Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa’s failure to find witnesses willing to testify against Mark Boucher was the most telling blow to the disciplinary proceedings against their men’s national coach that they abandoned on Tuesday, with the message from the embattled former wicketkeeper/batsman being that he hopes he can now just focus on the Proteas’ on-field performance.

Following the decisions of both Paul Adams and Enoch Nkwe to not take part in the disciplinary hearing, where their allegations would have been cross-examined, CSA announced on Tuesday that their “lawyers engaged with various other potential witnesses over the last month and concluded that none of the three charges [against Boucher] were sustainable.”

CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki issued a conciliatory statement and sources close to Boucher indicated that he also wanted to put the whole imbroglio behind him.

“CSA appreciates that it has been very difficult for Mark to deal with these charges hanging over his head over the last few months. CSA regrets this,” Moseki said.

“CSA is also appreciative of the fact that Mark has at all times conducted himself properly and professionally – refusing to be drawn into public debates about the charges and carrying out his duties with commitment and dedication.

“The performance of the Proteas men’s team over this period has been extremely impressive, particularly in the Test arena, and this speaks to the efforts of Mark, his support staff and the players,” Moseki said.

Boucher will thus see out the remainder of his contract as Proteas head coach, which runs until after the World Cup in November 2023, and is eager for there to be détente now between him and CSA.

“It’s all systems go and everything has been normalised as far as Mark is concerned,” a source close to Boucher told The Citizen on condition of anonymity.

“He wants to put cricket first now, just focus on his job as a coach. He is hoping that cricket will be the only focus now.”

Boucher admitted that CSA’s efforts to cut him adrift had severely discomfited him. While trying to stabilise the Proteas team following the tumultuous events of 2019, Boucher also had to fight a war, raging over his own head, against his employers.

“The last few months have been extremely difficult to endure for me and my family,” Boucher said in a statement. “I am glad the process has finally come to an end and that CSA has accepted that the charges against me are unsustainable.

“The allegations of racism that were levelled against me were unjustified and have caused me considerable hurt and anguish,” Boucher said.

The Blue Bulls Rugby Union seem to be winning trophies on an almost monthly basis these days and, although that was the focus of a tweet chuffed president Willem Strauss sent out last weekend, he says he is equally proud of the growth in club rugby that has occurred since he was first elected in 2018.

A major reason for the growth is that the Bulls have actually provided opportunities for club players to graduate into the professional system, and their professional players are also integrated within the club structures. A dozen have played Carlton League matches and the more senior figures are also allocated a club for which they are ambassadors.

The alignment of their professional and amateur structures has been complemented by the expansion of the Carlton League and the introduction of an U20 club competition. Some serious money has been allocated to club rugby.

It has proven that a healthy structure at amateur level will contribute to success at professional level, with the trophies for the Currie Cup, Super Rugby Unlocked, SA Rainbow Cup, SA U21s, U20s and U19, as well as the Varsity Cup, currently residing in Pretoria. Tuks face an anxious weekend as they look to hang on to the latter title when they take on Maties in the final at Coetzenburg on Monday.

“In order to make progress, you always need a very holistic approach and we have also made a point of looking after our clubs and schools,” Strauss told The Citizen in midweek.

“Our clubs showed in the Easter Rugby Festival last weekend that they are definitely the best in South Africa. I am as proud of the growth at club level as I am of the professional trophies.

“We have 23% more players at that level now compared to last year. And we are also making our clubs more community-based, they go and coach at the primary schools in their region.

“The growth of the game at club level is as important as at professional level and we want to continue that pipeline, giving us a broader base,” Strauss said.

When Strauss became president in 2018, the Bulls had not won a trophy since 2010 and their players were more like rentals than contracted employees as they left Loftus Versfeld in droves. There was also the scandal of then high performance manager Xander Janse van Rensburg’s fraud and theft from the union.

“We had no trophies at all, not even a junior one, which was scary,” Strauss admitted. “It all started with a plan which everyone bought into. We had to separate professional and amateur rugby, but get the structures aligned.

