Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa are hopeful that club cricketers will be able to return to training in the next month or two, which will be excellent news for the many people who are employed in that sphere even though it is strictly speaking amateur sport.

CSA cricket services manager Eddie Khoza told The Citizen that amateur cricket was very much part of their planning because they were well aware that many people earned a living from the game at that level, and that the grassroots are the foundation of the game.

“At the moment only professional teams have been given permission to play by government and that under strict regulations. But as part of our scenario planning, CSA have implemented a phased approach for the amateur game because it also provides a lot of employment i.e. private coaches. And if we don’t, by the time we get to Level I there might not be any clubs to get back to.

“But the medical protocols required to play at the moment are not really affordable for amateur teams. Which is why we applied for one-on-one coaching in Level III and in Level II five players and a coach are allowed. Hopefully in September/October we can start pre-season activities, by October we can be having a really thorough pre-season for clubs, schools, universities, and we would like all matches to commence on January 1, 2021,” Khoza said.

Amateur cricketers can breathe easy that CSA have not forgotten about them, but they are also trying to ensure that the thousands of club and school cricketers stay safe as well.

“The medical advice we have received is that in order to play competitive cricket again, the players need six-to-eight weeks of training, so October to December will allow that. Many schools and universities have anyway already said that they won’t be having any extramural activities for the rest of the year,” Khoza added.

By all accounts (and there have been many in the last week), Pat Lambie enjoyed a very good international career, playing 56 Tests, going to two World Cups and scoring 153 points for the Springboks. But there are many excellent judges who believe South African rugby still never got as much out of the Sharks flyhalf as they should have.

Despite a fine record of delivering when it mattered most, as well as performing at a level of consistency that all the great flyhalves have, Lambie only made 22 starts for the Springboks and was seldom given a decent run of games in which to establish himself. In fact, Lambie only once started five Tests in a row and that was at fullback in 2011, from the last two games of the Rugby Championship through the World Cup.

In his favoured position of flyhalf, Lambie never played more than three games on the trot in the number 10 jersey, on the end-of-year European tours of 2012 and 2014.

“Pat was an exceptional rugby player and as the dust settles on his premature retirement and people reflect back, I think many will realise he was the one that got away. No Springbok coach really made him his number one, nailed his flag to the mast and said Pat is my number one flyhalf. But we saw it in Super Rugby and Currie Cup finals that Pat was at his best in important games.

“He wasn’t picked consistently enough, even though he never let the side down, and then they moved him between fullback and flyhalf when he should have just been at flyhalf. It’s a great pity and it was disappointing, I know Dick Muir always said we must just put him in and play him when we were assistants together with the Springboks,” current USA coach Gary Gold, a member of the Springboks’ coaching team from 2008-2011 and head coach of the Sharks between 2014-2016, told Saturday Citizen.

As former Springbok captain and inside centre Jean de Villiers attests, Lambie was the sort of player a coach and team could rely on week after week.

“Pat would always just get the job done, he had that ability to perform under pressure, as that massive kick against the All Blacks showed. He was a fantastic player and his personality came through on the field in that he stayed calm in the big moments. He was the biggest gentleman in world rugby but he still performed with authority, he could leave his mark on the game.

“He was the sort of flyhalf who could dominate and control the game. I’ll never forget the 2010 Currie Cup final and his brilliant performance against us [Western Province] that showed his class. On two end-of-year tours we played 10 and 12 next to each other and we only lost one game, showing that Pat could really get the job done in difficult conditions,” De Villiers said.

And yet Heyneke Meyer, the Springbok coach who took over in 2012, binned Lambie to the bench at the start of the 2013 international season and again for the 2015 Rugby Championship.

Meyer has spoken warmly this week about his appreciation for Lambie’s talents and his personality in the team space, but he did perhaps let slip why he was reluctant to fully trust Lambie.

