Ken Borland

It seems likely that Duanne Olivier or Marco Jansen will be joining Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje in the Proteas pace attack to take on India in their Test series starting on Boxing Day, and SA A coach Malibongwe Maketa believes left-armer Jansen has earned his shot at an international debut.

While the return of Olivier after nearly three years of being a Kolpak player has hogged the headlines – unsurprisingly given his outstanding domestic form – many observers of the SA A series against India A, that ended this week with the third successive draw, are extremely excited about a potential Test debut for Jansen.

The 21-year-old must have been a contender for the player of the series award that eventually went to leading run-scorer Sarel Erwee (251 @ 50.20). Jansen bowled much better than his final figures of six wickets at 31.83 suggest, and he also averaged 63.50 with the bat, producing some crucial lower-order runs.

“Marco is an unassuming guy in the way he goes about his business,” Maketa told Saturday Citizen on Friday, “he does the job without much fanfare. But his runs and his bowling ability have been invaluable.

“He’s been our aggressor with the ball, he’s the guy we’ve turned to to break partnerships. He had an unbelievable series and his call-up to the Test squad is very much deserved,” Maketa said.

Erwee is also in the Test squad but only likely to make his debut if one of the regular opening batsmen, captain Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram, suffer an injury or illness. But the left-hander was one of the SA A stars to send a clear message to the selectors that he has what it takes to succeed at international level, given he scored 38 and 41, and 75 and 97, in the last two matches against a powerful India A attack.

Paceman Glenton Stuurman is also in the Test squad, with the improvement he showed with the old ball pleasing Maketa and also showing the national selectors that he is progressing as a bowler.

Others to show their careers are on an upward curve were fast bowler Lutho Sipamla, who was the leading wicket-taker for SA A, and batsman Tony de Zorzi, who batted positively in accumulating 234 runs (second only to Erwee) at 46.80. Zubayr Hamza produced an outstanding unbeaten century in the last game, and Pieter Malan opened the series with a big hundred.

“To hold our own against a team of that quality showed that we need to keep investing in these players,” Maketa said. “It was a very good India A team and I’m pleased with our performance.

“In all the games we had opportunities to really put them in the corner, but we let those chances go, it was slightly disappointing that we let India A back in the game.

“But overall, I was pleased that we were able to get into those situations, that we gave ourselves those opportunities,” Maketa said.

While the Springboks have rightly been lauded, both locally and overseas, as being a beacon of true nation-building hope in this troubled land, their game-plan has earned less respect from foreign critics.

But backline coach Mzwandile Stick made it clear on Friday, on the eve of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town on Saturday, that they don’t care.

“We will never run away from our strengths. The All Blacks pass the ball a lot, that’s how they grew up as kids, but nobody says they must stop doing that. It’s the same with us, physicality is in our DNA, it’s in our genes. If we want to play lovely, free-flowing, running rugby then we have to earn that right. We’re very happy with the way we play.

“In 10 years time, people will only see the results and they won’t be worried about the style of rugby we played. Seventeen of our squad for the first Test were involved in the World Cup final and we have been more than three years with these guys. So we can’t be underdone,” Stick said on Friday.

While Lions coach Warren Gatland said South Africa’s ego had somehow been dented when SA A beat the tourists and some have painted the Springboks’ preparations as being chaotic due to Covid-19 cases and several injuries, Stick painted a picture of a squad that has been an island of focus, with even isolation being used to fine-tune their planning.

“We have made peace with the fact that these are very challenging times and the team that adapts best will have a better chance of winning. When you get guys like Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi and Handre Pollard back in the squad then you can feel the vibe and energy goes to a totally different level. These are guys who know what it takes.

“They know how to switch on and they have proper, proper heads on their shoulders. That’s what coaches enjoy and we are excited about the first Test. Hopefully everything goes according to our plan. We are happy as a team about the SA A game because we came out on top in the most important stat – the scoreboard; we won the game. So I’m not sure why our ego would be dented,” Stick said.

The Lions may have failed to make the SuperRugby playoffs after their dramatic weekend draw against the Stormers, but the Johannesburg-based franchise has certainly earned the respect of all their opponents this season.

Just two years after they were controversially relegated from SuperRugby, the Lions have clinched second place in the South African Conference and boast an almost identical record to the Brumbies, who have snuck into the playoffs ahead of them because of bonus points.

They have maintained their positive style of play with ball in hand, but where they have improved most is defensively, boasting the best tackling success rate in the competition. The Lions play at the highest tempo of all the South African sides as they swarm around in defence and always have great intensity on the ball. Their powerful scrum has provided a solid platform and their lineout has also been efficient.

“It’s all about playing with intensity and hunger, and we have to up our performance every week. There are plans in place, but I also allow the guys to be free spirits and you have to live with the small mistakes that come from that,” coach Johan Ackermann says. “Obviously I’m very proud of the team, it must be one of our best years and it shows that hard work is worth it.”

