Ken Borland

It’s been the proverbial season horribilis for the Nashua Titans with the Ram Slam T20 Challenge providing the last chance for the dominant franchise of 2011/12 to get something out of the summer.

The four-day Sunfoil Series was particularly galling for the Titans, who went into the competition as the defending champions, but lost eight of their 10 matches and failed to win any. To make it even more traumatic, their defeats were by huge margins – one by an innings and 247 runs, three by 10 wickets, one by nine wickets and others by 161 runs and 393 runs. Six of their matches were all over in three days.

The root of their travails would appear to be that the reserve talent in the squad responded poorly to the challenge of stepping up and replacing the likes of Faf du Plessis, Jacques Rudolph, Albie Morkel, Farhaan Behardien, Marchant de Lange, Paul Harris and Morne Morkel, who for various reasons only played 15 Sunfoil Series matches between them.

“The four-day campaign was dreadful and there were a combination of reasons. But it’s fair to say that the youth didn’t come through, they just didn’t execute their skills, either batting or bowling.

“Sometimes youngsters come in and take to it straight away, for others it takes them a while. We were playing three or four youngsters at once, whereas in an ideal world you’d like to knit one or two at a time into the team. We’ve got to work really hard,” coach Matthew Maynard admitted.

The Titans were, of course, rocked by twin tragedies at the start of the summer, with Maynard losing his son, Tom, a Surrey cricketer who was considered one of the most promising in England, and long-time and much-loved CEO Elise Lombard then passing away in August.

But their followers were heartened by their start to the season, making the semi-finals of the Champions League and then reaching the Momentum One-Day Cup playoff.

It is fair to say that the franchise are baffled by how the season just totally unravelled from that point.

Jacques Faul is the new CEO of the Titans and he admits that a franchise will always be judged by the performance of the team.

“The team is the showcase of the franchise and the play on the field is what we sell, if you like. I’ve been impressed with Matt Maynard as a coach, but even he doesn’t seem to really know where it all went wrong. He has worked out what we need though, going forward, and this has been such a successful franchise so I don’t think it will be difficult to return to winning ways,” Faul said.

A late resurgence in the T20 Challenge could, of course, turn around the whole season, especially in terms of the financial rewards it provides a franchise.

And the increased financial resources means Maynard could be in the market for some new players, while yesterday’s men slip from the scene.

“We still need to strengthen the squad and we’ll look to do that,” Maynard said.

Faul, drawing from his experience of helping to build the high-flying bizhub Highveld Lions team, is frustrated that the Titans allowed players like Hardus Viljoen, Imran Tahir and Gulam Bodi to slip away.

“You need to hang on to your talent, we were losing matches to teams with guys who used to play for the Titans, and you need a good mix of old and young players. It took the Highveld Lions a while to build their team. We know our national players are not going to play, it would be naïve to rely on them. We have to win without them and we have to create more stars to win,” Faul said.

The Titans management would seem to want a top-order batsman, a paceman and perhaps an experienced spinner, Harris having retired, who specialises in four-day cricket.

Of course, the Titans will look a different team when the likes of Rudolph, Albie Morkel, Behardien and De Lange play regularly.

“What the senior players bring to the table is match-winning performances. But the positive from the season is that guys like Graeme van Buuren, Francois le Clus and JP de Villiers look to have the potential to succeed at that level. The talent is there,” Maynard said.

The pressure will now be on the team and coaching staff to ensure that talent makes the Titans way more competitive next season.

Five players will make their representative debuts for the Lions at the weekend when the relegated Super Rugby franchise take on Russia at Ellis Park in the inaugural game of the Lions Challenge.

Lions coach Johan Ackermann has thrown flyhalf Lionel Cronje, centres Harold Vorster and Stokkies Hanekom, flank Warwick Tecklenburg, and lock Franco Mostert straight into the fray as the Lions begin a new era on Saturday night.

They have, however, also chosen their strongest available combination –barring the injured Jaco Kriel, Alwyn Hollenbach, Ruan Combrinck and Deon van Rensburg, — endorsing the feeling that the Johannesburg-based franchise are eager to begin their new era with winning momentum.

“Every game will be important for us, but it’s especially important that we start this tournament well. I’m happy with the mix of players I’ve got, we have the opportunity now to try a few players but there will be a time closer to the end of the competition when I’ll have to settle on number one and number two in every position,” Ackermann said at the team announcement on Thursday.

