Sharks coach Sean Everitt admitted that his team still has plenty of work to do on their efforts in the tight-loose, despite their comfortable winning margin of 42-19 over the Pumas in Nelspruit at the weekend.
The Pumas were typically robust and confrontational up front, but where the Sharks had a decided edge was in terms of their clinical finishing, and the sharpness of both their backline and the rolling maul. But were it not for the Pumas being extremely wasteful on several occasions when they were inside the Sharks’ 22, the match would have been a lot closer.
“We’re very happy with the result, especially since last year we lost here, and we showed a lot of energy for the full 80 minutes, but the breakdowns let us down and that still needs a lot of attention. Francois Klelinhans and Jeandre Rudolph are both very good on the ball, but we need to tidy that area up,” Everitt said.
Not that the Sharks coach was upset with his forwards though, because there were areas where they played much better than last weekend against the Bulls in Pretoria, and the Sharks were expert at mining that front-foot ball and turning it into gold.
“There were obviously things we worked on after the Bulls game and it was great to see the set-piece come through – we were rewarded for some good scrums and we didn’t lose a lineout. Plus our maul was really good and led to two tries for us,” Everitt said.
Despite Cricket South Africa and government currently being at loggerheads over the refusal of their Board to step down, England’s tour next month looks set to go ahead following a magnanimous gesture by government.
England is one of the designated high-risk countries when it comes to Covid-19, but reports overseas on Tuesday suggested the South African government have not only allowed their contingent of more than 40 people to enter the country but have also waived the usual quarantine requirements as long as the 50-over world champions remain in a biosecure bubble.
That means England will be allowed to train at the Western Province Cricket Club for the 10 days between their arrival on November 17 and the first match against the Proteas. The tourists are apparently going to stay at The Vineyard Hotel, along with the South African squad.
Three ODIs and three T20 internationals are on the schedule for England, with all the matches on tour being played either at Newlands in Cape Town or Boland Park in Paarl, without spectators.
The series will follow hot on the heels of the Indian Premier League, but both England captain Eoin Morgan and Proteas skipper Quinton de Kock expressed their enthusiasm for the series on Monday night when they spoke at a Chance to Shine charity event.
“There is a huge responsibility not just to get your home country’s fixtures underway, but a huge responsibility to facilitate other countries around the world. We will do what we can to try and get cricket back on, because it means a huge amount for people in Lockdown in their own countries, and also for Cricket South Africa financially.
“I know the worry we had about potentially not bowling a ball all summer and the detrimental impact that would have, probably to grassroots cricket more than any other part of the game. If the tour goes ahead, we’d love to come down, as the series we played last time was incredible,” Morgan said.
“If the boys do come over I’m sure it’ll be a good series once again,” De Kock said. “The world saw the last series between us, even though we lost, we still played unbelievable cricket, so did England. We are hoping it will go on, but with the pandemic, who knows?”
Golf courses, despite usually bringing dramatic change to the natural environment, are often havens for a number of bird species, even if they are generally the usual suite of semi-rural/semi-urban birds that have adapted well to their altered landscape.
Leopard Creek, however, is an exceptional golf course, not only because of the quality of its design and the magnificent test of golf it provides, but also because of its setting, in the thorn thickets and thick woodland along the Crocodile River, with the famous Kruger National Park on the other side of the water.
As a birdwatcher covering golf at Leopard Creek, there is double excitement because apart from watching the professionals tackle the daunting course, there is always the feeling that something special from the avian world could be lurking nearby.
I have previously seen specials like the Blackthroated Wattle-Eye and African Finfoot at Leopard Creek, so I am always excited driving through the entrance, situated across the river from the Malelane Gate into Kruger National Park.
The first bird I saw was no surprise – a Blackeyed Bulbul, the ubiquitous Toppie one sees so often in the bushveld. The new name – Darkcapped Bulbul – is poor in my opinion because all three South African species have much the same black crest on top of the head.
Blackeyed Bulbul
But then, skedaddling along the side of the tar road was something most unexpected – a Plainbacked Pipit.
This nondescript LBJ is usually a bird of grasslands and rocky hillsides. It does venture into the lowveld in winter and is sporadically recorded in Kruger Park, where it probably breeds and there are estimated to be about 500 adults. According to Roberts, it is often found on the edges of wooded country.
But the grasslands of Leopard Creek are what is known as sweet grass (sweet grasses maintain their nutrients in the leaves in winter and are therefore attractive to grazers) so it is often overgrazed, which makes it more attractive to Pipits, especially when there has not been much summer rain yet.
The more arid conditions meant a bird like Marico Flycatcher, very much a denizen of the western grasslands, was also present. The Marico Flycatcher is a great lover of Acacias though and the low rolling hills surrounding the Crocodile River are full of stunted Knobthorns Acacia nigrescens, so although rare this far south-east, it was not an unprecedented vagrant.
Leopard Creek, being a top golf course, does have a lot of water besides the Crocodile River, and this is obviously a magnet for both birds and animals.
The Knob-billed Duck is more a bird of vleis and pans (even temporary ones), than rivers and it is often seen flying over the golf course, but only in summer because it is a migrant from further north in Africa, generally breeding in the north-eastern areas of South Africa.
