Ken Borland

The Sharks team look to flyhalf Curwin Bosch for direction and on Friday night against the Free State Cheetahs at Kings Park they also received a matchwinning performance from the Springbok, according to coach Sean Everitt.

The Sharks bumbled their way to a 19-13 win in a Super Rugby Unlocked match that was strewn with errors from both sides, and it was Bosch who hauled the home team over the line by slotting all five of his kicks at goal, bombarding the Cheetahs with towering up-and-unders and also providing the pinpoint crosskick for the decisive try by replacement wing Madosh Tambwe.

“When you have a flyhalf like Curwin then the team look to him for direction and he did an excellent job. His kicking was pinpoint and the chasers did very well too. Curwin is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and if we get the contestable kicking right then we are a very difficult team to play against.

“We like to play what’s in front of us and Curwin is vital for that. The Cheetahs had good line-speed and they put him under pressure, but he won that battle and with his kicking game he’s able to counteract that rush defence,” Everitt said after the hard-fought win.

While the television broadcaster’s staff gave the impression that conditions in Durban were ideal, Everitt confirmed that it was in fact a typically humid summer’s evening on the sub-tropical east coast, which partly explained the multitude of basic errors made by both teams.

“They were difficult conditions and it was a very physical contest. In order to combat the humidity, we went for contestable kicks and they were extremely difficult to handle. The conditions were very similar to the early rounds of Super Rugby at the start of the year and it was very difficult to hold on to the ball,” Everitt explained.

The Cheetahs are famous for the expansive, running rugby they can bring, but Sharks coach Sean Everitt has warned that the Free Staters also have some industrial-strength forward power that his team will need to combat in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Kings Park on Friday night.

Playing at a high tempo is something the Sharks are comfortable with, but matching big, powerful packs in the set-pieces and the collisions has been something they have struggled with at times this year, and the Cheetahs will surely be aiming to use physicality as a weapon on Friday night.

“I think the Cheetahs are going to pose the same challenge up front as the Pumas and Bulls did. They have a lot of synergy in their lineout and scrum, so those are an obvious threat then. Plus with Frans Steyn at 12 it gives them a different dimension in terms of his kicking, carrying and his running from set-piece. We’re going to have to keep them out with really aggressive defence.

“The Cheetahs also like to maul a lot, from all areas of the field, but fortunately JJ van der Mescht was outstanding for us in that department against the Pumas – he pretty much stopped three mauls on his own. But I think the break will have motivated the Cheetahs, they won’t be happy about just getting two points against the Lions and they’ll be raring to go after that abandoned game and a bye,” Everitt said.

Despite dominating the Super Rugby competition at the start of the year, the Sharks have been taking baby steps since the return-to-play. Everitt showed patience by not prematurely throwing his toys out of the pram, but he believes his team are now settled and have laid the platform to now improve every week. He does not expect to see any more signs of rust from the Sharks.

“We’re no longer finding our feet, we’ve been together for a while now. Our confidence is back and we should be improving weekly now. I’m expecting a high-tempo game and we need guys who are going to have an impact, and I’m certain our bench will bring that and give us the opportunity to change the game if necessary. There’s healthy competition in our squad.

“But this competition as a whole is really strong and everyone has strengthened their squads since the start of the year. It’s been a great platform for South African rugby and every one of the our players knows they have the opportunity to get noticed now. We’ve settled in well now,” Everitt said.

Teams

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, JJ van der Mescht, John-Hubert Meyer, Dan Jooste, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, Michael Kumbirai, Ruben van Heerden, Thembelani Bholi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Werner Kok.

Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Malcolm Jaer, William Small-Smith, Francois Steyn, Rosko Specman, Tian Schoeman, Tian Meyer, Aidon Davis, Junior Pokomela (captain), Andisa Ntsila, JP du Preez, Carl Wegner, Luan de Bruin, Reinach Venter, Charles Marais. Replacements – Jacques du Toit, Boan Venter, Khutha Mchunu, Oupa Mohoje, Jeandré Rudolph, Ruben de Haas, Reinhardt Fortuin, Chris Smit.

Kickoff: 19h00

Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa has already accepted that there is no way Cricket South Africa will be able to hold their AGM on December 5, but that does not mean the new interim board of directors he announced on Friday are there for a holiday.

Mthethwa tasked the interim board with completing their mandate within three months, although he did leave the door open for their term of office to be extended.