“We want to fine-tune our game, get some conditioning and continuity going, especially getting the new players to gel, and it will be our first real contact because we haven’t had a lot up till now. We want to get our style of play going too, but really I just want to win and get the guys out on the pitch.”

Russia are the first of three international teams that the Lions will be playing, but they know little about their opening opposition, save for the likelihood that their strength will be concentrated in their pack.

“They traditionally like to keep the ball in front of their forwards.

But we enjoy it when teams come here to scrum because we enjoy that too!” Lions captain and loosehead prop JC Janse van Rensburg said.

Ackermann said he had been impressed with the quality of Russia’s play earlier this week in a game against the University of Johannesburg and, despite recent losses to the USA and Canada, he did not believe the Bears would be pushovers.

The Lions have been bolstered by the arrival of players with SuperRugby experience such as Cronje and Tecklenburg. The talented youngsters have both turned their backs on the Bulls, along with promising lock Mostert.

SA U20 cap Vorster and former South-Western Districts centre Hanekom have been paired together and, being big, tall and fast, should provide go-forward for the Lions in midfield.

Team: 15-Andries Coetzee, 14-Deon Helberg, 13-Stokkies Hanekom, 12-Harold Vorster, 11-Anthony Volmink, 10-Lionel Cronje, 9-Michael Bondesio, 8-Willie Britz, 7-Derick Minnie, 6-Warwick Tecklenburg, 5-Franco Mostert, 4-Hendrik Roodt, 3-Ruan Dreyer, 2-Martin Bezuidenhout, 1-JC Janse van Rensburg. Substitutes – 16-Francois du Toit, 17-Jacques van Rooyen, 18-Jacques Kotze, 19-Hugo Kloppers, 20-Claude Tshibidi, 21-Ross Cronje, 22-Marnitz Boshoff, 23-Ruhan Nel.

http://www.sapa.org.za/secure/view.cfm?id=3632709&srce=search&s=0&Criteria=Russia&Indexes=Head%2CBody&CategoryCodes=&AgeMax=m&SearchYears=&FromYear=&FromMonth=1&ToYear=2013&ToMonth=12&StartDate=%7Bts+%272012-12-25+10%3A30%3A52%27%7D&StopDate=%7Bts+%272013-01-26+10%3A30%3A52%27%7D&debug=False&wf_startrow=21

While the Stormers or Sharks will still have to ward off a New Zealand franchise to win the 2012 SuperRugby title, it is fair to say South African teams have dominated the competition thus far.

The Stormers sit proudly on top of the standings and will host the final if they beat the Sharks, cock-a-hoop after their stunning qualifier triumph in Brisbane over the Reds, while the Bulls also finished in the top six and made the playoffs, although they then messed up in Christchurch against the Crusaders.

The Cheetahs had their best season yet in the southern hemisphere competition, winning five matches and earning 10 bonus points to finish in 10^th place.

The Lions, however, were the major disappointment again. Beset by rumours that they are going to be relegated from SuperRugby and replaced by the Eastern Cape-based Southern Kings, in financial trouble and then having to suspend coach John Mitchell because of unhappiness with his management style, they won just three games and finished last.

South Africans had approached the season with cautious optimism … and it turned out way better than expected.

The Stormers were tipped to challenge for the title, but to top the log was a massive bonus, even if there was some concern over their inability to score tries. They became the first team to qualify for the knockout stages without earning a single try-scoring bonus point, although the fact that they won 14 of their 16 matches shows tries might be over-rated in this competition.

The Sharks and Bulls both had handy line-ups, but the loss of key experience was meant to keep them from challenging.

John Smit and Stefan Terblanche had left the inconsistent Sharks, while the Bulls had said goodbye to Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield, Danie Rossouw, Gurthro Steenkamp, Gary Botha and Derick Kuun.

The strong finishes of the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks also suggests they timed their climb to the summit better than some of their Australasian rivals in the first season of extended SuperRugby with a break for the June Tests.

South Africa are also the SuperRugby powerhouses based on attendances and TV viewership.

On any weekend, nearly 350 000 people could be expected to watch a SuperRugby match on TV, an increase of 17% on last year.

