justify home advantage. The reality is we’ve got a lotto ticket for the last two rounds, hopefully we stay alive after this weekend. There won’t be any crowds but I still think it’s a massive bonus for the guys to sleep in their own beds, be in their own changeroom, all the little things,” White said this week.

While the 2007 World Cup winning coach acknowledged that it was far from a fait accompli that the Bulls would achieve their goal, White did make their journey in 2020/21 sound somewhat miraculous.

“I’ve coached in competitions before where the first and second team on the log don’t play in the quarterfinals, they go straight to the semis and get a week off. But sometimes the team that finished first on the log doesn’t win, there are still no guarantees even if you finish first. But this team really want to win the Currie Cup, they want to be part of history and write their own script.

“No-one expected us to do so well. I’ve had seven months to work with this group and in the last 10 years the Bulls had not won a senior trophy, we lost five of our six SuperRugby games last year and finished sixth in the Currie Cup in 2019, losing to Griquas at Loftus. So other teams were far ahead of us and I’m very satisfied with how things have gone. But we haven’t really won anything yet,” White said.

The Sharks have had their share of difficult times in the forward battle and it will be a tough day at the office for them if they don’t match Western Province up front in their Currie Cup semi-final at Newlands on Saturday, but skipper Lukhanyo Am says they are confident they will have put in the work required for at least parity come the weekend.

The Sharks pack showed their ability when they enjoyed the upper hand up front when ending the Bulls’ unbeaten run in mid-December, but they have also been beaten at forward by the Lions and the Free State Cheetahs. Importantly, that was when tighthead prop Thomas du Toit was not in action, and the World Cup winner is shaping to be a key player on Saturday as he takes on South Africa’s No.1 loosehead prop in Steven Kitshoff.

“We know what Western Province’s strengths are, their set-piece has been dominant and they’ve proven it right through the competition. But we are working on us mainly, to strengthen the parts of our game where we feel we are lacking. But if we can get our own set-piece and challenge them on their’s, then it’s going to be an exciting game to watch,” Am said on Tuesday.

Lock Ruben van Heerden was also painting a picture of how determined the Sharks are to match Western Province, and their all-Springbok front row, up front.

“Western Province have a very strong lineout, scrum and maul, we know what they will bring, but we are very well prepared and up to the challenge. At this level, everyone is strong and shows up on the day really wanting to play, so it comes down to technique to nullify what gives them their strength – momentum in the lineout, scrums and mauls. But we are very confident we can nullify that,” Van Heerden said.

And if the Sharks pack can gain parity up front, then they have the backline to take advantage and a general at flyhalf in Curwin Bosch who can move them around the park most efficiently. While the 23-year-old Springbok is indisputably KwaZulu-Natal’s No.1 flyhalf, Western Province have shuffled from Damian Willemse to Tim Swiel as their pivot this season.

“Curwin is incredibly influential for us, he’s our playmaker and crucial to the way we want to play. As a forward, it makes your job so much easier when you have a flyhalf who can put you on the front foot and put the ball in the right areas. I’m not sure about Western Province’s situation at flyhalf, but that’s not our problem,” Van Heerden said.

Captain Am also knows he can rely on his flyhalf.

“Curwin is a key player, our golden boot and he really puts us in the right areas. We back his kicking abilities whether in-hand or off the tee and he really gives us confidence. Our approach probably won’t be as flashy in the semi-final as it is in other games, we’ll definitely be trying to put the ball in the right areas, and knowing he can slot whatever penalties we get means we are in a good place,” Am said.

Knights pace bowler Mbulelo Budaza wishes he had not been playing cricket on October 27, 2013, but the awful tragedy that happened that day continues to spur him on to greater heights in his cricket career.

Budaza, then a 20-year-old playing for the University of Fort Hare in Alice, bowled a bouncer to Old Selbornians batsman Darryn Randall. The former Border representative tried to hook the delivery, missed and was struck a fatal blow below the eye, a freak and unimaginable accident because Randall was wearing a helmet.

The 32-year-old collapsed immediately and never regained consciousness. Amidst the horror and utter grief of the tragedy, Randall’s family forgave and offered support to the young Budaza, and said they wanted to see him rise up and go on to play for the Proteas one day.

“My grief for that day will never end, I could not believe it happened, I never stop thinking about it. But it means I badly want to succeed in my cricket career, because of the support I received from his family and mine, and from people like Greg Hayes and Mfuneko Ngam, plus Prince Dabula, the varsity psychologist.

“The Randall family said to Greg that they wanted to see me go on and play for the Proteas, they said it to motivate me and they have been very supportive. That pushes me and I’m very happy with the success I’ve had so far and I’m going to work even harder towards that goal,” Budaza says.

