Ken Borland

The last time the All Blacks played in Durban was on October 8, 2016, and the final round fixture of what had been a disappointing Rugby Championship for the Springboks began positively enough as Morne Steyn kicked two penalties to claim an early 6-0 lead.

What followed was an absolute bloodbath as New Zealand slaughtered the Springboks 57-15, inflicting the then biggest ever defeat in terms of points conceded on their greatest rivals. The visitors scored nine tries and the hosts zero, with Steyn’s five penalties being their only, sorry points.

The sense of depression over Kings Park was huge and even the famous outer fields after-match parties were relatively muted. A side note on a personal level is that it was the first Springbok Test my wife watched live, at the stadium. Although she remains a fan and will watch their games at home or at the pub, she has not returned to a stadium.

It was an ugly stain on the Springboks and coach Allister Coetzee struggled on for another year, ‘improving’ on the biggest defeat record by losing 57-0 to the All Blacks in Albany. The Rassie Erasmus era from 2018 has seen those bloody memories gradually fade and South Africa can now claim to have the upper hand in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, having won five of their last six meetings.

But that 57-15 scoreline is close to what I expect to happen when New Zealand play the Sharks at Kings Park.

Sharks rugby is in the doldrums, much like Springbok rugby a decade ago, having failed to make the playoffs of the United Rugby Championship last season. And coach JP Pietersen, whose 70^th and final Test was at the end of 2016 against England at Twickenham, has named a largely inexperienced side. Injuries have forced his hand in many cases, but the absence of players like Bongi Mbonambi, Jaden and Jordan Hendrikse and Makazole Mapimpi is still shrouded in some mystery.

Of the 23 who will run out to face the All Blacks at Kings Park on Tuesday night, only seven can probably feel confident that they will be involved in the first-choice URC squad for the coming campaign – Vincent Koch, Phepsi Buthelezi, Emmanuel Tshituka, Vusi Moyo, Jurenzo Julius, Ivan van Zyl and Luan Gilliomee.

The 44-year-old former All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu has been a controversial selection on the bench, having been appointed as a high-performance mentor for the Sharks last month.

But the injury curse continues to plague Pietersen as two key players were late withdrawals from the Sharks team the day before the game – young lock Emile van Heerden, who was their player of the season in the 2025/26 URC, and Springbok utility forward Vincent Tshituka.

“We’ve had a bit of a run of injuries, which is understandable considering we are midway through our pre-season. We have a few props out and there are lock issues as well. But the young boys have got youth and energy on their side and they will definitely show that and fight too. They’ll give it a good go and be competitive for the full 80,” Pietersen said yesterday.

“It’s the strongest team we could put out and it’s going to be a great test for them, youth versus experience, and it should be a great contest against a high-quality team. The occasion will be massive, facing the haka, that’s what players dream of. They can make memories.

“Ma’a Nonu’s name and what he has achieved says it all. He has helped the younger players with how they prepare for the game and their skill sets. He’s also given them a feel for what the All Blacks may give us, he’s given them a good picture.

“He’s slotted in like he has been here a long time. It will be emotional for him because it’s the first time he’ll play against the All Blacks. He’s got the experience, with our younger centres Murray Koster and Jurenzo Julius starting, and our other centres are not available,” Pietersen said.

One area where the Sharks could trouble New Zealand is in the aerial game, especially if the All Blacks back three misses as many contestables as they did in the opening tour match against the valiant Stormers.

The Sharks are used to the humidity of Durban making the ball slippery, but this time it’s a big cold front and rain which will provide even trickier conditions.

“Durban is always humid and the ball is slippery, so we are prepared for it,” Pietersen said. “I think both teams will adjust and there will be more kicking. The All Blacks pride themselves on ball-possession though, so it’s going to be interesting to see how they hold on to the ball in those conditions … “

Flanker Luke Jacobson will captain the All Blacks against the Sharks and he said they expect another aerial bombardment.

“We know how South African teams play – maul, scrum and an up-front battering. We took some awesome lessons out of the Stormers game, it gave us a great taste of what we’re going to get on this tour. We haven’t had a whole lot of time to preview the Sharks, but we know they’ll be up for the battle, they’ll be looking to play their best rugby.

