Ken Borland

Since making his debut last November, George Linde has played in 14 of South Africa’s 18 T20 Internationals and done rather well, so his omission on Thursday from the Proteas’ squad for the T20 World Cup starting in October in the United Arab Emirates came as a shock.

Linde has taken 15 wickets in those games, at an average of 22.66 and a very tidy economy rate of 7.08 runs-per-over. Although he has not yet been able to really do justice to his talent with the bat, he has a strike-rate of 130.

The two left-arm spinners named in the squad are Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin.

Maharaj has yet to make his T20 International debut, although his performances in ODIs suggest this is overdue. Over the same period since Linde’s debut, Fortuin has played just six T20s.

Convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang on Thursday struggled to explain the selection tangle, which makes it look like the wrong horse has been backed for the last 10 months.

“George is one of our all-rounders, he has done well with the ball but we have decided to go with our senior all-rounders [23-year-old Wiaan Mulder and 32-year-old Dwaine Pretorius, both seamers] and in terms of a left-arm spinner, Bjorn. And the selection panel felt Keshav would bowl really well in those conditions. In terms of role-clarity, George has done really well on the bowling side, but Bjorn can also bowl up front and that swung it,” Mpitsang said.

Linde is the only White player amongst those three left-arm spinners, so questions were immediately asked about quotas in the make-up of the squad. Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said no policy was given to the selection panel, and Mpitsang said “there just happens to be” seven players of colour in the 15-man squad, as there have been in every Proteas world cup squad for at least the last decade.

Linde was named as one of the three travelling reserves, along with seam bowling all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo and paceman Lizaad Williams. The rest of the T20 squad are all in Sri Lanka for a three-match series that starts on Friday, apart from captain Temba Bavuma, who is back home having had surgery on a fractured thumb. He said he expects to have recovered in about four weeks.

None of South Africa’s T20 free agents – Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers – have been included.

It seems Morris has officially signed the divorce papers from Cricket South Africa, with Smith saying “he has made himself unavailable for international cricket”, while agreement could not be reached with Du Plessis. Tahir has a ready-made replacement in Tabraiz Shamsi and De Villiers stated in May that his international retirement was final.

“With the free agents, you have to find a balance that works for both the team and the player and unfortunately, with Faf in particular, we struggled to find a solution that would work for both parties. Imran has had a great run and been very successful, but we are very confident in our current crop of spinners and they deserve their chance,” Smith said.

Proteas T20 World Cup squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi. Travelling reserves – George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams.

The Springboks are a little nervous over how socialised they are to playing in front of a big crowd supporting the opposition because many of the players have not done that for 18 months, giving them another factor to adapt to when they play Australia on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

While the Wallabies have been the whipping boys of the All Blacks of late, the Springboks are approaching their first away game in the Rugby Championship with great caution because Australia, especially at home, have always been a side that throws up different, awkward questions for them.

And more than 25 000 mostly pro-Australian spectators in the Super Stadium, with Rugby Australia implementing a ‘bring your mate for free’ campaign, will be another curve-ball for South Africa to handle.

“We’re really excited to be playing in front of a capacity crowd again, but it means we will have to adapt our on-field communication. But it will be fantastic to play in front of a big crowd and hopefully it will spur our players on to perform even better,” forwards coach Deon Davids said on Tuesday.

“To have fans out there is going to be unreal, I can’t even remember how it feels to play in a full stadium,” prop Ox Nche said. “I’m a bit nervous about it but also very excited.”

And the Wallabies will also bring a totally different threat to Argentina, who the Springboks beat twice, with Davids saying lineouts and the tempo of their play are the two areas the world champions will need to adapt.

“They have different philosophies. We had to be smart to keep Argentina at bay and play the way we wanted too. Australia are very competitive in the lineouts, they turned over a few New Zealand balls and put them under pressure. That’s an area we really want to improve, it let us down a bit in our last game. The set-pieces will be well-contested and we have to make sure we execute well so we have a solid base and top-quality ball.

“In my past experience coaching against Dave Rennie, when he was with the Glasgow Warriors, the Waikato Chiefs and now the Wallabies, an attacking philosophy is part of his approach. He likes to play with ball-in-hand, to build pressure with the ball. I’m sure they will bring the same approach but just try to do it better in certain areas. The tempo was very high in the matches between the Wallabies and All Blacks,” Davids said.

Going from the second-tier Varsity Shield competition into the starting line-up of the defending champion Bulls Currie Cup team in the same year is going to require something a bit special and that’s exactly what Sibongile Novuka has done as he was named on Tuesday to start at fullback against the Pumas in Nelspruit on Wednesday afternoon.

Apart from his own skills and attributes, it is always going to help when you have the backing of a former Springbok and Bulls legend. And the 23-year-old Novuka is represented by none other than Akona Ndungane, who suggested to the powers that be at Loftus Versfeld that they sign the University of KwaZulu-Natal star.