And an audit of Budaza’s career shows that it has certainly been onwards and upwards for the left-arm quick, who has now bowled himself into genuinely being in the conversation for higher honours.

He has been particularly effective in 50-over cricket and from 2015/16 to the 2018/19 season he played 43 games for the Knights and took 54 wickets at an average of 28.12 and an economy rate of 5.45 runs-per-over. And then last season was his real breakthrough campaign as he was the joint leading wicket-taker with Knights team-mate Shaun von Berg in the Momentum One-Day Cup, taking 18 wickets at an average of just 16.27 and an economy rate of only 4.71 as the Central Franchise reached the semi-finals before the season was cancelled due to Covid-19.

“It was a good season after a tough one the year before when everything just seemed to slow down, it was a struggle, I bowled a lot of no-balls and I just didn’t have good rhythm. But I was chuffed to come back strong and I felt very privileged to play so well, thanks to my team-mates’ support. The work I did with our new head coach Allan Donald was the first reason for my comeback and it was an honour for me to work with him. He changed some technical stuff and helped me a lot.

“I’m not really thinking about playing for the Proteas, although that is my dream. My focus is on winning games for the Knights and whatever comes from that will come. If I do well for them again this coming season then hopefully I will get a look-in with the SA A side, but I just have to make sure I am in form and winning games for the Knights.”

The lanky Budaza comes from the Eastern Cape cricket nursery that just keeps rolling out highly talented fast bowlers, but he is not so much an offshoot of township cricket as a product of the rural game.

“I was born in the farming district of Manley Flats and that’s where my cricket started. My first game was when I was watching my cousins play and they were one man short so they called me to help. I grew up playing on the streets and I was always tall. I played for the Willows Club [who Makhaya Ntini used to play for] because there was no cricket at my primary or high school, until in Grade X I got a scholarship to Woodridge College from Grade XI.

“Playing for the Willows Club in Grahamstown, Christo Esau, the Eastern Province provincial coach, and Piet Botha, the head coach –took me to Port Elizabeth for academy trials and I worked with them. Woodridge then said they wanted me and I did not hesitate because I wanted to play cricket,” Budaza explains.

Woodridge College is a private school situated between Port Elizabeth and Jeffreys Bay, so Budaza’s first provincial recognition came with the Eastern Province rural team.

“In 2010, I was chosen for the EP Rural team to go to Kimberley for the Senior Rural Cricket Week. That was a big thing for me, there is talent there and a lot of it is not recognised. So I didn’t take it for granted. I had two options after matric, to go to Fort Hare or the Eastern Province academy. I chose Fort Hare because as a bowler, to have Mfuneko Ngam as a coach would be brilliant. We worked very hard and we got very close, I was very fortunate to have him as a coach.”

Rural cricket is what used to be called Country Districts and it not only highlights the game being played in great spirit but also exposes the considerable talent that exists away from the cities. Leon Coetzee is the president of Rural Cricket South Africa and he says they desperately need more support especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I consistently argue that some unions are not spending enough to improve the quality of the many rural clubs in their area, to help them with coaching of coaches and better administration. SA Rural should have more to spend on developing talent, people like Ferisco Adams of Boland and Diego Rosier from Northern Cape came from rural areas and a couple of Black African stars like Mbulelo Budaza came through from Country Districts to get franchise contracts.

“If they didn’t play rural cricket then they would not have been noticed. There’s a massive amount of undiscovered rural talent, but South African cricket is focused more on the semi-pros and franchises. I have approached unions to see how we can improve relations and Covid could have a damning effect on the sustainability of many rural clubs, especially if we can only start playing next year,” Coetzee says.

In terms of style, Budaza is reminiscent of Lonwabo Tsotsobe, the last Black African left-arm quick to play Test cricket for South Africa, and although they do not come from the same community, the former number one ranked bowler in one-day international cricket is also a product of the Eastern Cape.

“They called me ‘Lopsy’ at Woodridge and we had these warm-up T-shirts and my number was also 68. The first time I watched the Proteas play live was an ODI against India in Port Elizabeth in 2011 and Tsotsobe took the first two wickets for South Africa. He was not quick but he got bounce and had a beautiful action. He was my early role-model.” Despite his talents, Budaza only played two first-class, four List A and one T20 game in two seasons with Border. But in a sign of his determination to succeed, he decided his cricket dreams should not suffer one of those long, slow deaths in a relative backwater, even if it was close to home, and he signed for Northern Cape ahead of the 2015/16 season. By that December he was making his Knights debut.