“We expect to be kicked on again, the Sharks have a really good kick-and-chase game, and we’ve put a big emphasis on the outside backs and how the other players work off the ball. You also have less time in the rain and the defences will be up higher. But that’s what we train for,” Jacobson said.

The Stormers produced a top-class display against the tourists and still fell 17 points short. A powerful set-piece, a focus on lineout drives and a strong kicking game were all part of a highly-competitive showing. But the Cape Town powerhouses fielded a URC-strength side, with five Springboks in the pack.

The Sharks have a couple of internationals starting and another pair on the bench in Nonu and scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl. But they are up against what could be a shadow Test side, with the first clash against the Springboks looming on August 22.

It is the first meeting between the All Blacks and the Black-and-Whites since 1992, when New Zealand were in South Africa to celebrate the return from isolation. South African rugby were in for a rude awakening during that tour and a Natal team that went on to dominate the decade locally, were beaten 43-25, with a rampant Va’aiga Tuigamala [PICTURED ABOVE] battering them relentlessly on the wing.

I was in the stands that day for my first view of the All Blacks in the flesh, having been dazzled by watching Bruce Robertson and Sid Going on TV in 1976. A great respect for the All Blacks was born that day, and I expect a callow Sharks team to be taught a lesson this evening.

Considering the big money backing them up, the Sharks’ early form this season was shameful and led to their critics picking apart the franchise. And the consensus seemed to be that their pipeline was to blame, with insufficient depth to make up for the erratic availability and form of their many Springbok stars.

The once-vaunted Sharks Academy was a particular focal point and the franchise’s management have confirmed that revamping that feeder is a priority. Critics of the Academy say that it has become too focused on earning money – allowing lesser players to buy their way into the program – rather than being an impactful high performance set-up.

Director of Rugby Neil Powell has pointed to the success of the Sharks’ junior teams as evidence that their contracting and pipeline are perhaps not as bad as many have portrayed.

“Last season the U19s finished second in their competition, the U20s won their’s unbeaten and the U21s were beaten by one point in the semi-finals,” Powell said. “Which shows our rugby strategy revolves around having a sustainable and successful system, not just one team. We believe success in the foundation phases will filter through to the flagship team.

“We are also looking at a rebuild of our Academy. Coenraad de Villiers headed up the Western Province Academy and we want him to create a high-performance environment which is also a feeder into our system. We have two groups of U19 players here – those who are contracted and those who come to the commercial academy, which has not been a big feeder in the past few years. We’re on a journey to turn that around, which is why we’ve got Coenraad.

“We want to change the perception of the academy: we want a quality rugby program, but the teaching must also be holistic. We want to make sure ambitious kids come into the academy, the expectation is that they develop into good rugby players and hopefully kick on.

“In terms of recruitment, we follow a hybrid approach: We identify world-class talent to obtain but we also want to build through our junior structures. The thinking is that recruiting from the outside is more specific, it’s about certain positions. In a couple of years we hope to be recruiting more from our own systems than from outside.

“It’s crucial that the junior system understands what it takes to be professional, so we can make sure they can filter into the senior system. Players will also not leave if they have love for the Sharks, if they feel at home here. The plan is to bring players through from U21 to the Currie Cup, blood them there, and if they pass that test then they can move on to the United Rugby Championship,” Powell said.

Sharks chief executive Eduard Coetzee, who will vacate his position in July to take up a post in Europe with MVM Holdings, the franchise’s majority investors, has said, however, that they will continue to target high-profile signings as well. He says big-name signings are good for the brand and encourage further investment from commercial partners.

“The market perception is that we contract from the top down, but other teams do this too. The schoolboy pathway is unbelievably important for us too. We have 10 schools in KZN who play at the elite level and they have probably been over-aggressive in scouting for players. In terms of rugby scholarships, R75 million is spent annually by those schools. It’s not healthy, but it’s not just in KZN that it is happening.

“We have to build a programme in conjunction with what the schools are doing. We track players from U12 and we filter in the ones good enough to play professional rugby. From U15 they come through our system and junior structures and they become Sharks. It’s important to have numbers in our academy, while Neil Powell and John Plumtree focus on high performance, and there needs to be a synergy between those two. Just filling in numbers is not good enough for what we require. The academy was owned by third parties, but that has now all been bought back and we hope that it will be an environment that young kids want to be part of.

