Ken Borland

It’s been three long years since the All Blacks lost to the Springboks – and 22 Tests since their previous defeat against anyone (v England at Twickenham on 1 December 2012) – but their coach Steve Hansen is not as concerned with maintaining the winning streak as he is with delivering a quality performance on Saturday at Ellis Park.

Of course, he is in the lovely position of not having to worry if they lose on Saturday, while Bok coach Heyneke Meyer will bear the full brunt of the public’s obsession with beating the number one side in the world for the first time in six attempts.

“For us, it’s not about the winning streak but about the quality of performance, that’s hugely important. Our heads need to be in the right place, our preparation is about getting that right, and then Saturday is fun time.

“But it’s no fun if you don’t play well. But we have a quite a bit of talent in this group and if we play as well as we can, then it will take a good team to beat us,” Hansen said on Thursday.

With some people, including former coach Graham Henry, warning that the All Blacks are setting themselves up for a fall at the World Cup, there have even been suggestions that defeat might be good for New Zealand. Hansen dismissed such notions.

“I’ve never concurred with people saying you need to lose to learn. It hurts to lose, so why do you want to go through that to learn? We learn when we review games that maybe we should have lost, but we won.

“People say sometimes you have to get burnt to learn, but you can tell a flame is hot, you don’t need to put your hand in it,” Hansen said.

The All Blacks coach said Saturday’s Test would be decided by the tight fives and injury has forced the visitors to go with relative rookies at loosehead prop and tighthead lock.

Wyatt Crockett withdrew from selection with bad cuts to the face and has been replaced by Crusaders prop Joe Moody, who comes to his first Test start with a junior commonwealth games bronze medal in wrestling to his name.

Jeremy Thrush will partner with Sam Whitelock in the second row after Brodie Retallick failed to recover from concussion.

The 26-year-old Moody seemed pretty relaxed and was even able to make a subtle dig at his opposite number, the vastly-experienced Jannie du Plessis.

“Jannie is a bit different to what we normally get in New Zealand, he attacks the hooker much more, while our tightheads normally scrum straighter. But we’ve done our homework and I’m sure the scrums will go well,” Moody said.

The All Blacks’ winning streak is about thorough preparation and supreme conditioning, but it’s also about the character of the players under pressure, as Hansen stressed.

“We’ve been able to keep our composure in really tight situations, but we’ve had a bit of luck as well. We practise the moment without pressure so we can do it under pressure. As a group, this team has shown it is mentally strong and has great composure,” Hansen said.

All Blacks team: 15-Israel Dagg, 14-Ben Smith, 13-Conrad Smith, 12-Malakai Fekitoa, 11-Julian Savea, 10-Beauden Barrett, 9-Aaron Smith, 8-Kieran Read, 7-Richie McCaw, 6-Jerome Kaino, 5-Samuel Whitelock, 4-Jeremy Thrush, 3-Owen Franks, 2-Keven Mealamu, 1-Joe Moody. Reserves – 16-Dane Coles, 17-Ben Franks, 18-Charlie Faumuina, 19-Steven Luatua, 20-Liam Messam, 21-Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22-Colin Slade, 23-Ryan Crotty.

Compared to the efforts of his team-mates, Janneman Malan’s exploits on the South Africa U19 tour of England in August might have them considering erecting a statue in his honour at Waterkloof High School in Pretoria.

Malan was the only obvious success story to come out of a tour in which the SA U19s failed to win a game. The strong performance of the first four-day youth test, which was drawn, gradually gave way to a series of disappointing performances, especially by the batsmen.

Malan, however, batted superbly, passing 50 in six successive matches on tour, before being run out for 3 in the final ODI.

The optimism of the first two days of the series, when South Africa scored 433 in the first youth test at Fenners, Cambridge, thanks to Grant Roelofsen’s 149, and then reduced England to 199 for six, was in stark contrast to the end of the tour, with Lawrence Mahatlane’s new-look team suffering a 5-0 whitewash in the limited-overs games.

The determination of the English lower-order saw them save the first test and the frailties of the South African batting line-up then became apparent in the second test as they were bundled out for just 77 in their first innings in Northampton.

But with Hanco Olivier showing his mettle in batting for five hours in scoring 79 not out and Malan making 55 in three hours, South Africa were able to save the game and draw the test series as the fourth and final day was entirely washed out.

Malan, who scored 83 in the second innings of the first test, continued his brilliant run by making 56, 76, 52 and 51 in the first four ODIs, but his efforts were in vain as England took the spoils every time.

Keith Dudgeon sparked a late comeback by taking five wickets in the first ODI at Edgbaston, but South Africa had only posted an insufficient 227 and lost by two wickets with four balls to spare.

It was the closest match of the series as South Africa’s junior internationals were given the mother and father of hidings thereafter, twice in Nottingham and once each in Leicester and Derby.

The hosts won the toss in all five ODIs and certainly made it count, opening batsman Haseeb Hameed starting the series with two scores of 97 and then making 125 in the decisive third ODI; while number three Tom Alsop made a century in the second game and 57 in the third.

Pacemen Luke Wood, Josh Shaw and Will Rhodes were a handful for the SA U19 batsmen throughout the tour.

Assupol Tuks sent their hosts from the north of England, Leeds Bradford MCCU, packing on the second day of the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals in London yesterday.

Tuks beat Leeds Bradford by seven wickets with 22 balls remaining to ensure their place in Saturday’s semi-finals of the T20 Varsity World Cup.

It was a second successive convincing victory for the University of Pretoria students after the Theunis de Bruyn-inspired thrashing of Bangladesh’s University of the Liberal Arts on the first day.