“As we all know, he wasn’t the biggest rugby player ever [1.77m, 86kg], but he had a serious all-round game and that included a very solid tackle and commitment. He would put his body on the line 100% of the time, never shied away from the contact side of things, and was safe under a high ball as well.

“Pat is way up there with the best talents I ever coached, but I will say this without any doubt at all: there was no better human being in my Bok squads. Wherever he has gone in the world professionally, he has quickly come to be considered one of the most likeable guys in the fold. I never coached a guy with better manners than him,” Meyer told Sport24.

That Lambie is a top-class human being is a recurring theme when speaking to people who know him well. Former Springbok captain Gary Teichmann had a different relationship with the Michaelhouse product as CEO of the Sharks, but is just as effusive in his praise.

“Pat is a guy with incredible ability but easy to deal with. He says it as it is, there’s never an angle with him, and it was always a very easy conversation with him – he’s all about honesty and transparency,” Teichmann said.

But more than that, he was a phenomenal rugby player, with the well-travelled Gold comparing him to a legend of the game like Jonny Wilkinson.

“Pat was potentially our Jonny Wilkinson, he probably has the same dimensions and Joel Stransky and Dan Carter were also not the biggest flyhalves. What Wilkinson did for England, I believe Pat could have done for South Africa because he’s a similar player and personality,” Gold said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-rugby-sport/2072068/the-inconvenient-truth-about-pat-lambie/

Kwagga Smith on the charge again. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

An excellent second half by the Lions saw them seal an enthralling 44-26 win over the Waratahs in their SuperRugby semifinal at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions had to overturn a 14-0 deficit inside the first eight minutes, which they did in thrilling fashion through brilliant tries by Kwagga Smith and Aphiwe Dyantyi.

But the Lions conceded a soft try from a simple front-of-the-lineout move by the Waratahs right on halftime, to set up an exciting second half with the scores locked at 19-19.

Having over-complicated matters by trying to do the miraculous before they had nailed down the basics, and by wasting penalties inside opposition territory, the message finally seemed to get through to the Lions that they were playing knockout rugby when flyhalf Elton Jantjies kicked a 55th-minute penalty from in front of the posts to give them a 22-19 lead.

From then on there was only one team in it as the dominant Lions forwards, led by the heroic Kwagga Smith, nailed down the victory and a trip to Christchurch for the final against the Crusaders, the reigning champions.

The Lions will get an icy welcome to the South Island and, given how invincible the Crusaders have been in playoff games at home – Saturday’s comfortable win over the Hurricanes was their 20th in a row – Swys de Bruin’s team will have to focus far better on defence, where they suffered some costly lapses at Ellis Park, and also fix a lineout that did not operate as smoothly as it should have.

The Waratahs held sway in the early exchanges and, although Lourens Erasmus, playing at flank, snaffled a couple of turnovers to end promising attacks, the Lions just could not contain the early width of the New South Wales game. They will also wish errors such as a missed lineout and a slipped tackle in midfield had been cut out of their game.

The opening try came from the sort of move they probably watched on video numerous times this week in their analysis of the Waratahs, flyhalf Bernard Foley launching a bomb into their 22, which Israel Folau won. The ball was immediately sent out wide right before going wide left almost as quickly, flank Ned Hanigan cantering over for the try.

Four minutes later, the Waratahs attack had the Lions at sixes and sevens down the left wing as Taqele Naiyaravoro stormed through tackles to get the visitors into the 22; lock Rob Simmons was stopped just short of the line, but fullback Folau was at hand to get the recycled ball and charge over for the second try.

The Lions finally got on the board in the 21st minute. An incredible piece of individual skill by wing Dyantyi saw him take a pass at the same time as he was swiveling out of a tackle; once in the Waratahs’ 22, flank Smith then showed just how explosive and strong he is with the ball as he powered over for an impressive try.

Dyantyi would go one better just five minutes later with a try that will go into Lions’ folklore. The new Springbok gathered the ball inside his own 22 as the Waratahs went the aerial route and immediately decided to counter. He went to the boot to get over the initial line of defence, regathered his own deft chip and then simply switched to another gear, showing amazing pace to pull away from the remaining defenders for a scintillating try.

