Ken Borland

South African rugby will forever be bonded with Kitch Christie’s famous ‘high road or the low road’ scenario before the 1995 World Cup triumph, but Bulls coach Jake White says it is still too early to consider his team as being at a similar crossroads ahead of their crunch United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.

Coach Christie said it was crucial that the Springboks beat defending champions and favourites Australia in the opening match of the 1995 World Cup and take the “high road” through the tournament; defeat would mean the “low road” requiring victories over England and New Zealand before the final. South Africa pulled off a sensational 28-18 win, setting them up for an unbeaten run through the tournament they hosted.

The Bulls, having lost last weekend to the Stormers in Cape Town, are now five points behind the defending champions in the South African Shield, having played an extra game. If the Sharks beat the Bulls with a bonus point at Kings Park, then they could be within another bonus-point win of the Pretoria side, with a game in hand.

But White, who has called the late Christie his mentor, is not stressing about the log at this stage.

“We’re not at the high road or low road point yet and it’s not a do-or-die game,” White said on Friday. “It’s still so open, although we do know Leinster are the pace-setters, they always have been.

“We beat the Sharks with a bonus point at Loftus, and if the Sharks beat the Stormers twice and we win this weekend, then we would be favourites again to win the conference.

“There are still a lot of permutations between now and the end of the tournament, and not every team will win every game at home. Winning a couple of matches away is the premium.

“But we will be up against one of the strongest provincial sides, although one thing I enjoy about the URC is that a team can beat anyone on any given Saturday. That’s exciting,” White said.

Nine current Springboks is what the Bulls, who will field Johan Goosen at fullback and Chris Smith at flyhalf, are up against. The combination of Smith and Goosen played in the pivotal game-management positions when the Bulls beat the Sharks 40-27 at Loftus Versfeld at the end of October, which is why White has made that selection again.

“The last time we played the Sharks we did that and it worked well, and we didn’t have Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie then,” White said. “It means we have two kickers and two passers and can move the ball away from flyhalf.

“I’ve heard it might rain in Durban too and the Sharks don’t play much in their own half, they have a good kicking game and Makazole Mapimpi is very good in the air.

“But it’s not just a reaction to them, it worked for us at home and it gives us two guys who understand how we want to play. It’s important that Bernard van der Linde can also kick with both feet at scrumhalf,” White said.

Bulls:Johan Goosen, Canan Moodie, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Chris Smith, Bernard van der Linde, Elrigh Louw, Cyle Brink, Marco Van Staden, Ruan Nortje (c), Ruan Vermaak, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Simphiwe Matanzima. Bench -Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Gerhard Steenekamp, Sebastian Lombard, Janko Swanepoel, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Lionel Mapoe, David Kriel.

There is more than a hectare of playing area at the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest stadium in the southern hemisphere, but there will be no place to hide for the Proteas as they look to stay alive in the series in the second Test against Australia starting in the early hours of Boxing Day (SA time).

South African captain Dean Elgar confirmed on Saturday that the tourists will field the same bowling attack which did a good job in the first Test in Brisbane, so if there is a change to the team then it will come amongst the beleaguered batting line-up.

“Playing at the MCG is the stuff of childhood dreams and I personally watched the Boxing Day Tests on TV as a young kid. So it’s going to be a surreal moment going out on the field,” Elgar said.

“It’s the first time here for the whole squad really, we have not been in these waters before. But we have a massive job at hand, trying to level the series, and we can’t wait to get going.

“We do have our final XI picked and there was chat around the seven/four split. But the bowlers have retained their spots, so if there is a change then it will come in the batting.

“We’ve had two days of really intense preparation, but now the guys need to pitch up and respond. We’ve had good conversations, but talk is cheap now, we’d best put a performance on the board,” Elgar said.

The opening batsman said he hoped for a much fairer pitch than the minefield used for the first Test at the Gabba. A two-day Test was not only a massive fail for the game but a commercial disaster for Queensland cricket.

“The pitch feels a lot firmer now, it was quite wet yesterday [Thursday] from the rain. So it seems a good wicket, we want that balance between bat and ball, that’s all we ever ask for.

“I imagine it’s not that easy preparing pitches, but obviously we don’t want another two-day Test, hopefully that will never be repeated again.

