Ken Borland

The great Bruce Springsteen sings about the bittersweet feelings of joy and dismay when returning to one’s roots in his 1985 hit My Home Town and Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick was probably experiencing similar mixed emotions in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) on Friday.

Stick is back in his birthplace with the Springbok team preparing for their Rugby Championship opener against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday, but the build-up to the big Test match, with the home team fresh off their stirring win over the British and Irish Lions, is strangely muted. Simply because of the Covid restrictions under which sport is now played.

“To be honest, I’ve been a bit down this week because it’s the first time I’ve come to PE and not even been able to visit my family. We know how passionate supporters are here, they are big Springbok supporters. This is a very special place for me and a packed stadium on Saturday would have been nice.

“We are all very passionate about the Eastern Cape, they gave me my platform, I am who I am because of this place. And we know there is a lot of potential here and we just have to make sure we keep on looking after it. Otherwise there has not been much difference in our preparation for Argentina, we are sticking to our routine and the process has not changed,” Stick, a former IRB Sevens World Series winning captain, said on Friday.

In terms of preparation for Saturday’s Test, the new 50/22 trial law that allows a team to throw into the lineout if they kick from their own half indirectly into touch in the opposition 22, is not something they have really had time to incorporate into their game-plan.

“It was only brought in this week so we won’t be changing much. But with all the kickers in our team it does give us opportunities. Frans Steyn, for example, has a massive boot that maybe we can use. But it does not change our plan much,” Stick said.

Speaking of Steyn, the backline coach said it will be important on Saturday for the likes of the double World Cup winner and fellow seniors Elton Jantjies, Jesse Kriel and Cobus Reinach to share their experience with a new-look back three.

“The key has been getting a balance in the backline. There are guys who have been there for a while – Cobus, Elton, Frans and Jesse – they are experienced and we know they have done it before. But the back three have worked very hard. We know what Sbu Nkosi can do, he has a bit of x-factor; Aphelele Fassi is a youngster who has played well for the Sharks and had a couple of very good touches against Georgia; and Damian Willemse is starting to mature in his game, he does the basics very well.

“One of our goals is building strong depth, whenever we get the opportunity we will give some guys the chance to recover and others the chance to play. It’s going to be tough against the strongest Argentina team but I have no doubt they are up to the challenge,” Stick said.

The Bulls were able to discover their inner mongrel at Ellis Park on Saturday as they hammered the Lions 30-12 in their SuperRugby match, the hosts experiencing that losing feeling in a home derby for the first time since February 2015.

The win was based on the dominance of the Bulls pack who managed to muster extraordinary levels of energy and intensity despite having to undergo the draining flight back from Argentina at the start of the week. They simply had too much grunt for an inexperienced Lions pack and having seized the advantage early in the first half, they just never surrendered the momentum.

But it was not just brute force that won the day for the Bulls forwards. They certainly seem to have up-skilled themselves and their handling and support play was excellent as the visitors chose to, sensibly, base much of their attacking efforts around close quarters, their forwards driving and passing with equal effectiveness.

It was a terrible first half for the Lions from the moment wing Aphiwe Dyantyi fumbled flyhalf Handre Pollard’s soaring up-and-under as the Bulls cleared their lines after the kick-off. For the next 40 minutes the Bulls thoroughly dominated territory and Lions coach Swys de Bruin was not exaggerating afterwards when he said “we never had the ball for the first 24 minutes and we had just one attacking opportunity in the first half”.

The one positive for the Lions was that they put in a top-class defensive effort in the first half and it took the Bulls 14 minutes to finally turn their overwhelming dominance into points. Hooker Malcolm Marx was deemed to have deliberately knocked the ball on and Pollard slotted the penalty.

The Springbok flyhalf kicked another penalty in the 27th minute after a superb build-up by the Bulls, their forwards keeping it tight, bashing away and then bringing the backline into play at just the right time. Marnus Schoeman, a perpetual nuisance at the breakdown, conceded the ruck penalty.

But the Bulls did not just play 10-man rugby at Ellis Park and their first try came on the half-hour when they were able to con the Lions defence with a deft pop-pass to Rosko Specman after a lineout, the impressive wing racing into the 22, whereafter eighthman Duane Vermeulen provided the powerful finish.

Pollard kicked another penalty three minutes before the break as the Bulls went into halftime 14-0 up, a lead which certainly did not flatter them and in fact should have been more but for some finishing touches being lacking.