“We had the right stakeholders in Johann Rupert and Patrice Motsepe and we made the right appointments in director of rugby Jake White and CEO Edgar Rathbone.

“We also had cash flow problems and I was very worried about being able to turn things around. The first three years were tough, but it was not just me who did it, I have a very good board and directors.

“Once we had laid the foundations then new deals started coming through. But all the teams have the same salary cap and spend about the same. The key was getting our structures right, having a high-performance programme and having a world-class CEO and coach,” Strauss said.

With those firm foundations in place, the Bulls can only attract more investment, especially if they manage to seal the deal in the United Rugby Championship and earn a place in the European Champions Cup.

Sharks eighthman Sikhumbuzo Notshe certainly has the x-factor gene in abundance, but he says his focus is on the basics as he continues his comeback from serious injury. It is an attitude the profligate Sharks team in general would probably benefit from after their embarrassing lack of finishing cost them against Edinburgh last weekend.

Notshe ruptured his patella last May and only returned to action at the beginning of February. Starting in the Currie Cup, his form has been good enough to see him reinstalled as the Sharks’ first-choice eighthman in the United Rugby Championship side.

“There are always a lot of extras one can focus on in rugby and I know I’ve got x-factor,” Notshe said on Tuesday. “But that’s not my focus going into games.

“I just try and get into as many battles as I can, make as many tackles as I can, make sure I set the maul properly if that’s my job.

“I just try and do the industrial work first, my other abilities will come naturally. In terms of my best, I’m not there yet and I am still working hard.

“The road to recovery was tough, but I had the best rehab and support I could get here at the Sharks in Dean Macquet [head physio] and Jimmy Wright [head biokineticist]. But it was a helluva road,” Notshe said.

In terms of fixing the disgraceful finishing shown in their last match, when they spent much of the game in the Edinburgh 22 but could only score one try, Notshe said you needed to look at individual errors, which can only be fixed on the training field.

“Our conversion rate in the 22 has not been great, we know how to get there but we just can’t finish off our opportunities.

“It comes down to individual errors and we need to clean up our own personal games. You can only do that through time in the saddle, on the training pitch. We need to put ourselves in those situations over and over again.

“And you can never make the weather an excuse. We’re playing at home, in front of our people, so we must always have energy. We can control that but we can’t control the weather.

“We don’t want to be a side that makes excuses and you can’t wait for a sunny day in Durban. We must always express ourselves,” Notshe said.

The Sharks spent so much time in the Edinburgh 22 that they were practically residents, but they only managed to score five points in their United Rugby Championship match in Durban, so their awful finishing was unsurprisingly the focus of coach Sean Everitt’s post-match press conference.

Their 21-5 loss to Edinburgh means the Sharks have now slipped to eighth place behind the Stormers and Bulls and are in danger of slipping out of the playoff spots.

“It’s extremely frustrating when you create so many opportunities and you just can’t finish them,” Everitt said. “Against top teams, you need to take every opportunity and the points on offer.

“We got our maul going but we just could not finish off and capitalise on that. We had territorial and possession advantage, but we missed penalties and at times missed touch too.

“Our plan worked quite well and we got into position, but we just weren’t clinical enough to round off. It’s the same challenge every week.

“It’s all about accuracy at this higher level, how accurately you can execute on the opportunities you are given. We will have to review the game and see where we can get better,” Everitt said.

The defeat will place the spotlight firmly on some of Everitt’s selections. Curwin Bosch has now been given a run starting at flyhalf, but he was poor against Edinburgh, failing to kick a couple of penalties to touch and missing all three of his shots at goal, one of them from in front of the poles.

The departure of captain Lukhanyo Am to Japan has obviously unsettled the team and the Sharks are battling to replace him at outside centre, with Ben Tapuai and Jeremy Ward tried there without conspicuous success.

While the Sharks were cruising to bonus point wins over the likes of Benetton, the Scarlets and Zebre, they were still performances with a high error-count, especially in terms of finishing, and the worry was that the cracks that had been papered over would be exposed by the top URC sides.

Edinburgh certainly proved that to be the case as they made shark fin soup of the home side at a sopping wet Kings Park.