Whitefaced Duck, a common bird that sticks around all year long, is almost always seen flying over and whistling it’s beautiful call, while Water Dikkops patrol the tar roads at night, when Bushbuck come out to play after sheltering during the hot sunlight hours.
African Pied Wagtails march up and down any of the fairways close to water, while a couple of the bigger water hazards hold Reed Cormorant and African Fish Eagle, overhead, and Common Sandpiper, feeding on the sandbanks when they get tired of the Crocodile River.
The Fish Eagle is not the only raptor that comes over from KNP airspace, Wahlberg’s Eagles, which are especially common in southern Kruger and enjoy a diverse range of prey, leave their woodland strongholds to check out what’s on offer at Leopard Creek.
No trip to Leopard Creek is complete without walking out to the 13th green, situated 32 metres above the Crocodile River, and on this hot day some stately Waterbuck were present while a family of Chacma Baboons were foraging and vocalising. Along the way to this stunning viewpoint, the riverine woodland holds such delightful birds as the Plumcoloured Starling, Natal and Crested Francolins, Heuglin’s Robin, Blackcollared Barbet, Sombre Bulbul and Redbilled Firefinch.
Lee-Anne Pace is South Africa’s most successful women’s golfer since the legendary Sally Little in the 1980s, but despite hitting the ball better than ever, she is without an overseas professional win since October 2014 and if one enquires after the reasons why, the 37-year-old says she is honestly not sure.
It all points to how massively competitive women’s golf has become, especially since Pace moved to the LPGA Tour in America, having pretty much conquered the Ladies European Tour with nine titles and two Player of the Year crowns.
Which is not to suggest Pace is struggling. She is still chugging along on the LPGA Tour, inside the top-100 on the order of merit, as she finished last year, following excellent top-50 positions in 2015 and 2016.
“It hasn’t been a particularly good year, but I’ve been up there a few times and I just haven’t finished the job. I do feel that my golf is getting better and better though, and I’m confident things will turn around soon. The tour has become super-competitive and it gets more difficult to win every year, with the equipment improving all the time.
“In America, most of the time you’re pitching straight towards the pin, it’s more like target golf and then it all comes down to putting. I’m hitting the ball probably the best I ever have, so I’m not sure really where the problem is. But in golf sometimes just a little bit of adjustment can make a massive difference,” Pace says.
The Paarl-born golfer moved from the European Tour to the United States in 2014 and, even though she won as a rookie, claiming the Blue Bay title (the tournament being held in China), she says it was still quite an adjustment to make, even for someone who had enjoyed a successful amateur collegiate career at the Murray State and Tulsa universities.
“The first few years were all about adapting and you have to be longer off the tee here, that was one of the things I had to sort out with just a few adjustments, as well as getting used to the different grass. But I managed to win one in my first year and I’ve had seven top-10 finishes as well. Slowly, slowly I’ve been getting better, making gradual moves upwards,” Pace says.
The psychology graduate is aiming to win a Major before her career is over and playing this weekend in the Scottish Open at Gullane Golf Club, where fellow South African Brandon Stone shot a final-round 60 to win the equivalent men’s event earlier in the month, is going to be great preparation for qualifying next week for the British Women’s Open. Given her strong start in the tournament, however, which has a stellar field co-sanctioned by the LPGA, Pace might not need to play in the qualifier at St Anne’s.
“The top three this weekend also get into the British Open so this is like a mini-qualifier. But I’m always eyeing the win, I had good early tee-times the first two days, so I had fresh greens and not too much wind. But with half the 156 golfers coming from the LPGA and half from the LET, it’s a really good, very strong field.
“Links golf can be quite a beast, all the holes are different and you have to decide whether to be aggressive or lay back. I probably tend to go for the pins more, I like to shape the ball into the flag, but over the next couple of weeks I’ll have to think really carefully about where you land the ball. I love Links golf,” Pace says.
An ever-present smile masks a tigerish competitor, but Pace embodies the true spirit of the game. Her previous Major appearance, at the PGA Championship in Chicago, ended in her disqualifying herself.
In her frustration she bashed her wedge against a hazard stake, not realising at the time that she had damaged the hosel of the club. A few holes later, she spotted the damage and, even though rules officials encouraged her to continue playing pending a review, she knew the rule about changing the condition of a club during play and it’s penalty – disqualification.
Unlike Phil Mickelson a couple of weeks earlier, Pace did the right thing and disqualified herself, saving a lot of time and effort.
Hopefully her reward will be a change in fortunes in the United Kingdom over the next fortnight.
Revelation 3:15 – “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other.”
How can you expect blessings without obeying?
How can you expect the presence of God without spending time quietly before him?
Be sincere in your commitment to Him; be willing to sacrifice time so that you can grow spiritually; be disciplined in prayer and Bible study; worship God in spirit and truth.
Have you totally surrendered to God? Have you cheerfully given him everything you are and everything you have?
If you love Christ, accept the challenges of that love: Placing Christ in the centre of your life means complete surrender to Him.