“We have an attack that can win Test matches, but we need to get them into that situation and we know runs on the board are key. We had a bit of a hurdle last week, but we are starting afresh.

“We all feel in a good space. We had a brilliant build-up before the first Test, but then a bit of a hiccup. But both batting units had that bar one batsman. Maybe too much has been read into what happened last week,” Elgar said.

Proteas interim coach Malibongwe Maketa is confident that his bowlers will do the business and get 20 wickets in the first Test against Australia starting in Brisbane in the early hours of Saturday morning, SA time, and then he will just trust his batsmen to get the required runs.

South Africa have still not decided whether to play six frontline batsmen or seven, and will probably only make a decision once they have seen how much grass is taken off the Gabba pitch by the groundsman. There have been some suggestions that the Proteas should leave out slow left-armer Keshav Maharaj, but the late great Shane Warne described the Gabba as one of the best pitches in the world for bowling spin. Australia’s current No.1 spinner, Nathan Lyon, has a good record there with 42 wickets in 11 Tests at 30.71.

“I do believe we have enough in our attack to take 20 wickets,” Maketa told Australian media on Thursday. “That’s what Test cricket boils down to and I think the ball will play a good role in this series.

“Taking those 20 wickets is most definitely our priority. We have the bowlers to take those 20 wickets, and then we have to back our batsmen to score the runs.

“We’ve been playing on pitches that have been a bit challenging recently, offering all three things – movement through the air, bounce and seam. Here, judging by the nets, there will be more consistent, truer bounce.

“First-innings scores are vital in what are always very competitive games at the Gabba, we need to stay in the contest the whole time,” Maketa said.

The capital of Queensland state is also known as Brisvegas in recognition of the drunken debauchery that often goes down, and there is a cruise company bearing that name on the Brisbane River close to the Gabba. Brisvegans will no doubt be shouting the odds as they enjoy their favourite Spanish Mackerel fish barbecues, about the Proteas batsmen being all at sea.

The Proteas could respond with less palatable comments about sandpaper, but Maketa said on Thursday that bringing up the scandal from the last Test series between the two great rivals, in 2018, could be counter-productive for the tourists.

“We know it was not pleasant what Australia have been through and some players are still paying for those mistakes. But those situations sometimes galvanise a team and opening old wounds would maybe bring them closer together as a unit.

“We have no control over what Australia does, but we will always fight fire with fire, and it doesn’t take much for us to step up against them.

“But our focus is just on how we go about our business and ensuring we execute to the best of our ability from ball one, at a venue where the crowd can feel on top of you and because of their history, Australia are very confident here,” Maketa said.

The Proteas effectively acclimatised to local conditions in their warm-up match against the Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane, and now it is down to the serious business of completing preparations for the first Test against Australia, starting at the Gabba in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Test series against Australia are always intense and among the most demanding examinations South African cricketers face. And it is seldom just a test of batting or bowling skills, the Australians pride themselves on playing mental games and there is as much off-field pressure as there is in the middle. It was Australia who lost the plot though in the last Test series between these two great rivals, the Sandpapergate affair marring the 2018 rubber in South Africa.

With so much to deal with on and off the field, no Protea will want to go into the series with any question marks over their preparation. Which is why it was most heartening to see captain Dean Elgar lead from the front with a century in the warm-up match, and Kyle Verreynne, Rassie van der Dussen and Theunis de Bruyn get good scores with the bat, while Temba Bavuma spent extended, much-needed time at the crease. With the ball, Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada looked particularly sharp.

Meanwhile, the West Indians have provided poor preparation for the Australians, being hammered by 164 and 419 runs in the two Tests.

The South African attack will provide a much bigger test for the greedy Aussie batsmen, while the Proteas batsmen will certainly show more fight.

Scoring first-innings totals of 598 for four declared and 511 for seven declared will certainly have provided much confidence though for the home batsmen, led by South African-born Marnus Labuschagne, who had scores of 204, 104 not out, 163 and 31 in the series.

Steven Smith, who stood in as captain for the injured Pat Cummins in the second Test, made an unbeaten double-hundred in the first game, while Travis Head had scores of 99 and 175.

For the cricket aficionado, Australia versus South Africa is always a mouthwatering prospect. Stand by for those all-nighters over the next three weeks.