“Sometimes we do bring in someone with celebrity power, but our focus is definitely our pipeline, so hopefully that dispels that myth. We do have so many Springboks and that has led to long discussions at Board level. It’s wonderful for the Sharks to have World Cup winners walking around Kings Park. Pre-Covid, we had R60 million worth of sponsorship and in the last four years we have doubled that. I believe people and businesses see something different about us: I would say it’s the way we treat each other and the reach of our brand.

“But we are almost victims of our own success having so many Springboks, and there has been a shortfall in terms of our rugby. We are planning the whole make-up of our squad totally differently next season,” Coetzee said.

Former Springbok wing JP Pietersen is an integral part of that planning.

“Our focus points are our coaching structure – to have the right people in the right places; the recruitment and elevation of senior players; a long-term succession plan for our junior group; and the culture and environment of the Sharks,” Powell said. “We want consistency across our structures in terms of coaching and culture. If possible, we would like to fill all coaching vacancies from within the system. JP Pietersen is the head of our junior structures and is also very passionate about the Sharks. He came here as a 19-year-old and went on to play 70 Tests. This is his home.”

While a group of happy players is obviously a positive, some critics say the Sharks are all about the good vibes and culture but are lacking the hunger and grit that comes from hard work.

“The aim is to have a culture that is tough but enjoyable, and to ensure that all the players we recruit can fit into that culture. If we make things too easy, then there won’t be a high enough work ethic and the players will not get fulfilment. Healthy internal competition is how you get the best out of the players,” Powell said.

Now that the painful Test series in Australia is over, the critics no longer need to sit in their chairs in front of the TV in the early hours of the morning and jeer the Proteas, and the anticipated extravaganza that the SA20 will be should distract attention anyway.

But one hopes what transpired in Australia is not forgotten, lost in the hurly-burly of the new T20 league and just the sheer volume of cricket and sport that constantly competes for attention. Let’s not forget that the Proteas also spent October and November in Australia, playing in the T20 World Cup, where they bowed out at the hands of minnows the Netherlands. The anger over that fiasco may have died down a bit, but the promise of a full review by Cricket South Africa has not been forgotten. The outcome of that review and the rebuilding strategies decided upon are now overdue.

The responsibility for making sure lessons are learnt from the 2-0 hiding (it surely would have been 3-0 but for rain) lies with the administrators, who now have the opportunity to ensure something good comes out of the ruins.

The current team and their coaches, plus the former players working as commentators in Australia, have all pinpointed the amount of domestic first-class cricket, as well as the standard, as being the main cause of the woeful performances of the Proteas lately. So that is surely where CSA need to start their autopsy.

CSA’s current executives inherited a house that was in drastic need of renovation and Proteas fans need to realise that there are no quick fixes at international level. But that is no excuse for inaction and CSA need to come up with definite plans that have the health of the Proteas – still by far their greatest source of income – as the greatest priority.

It is all very well if the next month is spent admiring the dazzling front garden of the house that is the SA20, but the fire that is raging in the kitchen needs some attention too.

The Proteas cricket team have already surrendered the series to Australia, soundly beaten in the first two Tests, and they have certainly been accessories to their own demise, so hopefully they can reverse that trend and spare their blushes in the third and final Test that starts in Sydney in the early hours of Wednesday morning (SA time).

While South Africa’s recent batting performances have been a crime against the decorated legacies of great batsmen that have represented the country before in Australia, like Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla, the line-up for the third Test simply have to dig deep within themselves and supplement whatever technical skill they can muster with tremendous determination and a bloodyminded refusal to give their wickets away.

As impressive as the Australian attack have been, there have been too many soft dismissals; avoiding run outs will help for a start.

The South African batsmen have the talent to be performing much better, they just need to show more mental steel. Which is tough to do when the team has taken a battering and confidence is low.

But there comes a time when a line in the sand has to be drawn and an attitude of “over my dead body” adopted; a New Year’s Test seems a most apt time for this to happen.