And judging by his lively displays off the bench in his two appearances so far, the Bulls seem to have secured an exciting talent.

“He was really good in the Varsity Shield for the UKZN Impi, he was one of the players to really put their hands up in that competition, and he was seen by Akona Ndungane, who came to us about him. He’s tall [1.92m], big [96kg], he’s got good feet and he’s solid under the high ball. We’ve had David Kriel at fullback most of the year, but this is a good week to give Sibongile a chance.

“He’s done well on the wing off the bench the last two weeks, and it will be nice to see how he combines now with two good wings in Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stravino Jacobs. We’ve got a lot of outside backs now and playing the Pumas away is as tough as it gets, so it’s going to be a good challenge for Sibongile,” Bulls coach Jake White said on Tuesday.

If the Bulls’ backline is like a buggy zipping around with nippy speedsters, then the pack is the tank that blasts through the frontline defences and creates the momentum and space.

Eighthman Elrigh Louw and lock Ruan Nortje, both of whom have the look of future Springboks, return to the starting line-up, and props Mornay Smith and Gerhard Steenekamp, who have played very well as a combination, are reunited in the starting front row.

Bulls team: Sibongile Novuka, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Johan Goosen, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw, Muller Uys, Arno Botha (Captain), Ruan Nortje, Janko Swanepoel, Mornay Smith, Schalk Erasmus, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Jacques van Rooyen, Mhleli Dlamini, Reinhardt Ludwig, WJ Steenkamp, Keagan Johannes, Chris Smith, Lionel Mapoe.

When the going gets tough, this Springbok team says they don’t make excuses, they find solutions. And that attitude was much in evidence in the third Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town at the weekend when, despite not producing anything close to their best rugby, they simply refused to lose, doing what had to be done to secure a nailbiting 19-16 win and clinch the series.

With Rassie Erasmus still facing a misconduct charge from WorldRugby over his video analysis of officiating mistakes in the first Test loss, the churlish will say the director of rugby makes the Springboks’ excuses for them, but only the most biased would not have at least some grudging respect for the sheer determination and heroism this Springbok team has shown.

And speaking of heroes, the feats of wing Cheslin Kolbe and replacement flyhalf Morne Steyn were pulled straight from the pages of superhero comic books.

Kolbe scored the crucial try to overturn a 10-6 deficit, once again unveiling his superpower ability to simply vanish from the grasp of tacklers thanks to those incredibly feet of his.

And then Steyn, who had won the 2009 series with his long-range penalty, came on after 64 minutes, a 37-year-old playing his first Test since 2016. It was certainly a gamble, replacing the Springboks’ general, Handre Pollard, who has enjoyed an outstanding series but things were not going that well with his boot.

Incredibly, history repeated itself 12 years later as Steyn kicked two penalties, including the match-winning one in the 78^th minute, leaving one to wonder who exactly writes his scripts?!

“I had my head between my legs when Morne kicked, I just listened, I did not see it,” Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber admitted. “I’m really happy for him, it’s a fairytale.

“In the last five weeks, everybody had challenges, a lot of us got Covid and we lost a whole week of training. But the positive thing about this team is that they have no time for excuses, we knew we had to move on and make another plan. Those were the cards we were dealt with, they said ‘unfortunately that’s where we are, we have to move on and find a solution’,” Nienaber added.

For captain Siya Kolisi, the overriding emption was great pride in the team he has led magnificently.

“I honestly can’t explain in words what it means to us as a group to win the series. Coming from isolation, we all agreed that we would never make excuses, that’s not what South Africans are made of. When you step out on to the field, you agree that you are ready to play. That’s what I love about this team, we don’t make excuses, we find solutions,” Kolisi said.

Lock Eben Etzebeth and Steyn were the star players put up by the Springboks for media duties after the gripping match, and it turned out a friendly chat between the two at the start of the day had almost been prophetic.

“We expected it to be a close contest and we always knew that the Lions would come with a massive effort. I had breakfast with Morne and I said that it might come down to him winning the series again with a kick. He said he hoped we were a bit further ahead if he came on.

“It doesn’t matter how we won, just to get the victory is massive for us. We were able to get over the final hurdle. Apart from Morne, the rest of us knew we only have one chance to win a Lions series and we knew it was our last 80 minutes to do it. What happened is absolutely unbelievable and all credit to him,” Etzebeth, a talismanic figure in the Springbok pack all series, said.

“Just to be part of this series 12 years later was amazing and then to get on the field and then to have that kick. It was in a similar position to 2009, just a bit closer for these old legs, 54 metres then and this one was about 35 metres. For a kicker, these special occasions are why you put in all the hard work. You always dream of making a kick to win a series or a championship. All glory to God for giving me the chance to do it again.

“But credit to the whole team for building up to that moment on the field, their work softened them up. It was not our best performance but it doesn’t matter how you win. And thanks to Eben for that pep talk at breakfast!” Steyn said.