Aphiwe Dyantyi dives over for his magnificent solo try. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

The Lions grabbed a 19-14 lead just before halftime with a thunderous rolling maul, hooker Malcolm Marx dotting down, but the Waratahs snuck over for an equalising try in the 40th minute. It felt like a sucker punch as a simple, but clever short lineout allowed prop Tom Robertson to go charging over.

Dyantyi unfortunately did not come out for the second half due to what coach De Bruin later described as a hamstring twinge, and firebrand loose forward Marnus Schoeman would prove a telling substitution for Erasmus.

It was his ferocious carry that led to Jantjies’ first penalty and Schoeman then produced another storming run two minutes later to carry the Lions into the Waratahs’ 22. The attack ended due to a lazy runner, with replacement hooker Damien Fitzpatrick yellow-carded for the offence in the red zone, the Lions setting another excellent lineout drive which resulted in Marx scoring again.

THE BIG HIT … Malcolm Marx puts down Israel Folau. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

At 19-27 down, the Waratahs were chasing the game thereafter; but Smith showed good toe after breaking loose on the 22 for another rousing try and, as the deficit reached critical mass at 34-19, the Australians desperately tried to get the ball wide as quickly as possible.

It all became a mess though as passes went behind the receiver, the move broke down and the Lions flooded the breakdown to win a penalty which Jantjies kicked from 52 metres out.

The Waratahs did manage to put together a decent attack with just four minutes remaining, Foley finding eighthman Michael Wells with a lovely pass, and once through the gap the former Brumbie linked up with replacement scrumhalf Jake Gordon for a consolation try (26-37).

Pegged back in their 22 from the restart, the Waratahs were then faced with an impregnable Lions defence, replacement scrumhalf Dillon Smit putting in a bone-rattling hit on Foley, the ball was turned over and Jantjies found Courtnall Skosan, Dyantyi’s replacement on the wing, with a pinpoint crosskick for the Lions’ sixth try.

The Crusaders scored four tries in beating the Hurricanes and these two great sides will enjoin in battle in a repeat of last year’s final, although this time it will be in Christchurch rather than Johannesburg.

Malibongwe Maketa is spending the winter as the head coach of the national academy at the CSA Centre of Excellence at the University of Pretoria, but the Warriors mentor is already thinking ahead to how he will handle the greater expectation that their excellent performances at franchise level have created for the Eastern Cape side.

In his second full season in charge, Maketa led the Warriors to both limited-overs finals and they were strongly in contention through the first five rounds of the Sunfoil Series as well, before losing their last three matches to finish last.

“It’s a great honour to be entrusted with such great talent at the academy, and as a group we’re going to commit to world-class standards. As a coach, I’m going to learn and grow as we try and keep South Africa as the number one cricketing nation. It should be the most memorable three months.

“I am happy with the progress the Warriors made last season, their hard work was rewarded. But the true test comes now because the supporters will expect us to box in that weight division from now on. As much as people say we don’t have any big names, we have a lot of very intelligent players and that is a big part of our success,” Maketa told Saturday Citizen at the CSA Centre of Excellence.

Many South African sports treat their up-and-coming coaches with almost criminal neglect, but it seems CSA certainly have a plan for Maketa, and his stint in charge of the academy is indicative of that. How does the 36-year-old see his own career pathway?

“I believe I’ve really grown as a coach. The players are also looking to grow and I’ve set barriers for them to get over, in a way I have to keep up with their growth. I enjoy all aspects of coaching, you have to give the players a lot of reassurance. If you don’t want to get better as a coach then you must not do this, because it’s about personal development, you want to see your players going up to the representative teams.

“I also want to go to higher levels as a coach, which means internationally, but the main thing is building relationships with the players. They must have enough trust that they know I am doing what is best for them,” Maketa said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20170610/282385514491146