On derby days, that would increase to nearly a million – the average audience for derbies was 990 062.

The average attendance at the ground for all South African games was 26 617 but the Stormers, especially when they went on their six-match unbeaten run at the start of the season, had the best attendance figures averaging around 40 000. Compare this to the 16 000 people who watched the Crusaders beat the Bulls in such impressive fashion in their qualifier in Christchurch last weekend.

But the figures still do not match those of South Africa’s traditional domestic competition, the Currie Cup, and there is still a large school of thought that Sanzar have fabricated the current SuperRugby format in order to favour Australia.

Critics pointed to the fact that the leading Australian franchise were guaranteed at least third place on the final log as evidence and the Reds would have finished sixth had normal rules applied.

–

Gauteng cricket may have been accused in the past of being slow on the transformation front, but they made history on Tuesday by announcing Geoffrey Toyana as the new Highveld Lions head coach, the first black African to take charge of a franchise team.

Although the bold move may be seen as a gamble given that Toyana has never been a head coach at franchise level before, the 38-year-old has been steadily working his way up the coaching ladder and has done his apprenticeship.

He was the assistant coach to previous Lions mentor Dave Nosworthy, who resigned last month, and was the head coach of the Easterns team between 2008 and 2011. Toyana has also been an assistant coach with the SA U19 and Emerging Players teams.

“This is a very important and historic day for the development of cricket in this region. Geoffrey has a wealth of experience and talent, he played at the highest provincial level and he’s the right person to make sure there is a constant flow in the pipeline from amateur to professional cricket. We decided not to advertise the post because we felt we had somebody with the quality and experience to replace Dave Nosworthy in Geoffrey,” Lions CEO Cassim Docrat said at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

A left-handed batsman and part-time offspinner, Toyana played 84 first-class and 71 List A limited-overs games for Transvaal, Gauteng, Easterns and the Titans, between 1995/96 and 2011. He averaged just 24.49 and 18.95 respectively, scoring just one century, but his career was marked by the impression that his talent was never quite set free to blossom.

But you should not judge a coach by his playing record – Graham Ford, John Buchanan, Richard Pybus and Nosworthy himself are proof of that – and Toyana is confident that his own struggles as a cricketer will give him the empathy and understanding to help his charges.

Toyana should perhaps be more wary of the growing level of interference coaches now have to put up with from their boards – which is believed to be the reason Nosworthy resigned – but the Soweto product said his predecessor had taught him well.

“I’m very close to the board and there are no issues between us. But Dave also taught me a lot in terms of how to handle selection and budgets,” Toyana said.

The new coach will also have a hardened right-hand man in bowling coach Gordon Parsons, your typical crusty old county pro who was also the head coach of the Lions between 2005/6 and 2007/8, with Dumisa Makalima (video analyst), Craig Govender (physio) and Jeff Lunsky (trainer) the other support staff.

While the Lions played fantastic, entertaining cricket during their MiWay T20 Challenge run to the final last season, they ultimately fell short in the final, extending the franchise’s trophy-less run to five seasons. Toyana will inherit a squad with some exciting youngsters as well as a handful of experienced veterans, but he knows the lack of trophies will be the first thing he has to remedy.

“We have a good, experienced squad, but for the last five years we have struggled to win trophies. I hope I can turn this around and I’m walking into a structure that is all set up, so I want to create an environment in which the players can grow,” Toyana said.

“But I’m very delighted and humbled by the appointment and I hope I can be an example for other coaches in the townships and show that if you do the work, you can make it.”

Toyana’s appointment has been lauded by the Soweto Cricket Club, where both he and his father, Gus, began their playing days.

“As a club, where Geoffrey has played most of his cricket since his late father, Gus Toyana, led the club as captain and chairman, we are overjoyed at the message this sends to not only our players, but to all previously disadvantaged cricketers in both province and country. Geoffrey has always been a sterling example of a rolemodel throughout his cricket career,” Soweto CC chairman Gordon Templeton said.

“The board of the Lions franchise have illustrated the ability to be visionary in their outlook for the future of cricket not only in the Gauteng province, but also in South Africa. History will reflect that they have taken a cricketing decision to usher in a new era in the sport.”

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/domestic-cricket/news/120710/Lions_make_history_in_appointing_Toyana