The hero yesterday was pace bowler Corbin Bosch, who took four for 27 in his four overs to restrict Leeds Bradford to just 109 for eight after they had elected to bat first.

Bosch, one of the stars of the SA U19 team that won the ICC Junior World Cup earlier this year, has not yet played first-class cricket, but he is almost certain to appear for Northerns later this year.

The son of former Test fast bowler Tertius, Bosch struck with the new ball in the second and fourth overs to immediately undermine the opposition innings, but he is also wonderfully skilful at the death and he claimed further wickets in the 18th and 20^th overs.

Off-spinner Ruben Claassen was the other class act for Tuks, taking two for 13 in four overs and showing as much talent as any of the other spinners from the east.

The runs have kept flowing for SA U19 captain Aiden Markram since that Junior World Cup where he was the man of the tournament, and he anchored a straightforward Tuks chase with a run-a-ball 42.

With Gerry Pike and De Bruyn both addings 20s, the target was reached in the 17^th over.

The Pretoria students complete their round-robin campaign against the Jamaica Inter-Collegiate Sports Association today, and the West Indians will qualify for the semi-finals alongside Tuks if they win.

If the South Africans make it a clean sweep of three from three in Group 2 then they will be joined by whoever has the better run-rate between the Jamaicans and the winner of the other clash between the Bangladeshis and English.

South Africa U19 captain and Big Sports Management client Aiden Markram is on his way to England with the Assupol Tuks team for the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals, effectively his second World Cup of the year.

Markram was the player of the tournament when he led South Africa to victory in the ICC Junior Wold Cup in Dubai at the start of the year, and the University of Pretoria cricket team will also be relying on his powerful strokeplay at the top of the order as they represent the country in what amounts to a T20 Varsity World Cup.

“I’m happy with my form and I know how important it is to get the team off to a good start, whether that means posting a total on the board or chasing a target. But I’m not taking anything for granted, that’s the last thing you want to do, and I’m going to keep working hard. As a batsman, I have to get the runs on the board,” Markram said on the eve of his team’s departure for London for the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals which start on Monday.

Markram will be playing in England for the first time and said he will be relying heavily on the knowledge of Tuks coach Pierre de Bruyn, who spent 10 years as a professional in the United Kingdom, apart from also playing for the Titans and Dolphins in South African franchise cricket.

“It will be my first time in England, but I’m fortunate to have coach Pierre and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I believe the ball does a lot at the start of the innings, but I’ve prepared as best as I could. We know there’s going to be good opposition, so we must just stick to what we know and not take the opposition for granted,” Markram said.

Tuks, having won the national club championships for the last three years and beating SA A in two warm-up games in the last week, undoubtedly have their sights set on next Saturday’s Red Bull Campus Cricket final.

To get there, they have to finish in the top two of their group and then win a semi-final earlier on Saturday. The student champions from the United Kingdom, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies are the other competitors and the eight finalists will be split into two round-robin groups of four, with the draw only being done on Sunday evening.

The round-robin fixtures will be held at the picturesque Wormsley Cricket Club ground, on the Getty family estate and a venue where South African touring teams have played in the past, while the semi-finals and final will be held at the famous Oval, the scene of Hashim Amla’s historic 311 not out in 2012.

“As a team, we’ve played well and each person knows their role and how to execute that. We’re really confident and we trust the abilities of each other,” Markram said.

De Bruyn was more forthright when he said: “Some people don’t like pressure, but we want it, we thrive on it. We don’t pretend it’s not around and we’ve coached the players to deal with it. They make sure they find a way to perform under pressure and that plays a massive role, they have belief when they’re under the pump because they’ve overcome most pressure situations in the last three years.”

The coach said it was vital his team hit the ground running when the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals start on Monday.

“How we start is going to be crucial, there’s no room for us to start slowly, there’s no room for us to try and find our feet or get into an innings or a bowling spell. We have to be on the button from the first ball on Monday,” De Bruyn said.

India have dominated the previous two Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals – the inaugural event in 2012 was won by DAV College Chandigarh, while last year’s tournament was won by Rizvi College from Mumbai.

While Markram will set the tone up front with his broad bat, he will be backed by new Titans batting star Theunis de Bruyn, as well as exciting strokeplayers in Heinrich Klaasen, Sean Dickson and Johan Wessels.

The bowling will be led by Markram’s SA U19 team-mate Corbin Bosch, the man of the match in the Junior World Cup final, and left-armer Vincent Moore, backed by tidy seamers in De Bruyn, Wessels and Tian Koekemoer, and an array of spinning options – off-spinners Ruben Claasen and Markram, leg-spinner GC Pretorius and orthodox left-armer David Mogotlane.

“We’re going to be under pressure, we’re going to be tested, especially by the sub-continent teams because they have something different, like unorthodox spinners. But we’re a tight unit and this sort of environment is what we aspire to – I don’t think we could be better prepared, we’ve done the hard work and now we just need to express our skills with confidence,” captain Theunis de Bruyn said.

Participating teams: Leeds Bradford MCC (United Kingdom); University of New South Wales (Australia); University of Liberal Arts (Bangladesh); Rizvi College (India); Karachi University (Pakistan); University of Pretoria (South Africa);International College of Business and Technology (Sri Lanka); Jamaica Inter-Collegiate Sports Association (West Indies).

Tuks squad: Theunis de Bruyn, Heinrich Klaasen, Sean Dickson, Gerry Pike, Aiden Markram, Corbin Bosch, David Mogotlane, Tian Koekemoer, Vincent Moore, Nsovo Baloyi, GC Pretorius, Ruben Claassen, Johan Wessels.

– http://www.bigsportsmanagement.co.za/NewsInterviews/tabid/591/itemid/1090/amid/4719/18-july-2014.aspx