It would have been silly for the Bulls to abandon what worked so well for them and they started the second half with a powerful driving maul, the brittle Lions pack conceding another penalty to Pollard.

At 17-0, the Lions were in the Valley of Death, but they showed some spirit in the second half, even though they were clearly out-muscled. Tighthead prop Carlu Sadie burrowed over for a try in the 48th minute and at times it looked like a comeback was about to start for the home side, but the Bulls defence was also given a workout and proved impressively up to the task.

A threatening Specman run was brought to an end by a high tackle, allowing Pollard to stretch the lead to 20-5 and then the outstanding hooker Schalk Brits, whose dynamism was the start of so many good things for the Bulls, earned a breakdown penalty, his flyhalf converting from 53 metres out.

The Bulls were 23-5 up going into the final quarter, but the Lions did manage to stay in the game with one more try. Schoeman burst from a ruck and loosehead prop Dylan Smith was up in support to take the try-scoring pass.

Apart from the dominance of the pack, one of the key strengths of the Bulls on Saturday was how quickly and effectively they came up to contest Pollard’s accurate tactical kicks and their final try was due to the pressure their chase exerted.

A quick lineout throw by the Lions deep inside their own 22 went horribly wrong, Pollard sized up the situation quickly and got the ball wide to fullback Warrick Gelant, who went haring off for the corner.

Pollard said after the game that the win was up there with the best he has experienced with the Bulls and nobody will argue that the visitors were hugely impressive at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Now, if they can maintain that momentum and intensity, we might just start talking about a changing of the guard in terms of South African SuperRugby supremacy.

Australia’s rapid implosion as a Test team, going from the number one ranked side in August to their current shambles, was unexpected but there have been warning signs in their cricket for a while and they are similar to the problems South African rugby is experiencing at the moment.

A focus on chasing money and the commercial aspects of the game has been allowed to mar the systems and structures that were in place to ensure that Australia’s Test team – as well as, at times, the Springboks – were always at the pinnacle of the game.

The Big Bash T20 league is obviously a wonderful, exciting occasion in the Australian sporting calendar, but it seems it has become the most important part of the cricket season, Cricket Australia’s priority and something that is pushing everything else on to the periphery.

There was a time that the four-day Sheffield Shield competition was Australia’s premier domestic tournament and the envy of the world; nowadays it seems almost an afterthought and pace bowlers are pulled out of games midway through by national team management using medical protocols that have little basis in actual cricketing wisdom.

The most amazing example of T20 taking over to the detriment of everything else Down Under will come in February. Six days before Australia play the first Test against India in Pune, starting what is an incredibly daunting tour for a struggling team, a three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka starts in Melbourne.

International cricket was always about the best from each country playing against each other, but either Australia send a second-string team to India or their reserves will be playing in the T20 series. The last T20 will be played the night before the first Test starts!

Some of the Australian media were understandably outraged by the scheduling and, in the wake of the series loss to the magnificent Proteas, they have given their team and administrators both barrels and deservedly so.

Other Australian media have, however, resorted to blame-shifting and a video focusing on South African captain Faf du Plessis doing two perfectly legal things – eating a sweet on the field and using his saliva to shine the ball – albeit at the same time, was always going to go viral and attract the interest of the International Cricket Council.

But if they do punish Du Plessis, what are they going to do about players using sunscreen and then wiping their sweat on the ball? How about the ubiquitous Australian practice of chewing gum on the field, that is also like steroids for saliva.

South African cricket is currently basking in a glorious, phenomenal third successive series win in Australia that is going to be remembered for a long time because of the resilience and team unity they have shown, especially in the absence of big guns AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn.

But we also need to be wary that our administrators aren’t going to go down the same route as their Australian counterparts; there have been enough instances of South African sporting administrators chasing the bucks instead of what is going to be best for the game for us to be cautious.

Which is why, when I see the Proteas and Sri Lanka will be playing the third Test in Johannesburg from January 12-15, and the two Gauteng teams, the Titans and the Lions, will be playing a potentially crucial Sunfoil Series game at exactly the same time, I wonder if our four-day cricket is also going to be neglected, leading to the demise of our wonderful Test side?

Surely it can’t be too hard for the schedulers to say: “There’s going to be a Test in Johannesburg that week, let’s make sure that both Gauteng teams are playing away from home?”

Let the Australian malaise be a warning to us, no matter how smug and happy we are currently feeling.