Ken Borland

The DP World Lions Ladies team has had a month off from HollywoodBets ProSeries action, but it’s not as if they have been enjoying tubs of ice-cream and refreshing swimming pools during this festive period: the focus has been squarely on preparing for this weekend’s crucial visit to Durban to take on the Dolphins.

It’s a vital weekend for the DP World Lions with their hosts enjoying an unbeaten season in both the Pro50 and T20 competitions. World Sports Betting Western Province are also unbeaten in the shortest format, so victory for #ThePrideOfJozi in Sunday’s T20 match will keep them in touch with the leaders.

In the 50-over competition, victory for the DP World Lions will bring them within one win of the HollywoodBets Dolphins, with a game in hand.

“INTENT” is the message coach Shaun Pretorius has been thumping home in the DP World Lions’ build-up to this crunch weekend.

“After playing Western Province, we had a week off and then we did some nice team-building and played some golf. But we started three weeks ago with our prep for the visit to Kingsmead, just to make sure the players keep their loads up. It’s been good to have a bit of a break, but if there’s any sort of holiday mindset then we won’t achieve success,” Pretorius says.

“We need to be switched on all the time, that’s when things tend to go your way. Against the unbeaten Dolphins, it’s going to be all about intent and I keep reminding the ladies of that and the way we finished last season. We didn’t beat the Dolphins in the 50-over match, but in the T20 we really took them on and the results were phenomenal.

“So we need the same mindset this weekend and we can’t allow their bowlers to settle. As #ThePrideOfJozi, we are happy to take on that challenge. We need to take away their ability to dictate terms by manipulating the field, we must determine the pace of the game,” Pretorius says.

Shorn of the batting abilities of Tazmin Brits, Karabo Meso, Diara Ramlakan and Sinalo Jafta (who are all away with the Proteas or the SA U19 team in India), there is obviously some pressure on the experienced duo of Kirstie Thomson and Sunette Viljoen-Louw to lead the charge of the DP World Lions batting line-up.

So far the contributions of the top-order have been dwarfed by the middle and lower-order, but Pretorius is hoping the run of good starts not being converted comes to an end this weekend.

“Once our top-order comes through then we will really be a major force to be reckoned with. We’re just missing those valuable partnerships up front at the moment.

“Kirstie and Sunette are obviously vital for us. It’s been really good to see Sunette take responsibility in the middle-order and she is the leading run-scorer in the Pro50. Sunette just wants to embrace every moment that’s left in her career, and that’s why, after we signed Tazmin Brits, we wanted to keep her in the squad. We asked her to move to the middle-order and she has worked really hard on her skills there,” Pretorius says.

The absence of Proteas pace bowler Tumi Sekhukhune and SA U19 all-rounder Fay Cowling has been offset by the availability of Ayabonga Khaka, who continues to perform impressively in white-ball cricket for the national team.

The focus is on the big moments for our DP World Lions women’s team this weekend as they head to Bloemfontein to get the 2024/25 HollywoodBets ProSeries underway against the Free State Knights, with coach Shaun Pretorius saying all the hard work has been done in the pre-season and now it is all down to the execution.

The DP World Lions finished as runners-up in both the Pro50 and Pro20 competitions last season, so #ThePrideOfJozi are hungry to get over the line this season.

“The focus is on BMT, those big situations when we need to step up and show character, those times when our backs are against the wall,” Pretorius said.

“We’ve had quite a few warm-up games, including against the Titans and the Knights, as well as lots of middle sessions and some time in the classroom as well, where we went over our game-plans and KPIs. There’s been buy-in from the squad, all the hard work is done and the preparation has gone really well.

“We could not ask for better in terms of the facilities at the DP World Wanderers Stadium, so now it all comes down to the execution,” Pretorius said.

Pretorius is not a keen advertiser of his selections ahead of matches, and in terms of the squad he is taking to Bloemfontein, all he wanted to say was that there are a couple of injured players at present, for which they have good cover, and that there are very experienced players going to take on the Knights.

The hosts, meanwhile, will be without former Proteas captain Mignon van der Merwe (nee’ Du Preez), who is pregnant with twins. And our DP World Lions have good memories of their last visit to Bloemfontein, when they chased down 248 with 31 balls and six wickets to spare in the one-day game, and then won the T20 match by seven wickets with seven balls to spare.

“Mignon has obviously been a big run-scorer for the Knights, but we will not take anything lightly going there. Even though we won both games there last season, we still have to execute properly and be clinical in the different phases of the game. Free State still have Yolandi Potgieter and Izel Cilliers is back.

