Ken Borland

While there would have been some joyous relief for the South African team not to have to play powerhouses Netherlands or India, their FIH Hockey Pro League match against France in Potchefstroom on Tuesday night still ended in defeat as they went down 4-1.

While France are ranked just two places above South Africa in 12^th on the world rankings, they are arguably the most improved side in the game in recent years. So the good news for the embattled South Africans is that they matched France in the middle of the field, but it was in the circles where the European side were just way more clinical.

France went 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes through two deflection goals, but South Africa had also looked threatening, no more so when Bili Ntuli’s reverse-sticks shot came off the post after Bradley Sherwood, who was an encouraging addition to the side, robbed a defender of possession.

The hosts then held France scoreless in the second quarter and were creating enough opportunities for them to feel they could yet njotch their first Pro League win.

But France were just too clinical in the second half, making full use of the opportunities they had. In the 41^st minute, they pounced on one loose pass by South Africa, racing down the right of the field before crossing to the middle, where Gaspard Baumgartner finished the move for his second goal.

France went 4-0 up in the 54^th minute through similar ruthlessness on the counter-attack. A quick overhead from a free hit found an attacker on the edge of the circle, he put in the cross, which was missed by an SA defender, allowing Timothee Clement to score.

It was also a feature of the match that France’s defence remained impressively composed and solid, while South Africa’s tended to make costly basic mistakes every now and then.

South Africa did, however, get on the scoreboard with three minutes remaining when the Cassiem brothers, Mustapha and Dayaan, combined superbly for Dayaan to put the chance away. He had hit the crossbar just a minute earlier when Mustapha had also been the provider.

St George’s Park was the principality of South Africa’s Prince of Leg-Spin, Shaun von Berg, on Tuesday as he consigned the Central Gauteng Lions to defeat against the Boland Rocks in their CSA T20 Challenge match.

Von Berg took a devastating 3/14 in his four overs as the Lions, chasing 161 to win, were bowled out for 116 in just 17.2 overs.

Although Joshua Richards was trapped lbw to the first ball of the innings from left-arm spinner Siyabonga Mahima, the Lions were well-placed on 46/1 after six overs as Reeza Hendricks and Shane Dadswell added 46 off 38 balls.

But Dadswell (29) was bowled by Von Berg’s first ball, mowing across the line, and the seasoned spinner had Mitchell van Buuren caught behind next delivery with a classic leg-break.

Once Mahima (4-0-20-2) removed Reeza Hendricks for a determined 46 off 39 balls, the Lions were 94/6 and Hardus Viljoen and Ferisco Adams, who both also took two wickets in two balls, ran through the rest of the batting line-up.

Captain Pieter Malan was largely responsible for leading Boland to 160/4 after they had been sent in to bat, compiling a steely 71 off 48 deliveries.

Adams (30* off 23) and Christiaan Jonker (20 off 15) provided a good finish to the innings as Boland had enough on the board to be rewarded with an invaluable bonus point.

In the afternoon game, the rampant Western Province side roared to an 84-run win over the North-West Dragons, their fourth consecutive triumph also earning them a bonus point.

Chasing 165, Beuran Hendricks ran through the North-West top-order with superb figures of 4-20, the joint best in the competition so far.

With leg-spinner Junaid Dawood claiming 3/22 in his four overs, North-West were shot out for just 80.

Captain Wayne Parnell took 1/13 in three overs with the ball and two fine catches, one of them a full-length diving effort to remove the dangerous Delano Potgieter off Hendricks.

The left-hander had earlier struck a ferocious 33 not out off just 17 balls to lift Western Province to 164/8, after an incredible collapse in which they lost six wickets for 25 runs left them on 134/8 with just two overs remaining.

The collapse was largely caused by brilliant left-arm spin from Senuran Muthusamy, who also took 4/20, and came after a solid platform had been laid by Jonathan Bird (53 off 44) and Dane Vilas (31 off 20).

Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for their determination to not just lie down and die after Morne Steyn’s red card against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, even though he admitted their lack of finishing and ultimate defeat leaves them in a very difficult position in the United Rugby Championship.

The Bulls had to play for 70 minutes without their talismanic flyhalf after he was permanently sent off for a late, high tackle that struck the neck of Lukhanyo Am. But a tremendous effort and some superb rugby saw them come back from 26-12 down, eventually losing 22-29 with several scoring chances left on the table.

“I’m really proud of the way the team fought back,” White said, “because some teams just lay down and die after a red card. Your flyhalf runs everything, and Morne is the best kicker in the competition and we missed three conversions. Kick those and we would have won.

“It’s never nice to lose, we don’t feel good, but there’s a lot to be positive about. You lose your flyhalf for 70 minutes and still score four tries against probably the best team on paper in South Africa.

“It was not the result we wanted, but you can’t question the players’ commitment. We just needed to be more clinical in their 22, we managed to pin them there for long periods of time.

“We had enough opportunities in the 22, but things went wrong with our maul and some of our ball-carries. But I’m very confident with where we are going with this team,” White said.

The former Springbok coach expressed his surprise that the Bulls did not see more reward from referee AJ Jacobs either for their rolling maul or their concerted pressure on the Sharks’ tryline.

“We ran 40 metres with our maul and got no reward, which I can’t understand,” White said. “We also had a half-a-dozen penalties on their tryline.

“Our forward pack did not take a step backwards and we showed that we can dominate against a team that is like the Springboks side.

“I thought Robert Hunt and Jacques van Rooyen did well today against the incumbent Springbok front row and we are much better off in terms of scrummaging than we were seven weeks ago.

“But this loss puts us in a very difficult position. Our backs are against the wall for the first time for this group. But good teams find a way of making the playoffs and our challenge now is to find the low road,” White said.

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen listed defence, game-management and his side’s ability to bounce back from a chastening defeat as the qualities he was happiest about in his team’s performance against the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

Although the Lions went down 13-21 to their Gauteng neighbours, it was a markedly improved showing from the previous weekend when they were hammered 34-10 by the same side at Ellis Park. And the Lions could even have won in Pretoria were it not for their failure to execute at lineout time, missed chances on attack and a couple of unfortunate scrum penalties that went against them.

“The defence is probably the area that has grown the most since June,” Van Rooyen said. “It’s been difficult to change our system, but against a big, physical Bulls team, we made it difficult for them, we put them back.

“We thought it would rain and we tried to keep them in their 22. We had much more territorial advantage this game and Tiaan Swanepoel makes a big difference with his big boot. The game-management overall was much better today.

“It was a tough week after the loss at Ellis Park, but the reaction we got from the players today says a lot about the group and how they are growing. We really had the Bulls under pressure for the first 20-25 minutes,” Van Rooyen said.

Captain Jaco Kriel, who had been outspoken in his criticism of the previous weekend’s effort, said there had been a welcome lift in intensity at Loftus Versfeld.

“It was nice to see that reaction to what happened last week and how we stayed together as a group,” Kriel said. “But we can be much more clinical. We were in the right areas but we just didn’t round off.

“We spoke about defence for the whole week and the guys’ shoulders certainly felt it! We created enough opportunities through that, but then just small mistakes let us down.

“We had enough chances to convert that pressure into points, but we just didn’t take them. But there was no question about the effort nor the intensity today,” Kriel said.