The Lions have certainly deserved all the praise that has come their way, beating the qualified Waratahs and Highlanders in the last five weeks and showing all season that they are never out of the contest with some superb second-half comebacks.

“There’s great belief within this side, a real hunger. We want to close down the opposition’s space and put them under pressure. We’ve built our physicality in defence, we want to be in their faces and not stand back,” captain Warren Whiteley says.

Their impressive performances have seen several of their players grow into Springbok contenders. The most likely Lions player to feature in Heyneke Meyer’s Springbok World Cup squad is flyhalf Elton Jantjies, who dares to take the ball flat and attack the opposition line, has superb hands and is a strong defender, as well as kicking well this season.

Eighthman Whiteley is competing with Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Burger for a place at the World Cup, but he gets through a mound of work and is the only player in SuperRugby this year to have made more than 200 tackles, while also being highly effective in a linking role, possessing great skill and vision as befits a Springbok Sevens player who helped win the Commonwealth Games gold medal last year.

He is also adept at interfering with the opposition lineout, where Franco Mostert has also been a key performer for the Lions, as well as in the loose.

Warwick Tecklenburg has been outstanding in doing all the Lions’ dirty work, being second only to Whiteley in terms of tackles made, but fellow flank Jaco Kriel has been the most impressive forward.

A constant nuisance at the breakdown, he oozes raw talent in offence, having phenomenal pace, strength and hands, and has more often than not been able to spark the most sensational counter-attacks by the Lions.

Harold Vorster and Lionel Mapoe have proved to be two powerful centres, while scrumhalf Faf de Klerk and wing Ruan Combrinck are two other backs who have announced themselves as future Springboks this year.

Despite their success over the last two years, Ackermann says at the moment they are just playing pretty rugby and haven’t won anything yet, there is more growing to do.

“We can look back on a good season regardless of missing the playoffs. The players know where they stand with me and they know my expectation on deserving the jersey. As long as they do that, I can’t ask for more. The growth from last year is definitely there, but there is still a lot of work to do.

“Nobody has achieved anything yet. We are not in the playoffs, we haven’t won the Currie Cup yet, we haven’t won any trophies yet. But if you ask me if there is a lot of growth, both for me as coach and for the team, then definitely if you look where we started in January 2014 until where we are now,” Ackermann says.

Alex Noren was not aiming high at the start of the final round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Sunday, but he was over the moon after a phenomenal nine-under-par round of 63 earned him a dazzling six-shot victory at Gary Player Country Club.

In the 36 editions of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, only two other golfers – Sergio Garcia (2001) and Ernie Els (2002) – have shot 63 in the final round to win and it’s fair to say the course was much easier back then.

The 34-year-old Swede started the day six strokes behind leader Jeunghun Wang, who had fired a wonderful 64 in incredibly tough conditions on the third day and seemed to already have one hand on the famous crystal trophy.

But Noren produced a magnificent front nine, that featured six birdies, and then eagled the 10th and birdied 11 to rocket into the lead, nine-under through 11 holes and playing golf that was simply out of this world.

“Honestly, I thought I had no chance at the start of the round, this is a really tricky course and the leader had shot 64 yesterday which was like 59 today.

“So I just wanted to get a good round in before the World Tour Championship in Dubai next week, to have a good positive feeling going there, work on my swing a bit. Anything under par I would have been happy,” Noren said after his fourth victory in his last 11 tournaments.

But after starting with three straight birdies he then also picked up a shot on the fifth and then sank a 30-foot putt for another birdie on the par-three seventh; two behind Wang, he started to believe.

“I was a bit nervous at the start, I didn’t feel on top of my game but something happened and after seven holes I started to realise that I must believe in myself that I can win. My putter was very hot and I got a lot more excited,” Noren said.

The 21-year-old Wang initially held things together well and was not going away as he birdied the ninth to draw level with Noren. But he could only muster one more birdie on the back nine and, with his tee-shots going ever more off-target, he was undone by four bogeys coming in, having to settle for second place.

Louis Oosthuizen, three off the lead at the start of the day, just could not get going on Sunday and double-bogeyed the par-three seventh after finding the greenside bunker to fall off the pace. He birdied the 10^th and 15^th holes, but there were more dropped shots on the last three holes as he finished ninth, nine behind Noren.

Andy Sullivan shot a level-par 72 on Sunday to finish on seven-under, tied for third with leading South African Branden Grace (70), Spaniard Alejandro Canizares (68), Frenchman Victor Dubuisson (68) and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia (67).

Henrik Stenson shot a 70 to finish eighth on six-under and will be going to the Race to Dubai finale in Dubai this week on top of the order of merit, but with Danny Willett and Noren still able to catch him.