“I especially want our batters to try and manipulate spin bowling better, we need to score at a better strike-rate against the slow stuff. Against pace we are executing well,” Pretorius said.

Bloemfontein (July 20, 2024) – South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said improving their discipline would be a pivotal part of their focus in the Rugby Championship after they beat Portugal 64-21 in their one-off Test in Bloemfontein on Saturday, despite playing with 14 men from the third minute and with 13 players for 16 minutes.

Centre Andre Esterhuizen was given an early yellow card for head-on-head contact after a crunching tackle on Jose’ Lima sent the Portuguese No.13 off the field with a concussion. Esterhuizen’s yellow card was later upgraded to a red by the television match official.

The Springboks also had wing Kurt-Lee Arendse yellow-carded in the 34^th minute for a dangerous clear-out at a ruck, and debutant replacement fullback Quan Horn was also sent to the sin-bin after playing an opponent in the air in the 74^th minute.

“Discipline is something we will need to look at after getting a red card so early. We had nearly 20 minutes with 13 men and the rest with 14, and obviously we won’t win World Cups like that. So that is something we will focus on. The incidents were all accidents, they weren’t things the players did on purpose.

“But we had to adapt to having 14 or 13 men, so that is a good thing. You get to learn the character of the players in matches like this. We had Duane Vermeulen next to the field and Gerry Flannery was planning how to defend without a blindside wing or a centre. On the field, the players can get rattled or stay calm, so there were big learnings from that tonight,” Erasmus said.

Conceding 10 tries but scoring three themselves was no disgrace for Portugal in their first meeting with South Africa, and their coach Simon Mannix said he could not have been more proud of his team.

“The lessons were enormous tonight and we were monstered in a lot of areas. The physicality of the Springboks was something else and the players felt it was two or three levels higher than what they experienced in the 2023 World Cup.

“I’m not naïve, I know it was a South Africa B team we played against, but they played some really good rugby, they have great athletes. We were beaten up at the breakdown and in a lot of areas, but we showed a lot of courage. I could not be more proud of the boys.

“We will learn and get better, but I’m very proud of the way we tried to play some rugby, especially in the first 10 minutes. We showed we can move the ball and go wide. This was an historic event and I hope the players will remember those first 10 minutes, we showed we were here to play and what we can do, we exposed them on the outside, which I was delighted about.

“We learnt so much about ourselves tonight, you can’t look at it negatively. There’s a huge gulf between No.15 and No.1 in the world. One of my players is in the fifth division in France and tonight he started against the Springboks. We have no full-time pros, but we have incredible spirit,” Mannix said.

South Africa kick off their Rugby Championship campaign against Australia in Brisbane on August 10.

There are a few options when it comes to locating the source of the Bulls’ motivation for their United Rugby Championship match against the Stormers in Cape Town on Friday night, but captain Ruan Nortje said on Wednesday that their focus is not on the past.

Nevertheless, losing their last three matches against their great rivals, including the inaugural URC final, will certainly rankle. But there is also fresh motivation in the sense that beating the Stormers will maintain the Bulls’ ascendancy in the race to this season’s South African Shield. Defeat would allow the Stormers to leapfrog the Bulls into second place on the overall log, with a game in hand.

If all that fails, then the fact that it is the classic North/South derby, in the tradition of Northern Transvaal versus Western Province, should suffice for motivation.

“Last season’s final was obviously difficult for us, but that’s rugby – you win some and you lose some,” Nortje said. “The Stormers are a very good side and deserved champions and we respect them a lot.

“But this is a new season and a very important game on Friday night. We have put the past behind us and we’re just focused on the road going forward.

“The North/South derby week is always massive for our coach, Jake White. He’s a very good coach and he knows what he is doing. He’s definitely working on us mentally in a good way and he will definitely have us prepared.

“The past is behind us, it was tough to lose in the final, but it was a special game to be part of and this is a new and exciting week,” Nortje said.

The Bulls lock expects the Stormers to attack them again at scrum time, while the visitors could target a sometimes flaky lineout that will be without injured Springbok second-rower Salmaan Moerat.

“Last season we struggled in the scrums so we worked a lot on that in the off-season. The Stormers have if not the best scrum, then one of the best,” Nortje said.

“Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe are world-class and the scrums will be a big test to build momentum. It’s going to be a massive challenge, but we are very excited about it.

“I think scrum time will play a big role, we must not give away penalties there. It’s also always a big tussle in the lineout and I look forward to that too.

“I’m very sorry for Salmaan, he’s a brilliant player and it’s always lekker to test yourself against the best. But the Stormers have quality in depth, Marvin Orie is still there and he will take whatever young lock they choose under his wing,” Nortje said.