“The interim board need to hit the ground running and deal with the current governance and structural issues. They should aim to implement the Nicholson Commission recommendations, consider the Fundudzi Forensic Report and take the recommended action or whatever action they deem to be appropriate, review all board decisions made since 2019 and restore the integrity and reputation of CSA.

“They have three months to do this, but that may be extended based on their progress. We hope they will deliver because this group knows exactly what it has to do and the Members Council still has an obligation to ensure their work is moving well. But there is no way December 5 can remain as the date for their AGM, which could have been avoided if certain people had listened earlier,” Mthethwa said on Friday.

The new interim board of directors is chaired by Judge Zak Yacoob, a former justice of the Constitutional Court, and includes other ‘independent’ figures in Caroline Mampuru, the deputy head of the Special Investigative Unit, Stavros Nicolaou, a senior executive for a major pharmaceutical company, and Andile Dawn Mbatha, the chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.

But a trio of passionate cricket-lovers who have gone to town in recent times in their criticism of the organisation and the recently-resigned board have also found accommodation on the interim board.

The most astonishing appointment is that of Haroon Lorgat, who has been at the forefront of CSA’s critics and was the federation’s chief executive as recently as September 2017, before being deposed by the power bloc that included Thabang Moroe, whose tenure and subsequent suspension and firing have been central to CSA’s governance crisis. But Lorgat is an internationally-respected administrator who is a former CEO of the International Cricket Council and CSA was a stable organisation during his watch.

Omphile Ramela, the president of the South African Cricketers Association, has also been a strident critic of CSA on behalf of the players, while Judith February is a lawyer and governance expert for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Institute for Security Studies, as well as a respected columnist who has also expressed her dismay over the administration of a sport she is clearly passionate about.

Andre Odendaal, the former CEO of the Western Province Cricket Association and the Cape Cobras, is another appointee, who has had a long history in the game as a first-class player, administrator and historian.

There is also a member of the old guard on the interim board in Xolani Vonya, the recently-resigned Easterns president who has been a strong supporter of both Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza, who has been seen as a stumbling block to change at the organisation.

Vonya has been a controversial figure because the Easterns union have been wanting to get rid of him for many months, including holding a vote of no confidence against him, but Moroe and Gwaza gave him legal support to fight his removal.

A hard-hitting letter from Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa to Beresford Williams probably ices the cake in terms of sealing the fate of Cricket South Africa’s acting president, who has indicated his desire to stand for the permanent position at the AGM on December 5.

Williams was told by parliament’s sports portfolio committee to recuse himself from Tuesday’s hearing with CSA because he is implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report, not only for his involvement in a R5 million loan to the Western Province Cricket Association that he was formerly president of, but also being on the Board committee who appointed Thabang Moroe as full-time CEO in 2018 after he had been acting for a year despite him not meeting the minimum requirements for the post.

But Williams’ shares have fallen even further with the leaking of a letter from sports minister Mthethwa, who is clearly adamantly against Williams continuing as president. Replying to a letter from CSA, signed by Williams, which states that the CSA Board have decided not to step down and told Mthethwa he did not have the legal power to force them, the sports minister threatened: “As a parting shot, I wish to reiterate that I shall not be dissuaded from applying what the National Sport and Recreation Act 110 of 1998 enjoins me to do”.

The Mthethwa letter begins: “I note that instead of accurately depicting what was said at the meeting we had on 6 October, you have taken the liberty to put words into my mouth. To that end, I will use my response to correct some of the inaccuracies that are evident in your letter”.

Mthethwa went on to say he did not provide the directive for Williams and the Board to step down, but instead was agreeing with Sascoc’s call for this to happen.

“In addition to the National  Sport and Recreation Act 110 of 1998 you seem to selectively quote from, to show that I do not have the power to intervene, you are kindly reminded that as a sovereign country in which I am the Minister responsible for Sport, Arts and Culture, there is a raft of laws at my disposal, that empower me to deal effectively with recalcitrant behaviour within my portfolio,” Mthethwa stated.

The four main outcomes Mthethwa wants to see, according to his letter, are the full implementation of the Nicholson Commission recommendations, the appointment of a new, stable Board, effective transformation and the correct handling of the Fundudzi Forensic Report.

Apart from telling Mthethwa he did not have the power to force the Board to step down, CSA also said they viewed his intervention as government interference which probably “jeopardises CSA’s continued membership of the ICC”.

The bad news for CSA and Williams is that Mthethwa has the power to no longer recognise them as a national federation, thereby making their membership of the International Cricket Council moot in any case.