Ken Borland

Western Province Peninsula ensured that they will move back into the hockey IPT A Section should there be promotion as they clinched the men’s B Section title in the Greenfields Senior Interprovincial Nationals with a convincing 5-1 victory over KZN Mynahs in the final in Randburg on Saturday.

Peninsula went into a 2-0 lead at halftime through a penalty stroke by Reece Arendse and a field goal by Warren McEwan and, although Mynahs pulled a goal back through Kovin Moodley four minutes after the break, the WP B side made their move early in the final quarter as McEwan completed his hat-trick with two impressive field goals in two minutes.

Kyle Lottering added the finishing touches to an impressive week for Peninsula, who won the A IPT in 2014 in one of the most sensational results in SA hockey history, as he added the fifth goal three minutes from time.

North-West enjoyed a small consolation for their semifinal defeat in a shootout at the hands of the Mynahs as they won the bronze medal with a 6-3 win over Zimbabwe, dominating the second half with Francois Cilliers scoring a brace.

B Section results

Men’s B Section final: WP Peninsula 5 (Reece Arendse, Warren McEwan [3], Kyle Lottering) KZN Mynahs 1 (Kovin Moodley).

Women’s B Section final: WP Peninsula 2 (Kayde Miller, Robyn Pinder) KZN Mynahs 1 (Stacey Hiron).

Men’s B Section bronze medal: North-West 6 (Francois Cilliers [2], Killian Ludick, Mitesh Makan, Neil van Onselen, Pierre Bothma) Zimbabwe 3 (Luckson Sikisa, Edwin Tholanah, Arnold Mpofu).

Women’s B Section bronze medal: Zimbabwe 4 (Michelle Williams [2], Michelle Mollins [2]) KZN Inland 0.

Men’s B Section: 5^th-6^th SA Country Districts 2 (Ryan Innes, Etienne Blatt) Northerns B 1 (Reece Mowatt); 7^th-8^th Eastern Gauteng 3 (Kyle Cameron, Darren Ellis, Bradley Nunn) KZN Inland 0.

Women’s B Section: 5^th-6^th Mpumalanga 2 (Jeanri Naude, Linze Liversage) Southern Gauteng Nuggets 1 (Jerri Dennyschen); 7^th-8^th SA Country Districts 5 (Robyn Morgan, Anel Beukes, Marelie Devereux  [2], Andri van Heerden) Northerns B 3 (Chanel Dippenaar, Hanlie Podd, Ane Luus).

Final placings

Men: 1 WP Peninsula; 2 KZN Mynahs; 3 North-West; 4 Zimbabwe; 5 SA Country Districts; 6 Northerns B; 7 Eastern Gauteng; 8 KZN Inland.

Women: 1 WP Peninsula; 2 KZN Mynahs; 3 Zimbabwe; 4 KZN Inland; 5 Mpumalanga; 6 Southern Gauteng Nuggets; 7 SA Country Districts; 8 Northerns B.

http://www.sahockey.co.za/tournaments/229-wp-peninsula-men-claim-b-section-crown

The South African men’s U21 team played in the final of the Greenfields Senior Interprovincial Nationals in Randburg on Saturday, showing that there is plenty of young talent coming through the ranks. But they are also thoroughly transformed with eight players of colour in the squad, including six Black Africans, showing that hockey is heading away from the representivity frustrations that have dogged them in the past.

And while “quotas” is a word bandied about by the older generation, it is not a hip word when it comes to hockey’s rising young talent.

“It hasn’t been difficult at all to find players of colour for the team because these guys have come through the age-groups, they’ve played together in the U16s and U18s, where there is a heck of a lot of good quality. The core of this side have played Tests together for the SA U18s and made the Junior Olympics semi-finals with the SA U17s, both under Neville Rothman, my assistant coach.

“So there are no quota – I hate that word – players in the team. They were all born after 1995 and have played in every national team together, so there is no baggage. They say it themselves in team meetings that the colour of your skin makes no difference. There’s a very positive feeling in this squad, there’s such a positive culture,” SA U21 coach Garreth Ewing said.

The players of colour in the current squad that is beating seasoned professionals at the senior IPT are composed midfielder Tyson Dlungwana, defender Nduduza Lembethe, Ryan Julius, an elusive runner with the ball, forward Khumo Mokale, the skilful Nqobile Ntuli, pacy Tevin Kok, solid Amkelwa Letuka and goalkeeper Siyavuya Nolutshungu, and they would comfortably be playing in this IPT for their provincial sides were they not on national duty.

“Obviously we do pay close attention to the players of colour, but a lot of them are our best players. Some of them are going to be superstars. They have a long way to go, but their ability and decision-making under pressure is already so good. I can’t wait to see where they all go, six of them already have full national caps,” Ewing said.

Ewing, who has considerable experience coaching both locally and internationally, clearly likes the emphasis on bringing through players of colour that has to be there if South African hockey are to get back to where they want to be – in the upper echelons of the world game.

“What is coming through underneath shows that there is so much potential. We’re not afraid of targets, we embrace them. Things don’t happen overnight, but we’re getting there. The guys play with such joy and style, their hockey is so attractive,” Ewing said.

Most encouragingly, Black coaches are also starting to come through. The losing semi-finalists, KZN Raiders and the Northerns Blues, are coached by Sihle Ntuli and Krinesan Moodley respectively. WP Peninsula are coached by Denzil Dolley and the team they played in the B Section final, KZN Mynahs, are mentored by Sharmin Naidoo

Patrick Tshutshani is Ewing’s counterpart with the junior women, Ryan Pillay coached the Western Province women’s team and even the Mpumalanga women’s team have a Black African coach in Brighty Mshaba.