“But I did not get too many semi-pro opportunities with Border, and then Northern Cape signed me, with JP Triegaardt, who is also a very good coach, very active and works you hard,” Budaza says. “The call-up from the Knights was a surprise because I’d only been there a month or two. My first game was against the Cobras and they had all their Proteas back, bowling to guys like Hashim Amla and JP Duminy made me nervous, I had seen them on TV and now I was playing against them. But cricket is cricket so I changed nothing, I just tried to bowl in a good area for as long as possible.”

And the occasion was not too big for him as three of his first five overs were maidens.

Like Tsotsobe, Budaza is a skilful bowler, but he does not believe in bringing a whole backpack of tricks into play, preferring rather to squeeze the batsmen into submission.

“Playing a lot of cricket in Kimberley and Bloemfontein, you’ve got to be clever as a bowler and make sure your skills are up. You have to make sure you are fit and don’t get tired, because then the batsmen will punish you. Whenever I get the ball, I just try to do the right thing for the team. I’m not really chasing wickets, I try to contain and not concede runs whatever happens. But I can be aggressive if I need to be,” Budaza explains.

The member of the South African Emerging Players squad epitomises the Jewish word “Chutzpah” and the words of psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl certainly ring true in Budaza’s case – “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Mbulelo Budaza has already overcome significant challenges and is growing rapidly into one of the country’s most exciting bowlers, as well as being, in coach Donald’s words: “nothing but a brilliant human being, it’s amazing how he has got himself up and made something of himself”.

Allan Donald sidebar

Allan Donald had a phenomenal record as a fast bowler and has built up a huge reputation as a bowling coach. In his new position as Knights head coach, he describes Mbulelo Budaza as being a larger-than-life character with a big work ethic.

“He’s been a solid performer for a while and is eager to learn, he tries really hard to execute whatever you’re working on and is a careful listener, before going away to do his drills on his own, he gets on with it. On his day he can swing the ball beautifully, but on some other days the wrist is not quite right and we’re working really hard on rectifying that.

“But he is a lovely character who everyone likes. A funny guy, the room lights up when he’s in it, Mbulelo is a terrific person, when I was consulting we connected very well and he’s a superstar in the making, one of the dependables. What sets him apart is that he stays competitive.

“He’s definitely got a bit more pace than Tsotsobe, but Lopsy used to swing it around corners and really late too. Mbulelo is still working on that side, but sometimes he’s fighting against that naughty wrist. But that can work in his favour because the batsman starts thinking about why it’s not swinging back in … ” Donald said.

“But he can make it move the other way and that’s why he’s so hard to face – he’s unpredictable. I tell him to just keep on faking it on those bad wrist days. But he keeps breaking partnerships on flat pitches, he has golden spells but he also just keeps plugging away. This is going to be a big season for him.”

The Sharks have been the form team in South African rugby this year but following six months of Lockdown their daily focus has just been on returning to basics and trying to get sharper every day, according to star flyhalf Curwin Bosch.

How quickly the Sharks can regain the brilliance and momentum that took them to the top of the Super Rugby standings will be put to the test on Saturday when they take on a revamped Bulls side on SuperFan Saturday at Loftus Versfeld. Bosch was also the form flyhalf in South Africa before Lockdown and, with Handre Pollard out of rugby for the rest of the year, there will be plenty of focus on his own form with the Springbok No.10 jersey in mind.

“It will be tough for all of us to get that momentum back and it’s all about starting back at the basics once again. Saturday is the perfect opportunity for us to sharpen up our game and try out a couple of things we have been working on. We’re not looking too far ahead, we’re just going to take it game-by-game and hopefully we will improve every week.

“It’s great to be back and these are exciting times, but our bodies are still adjusting to contact and it’s going to be different with no crowds. Our approach this week is a bit different because we are preparing for the SuperRugby/Currie Cup competition that is coming up. But why change what we have been doing when obviously we have been doing something right?” Bosch said in a virtual interview on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old with two Test caps says the Sharks’ game-plan will once again revolve around playing a high-tempo game. Being at the fulcrum of that can only help Bosch’s chances of Springbok selection and he is surely closing the gap between himself and Elton Jantjies, who has been the spearhead of the Lions’ energetic style of play for so many years.

“We want to play with speed and tempo, so it’s going to be an interesting clash with the Bulls, because if you look along the lines of who they have signed, we expect a very physical game from their massive pack. I think the Bulls are going to try and slow us down, have a lot of set-pieces, while we will try to speed things up. We’re not looking to change much, just fine-tune what we’ve been trying to do.

“Personally, I’ve had a different approach this year with my main focus being on the Sharks and trying to help the team succeed. If I do that then Springbok selection will take care of itself. But I do see a bit of an opportunity to play number 10. It’s always my dream to play for the Springboks, that’s why I decided to stay at the Sharks. It was easy because we have become a special team in the last year,” Bosch says.