Numerous other players of colour have shone with Jermaine Johnson and Julian Hykes both playing key roles in getting Southern Gauteng into the men’s final, while Pierre de Voux of Western Province and KZN’s Mohamed Mea are two newer players that are going to have the national selectors’ eyes on them.

The story is the same in the women’s section: Southern Gauteng are going to take on Northerns Blues in the final with Sanani Mangisa their stalwart in goal and Toni Marks and Lisa Hawker two of their man threats up front.

Northerns have Mmatshepo Modipane in goal.

But there is a challenge that SA Hockey will need outside help to overcome and, as ever, it is a financial one.

“The financial challenges for the previously disadvantaged players is huge. Consider the cost of going to our world cup – and the players have to pay! My biggest fear is having to leave someone behind because they can’t afford it,” Ewing says sombrely.

George Coetzee and Jaco van Zyl were the final two-ball in the third round of the Chase to the Investec Cup final at the Lost City on Saturday, but both had their problems to leave the race for the massive bonus pool wide open in the last tournament of the Sunshine Tour’s lucrative summer swing.

The Springboks will go into their quadrangular series final against the physical Samoans with two number-four locks in partnership in the middle row, after coach Heyneke Meyer named Flip van der Merwe in the number-five jersey on Wednesday.

Van der Merwe replaces his Bulls partner Juandre Kruger, a more traditional number-five lock, and Meyer said the reason for the change was because “I want to see if Eben and Flip can play together because we’re very thin at number five.”

Kruger, who was a mobile presence last weekend against Scotland, is of course off to chase the euro in France later this year, so that might also have something to do with Meyer’s decision.

Franco van der Merwe, who has run the Sharks lineout with aplomb this year, is also in the squad and if Meyer was really desperate to test his depth at number five, he would surely have given the experienced former Lions star a run.

It seems probable that the real reason for Flip van der Merwe’s selection is that Meyer wants to target the collisions, where Scotland showed them up last weekend, against a team that is especially combative and has great physical presence in that area. If the Springboks lose the collisions, then they could be condemned to chasing after the ball against a side that thrives on running rugby when they’re on the front foot.

The 28-year-old may not have played in the middle of the lineout since his junior days, but he was unfazed by the switch.

“I’ll be doing the same work at lineout time, it doesn’t matter if you’re four or five, it’s just a different number on your back. The breakdown will also be very important and we’re working hard on trying to improve that,” Flip van der Merwe said.

There are potentially two changes to the loose trio as well, with Marcell Coetzee making way for Francois Louw on the open side and Willem Alberts set to return on the blind side. The Sharks battering ram has been bracketed with Siya Kolisi, who really took his chance to shine last week in Nelspruit, but the medical staff are confident Alberts will be fit to play, meaning the Stormers rookie will start on the bench again.

While Alberts will add even more oomph to the Springboks when it comes to the collisions, the way Louw is able to read and adapt to referee’s interpretations when it comes to turnover ball, means South Africa should be much more effective at the breakdowns than they were last weekend against Scotland.

“Scotland deserve a lot of credit for playing on the off-sides line, but Francois Louw has much more knowledge of Northern Hemisphere referees and he is a recognised open-side flank. When he came into the team last year, suddenly he brought something different to our game in terms of ball-stealing. He’s used to those Northern Hemisphere interpretations and he shows how to adapt to the referee,” Meyer said.

The all-round contribution of Louw also extends to ball-carrying and lineout work, where the Springboks should dominate the Samoans even without a specialist number five jumper.

The scrums are the one set-piece where Samoa have improved tremendously in recent times and the 120kg bulk of Van der Merwe in the second row will obviously help the Springbok scrum.

The fitness of Jean de Villiers is still not certain and he has been bracketed at inside centre with Jan Serfontein, with hooker Adriaan Strauss set to take over the reins if necessary and become the 55^th Test captain of the Springboks.

“Jean has had a scan of his sternum and there’s nothing torn or broken and he’s feeling much better today. There’s not as much pain or discomfort,” Meyer said.

Wednesday’s selection means Meyer has used just 27 players (28 if De Villiers is unavailable and Juan de Jongh gets game time) through the three-match series, but the Springbok coach said he was happy with the amount of experimentation he has done ahead of the Rugby Championship.

“I feel I’ve played a lot of new guys. I’ve stuck with Willie le Roux when I could have played Zane Kirchner, there’s JJ Engelbrecht and Jano Vermaak, Bjorn Basson had never started for me before, Siya Kolisi, Arno Botha, Trevor Nyakane, Coenie Oosthuizen earned just his second cap, Piet van Zyl and Jan Serfontein. I know what the rest of the players can do from the end-of-year tour and I feel like we now have a good squad of 30 players,” Meyer said.

Team: 15-Willie le Roux, 14-Bryan Habana, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jean de Villiers/Jan Serfontein, 11-Bjorn Basson, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Ruan Pienaar, 8-Pierre Spies, 7-Willem Alberts/Siya Kolisi, 6-Francois Louw, 5-Flip van der Merwe, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Tendai Mtawarira.

Replacements: 16-Bismarck du Plessis, 17-Trevor Nyakane, 18-Coenie Oosthuizen, 19-Juandre Kruger, 20-Siya Kolisi/Marcell Coetzee, 21-Piet van Zyl, 22-Pat Lambie, 23-Jan Serfontein/Juan de Jongh.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-06-20-changes-to-bok-squad-for-physical-game-against-samoans/#.VscUn_l97IU