Ken Borland

For Duanne Olivier, Monday’s first day of the second Test against India felt like “a new debut” and he gave credit to his fellow pacemen for their efforts in helping to turn a slow start into ultimately a successful opening day for the Proteas as they bowled the tourists out for just 202.

Olivier missed the first Test as he built himself back to peak conditioning following a bout of Covid, but on Monday he was back sharing the new ball with Kagiso Rabada, playing Test cricket for the first time since February 2019, when he took a Kolpak contract in England.

But things did not go well in the first hour for either Olivier, whose first four erratic overs went for 18 runs, or South Africa, as India reached 36/0.

But the drinks break helped the Proteas focus their effort and thereafter they squeezed India and claimed 10 wickets in 49 overs. Olivier and Rabada took three wickets each and young Marco Jansen claimed the other four; Lungi Ngidi bowled as well as any of them but ended with 0/26 in 11 overs.

“It felt like a new debut for me and I was very nervous,” Olivier admitted. “But we just wanted to try and have good energies and put pressure on the batsmen. Lungi and Marco did a superb job to create that pressure.

“And then the whole unit did it. It was a good day for the bowling unit as a whole. We would have taken 202 all out any day. The message from the coach was to stick to the basics and our processes and then reap the rewards.

“Lungi bowled exceptionally well but did not get the rewards, it was just one of those days for him. I am still trying to bowl fuller at good pace, but a couple of balls were too floaty. I will try to do better in the second innings,” Olivier said.

The Proteas batsmen then reached 35/1 at stumps and Olivier is optimistic they can cash in on the second day.

“If we want to be hyper-critical then we probably gave India 20-30 too many runs. The pitch is a bit different to how it is in domestic cricket, there’s not as much grass. It is harder and it will speed up.

“It was very hot today and it will start deteriorating in the second innings and then it might spin. We are 1-0 down, that is the reality, and of course we want to win the series.

“But as a team we can’t look too far ahead, otherwise our focus is not where it needs to be and you can get distracted. Tomorrow is a new day and we will break our processes down into smaller bits,” Olivier said.

JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng (23 October) – Louis Albertse notched his first Sunshine Tour title five weeks ago at Mount Edgecombe and is in prime position to add a second on Sunday after a top-class round of six-under-par 66 gave him a one-stroke lead after three days of the Blair Atholl Championship on Saturday.

Albertse’s remarkable round on a blustery day on one of the longest courses on tour included a double-bogey on the par-three 17^th, when he found the large greenside bunker, but that was the sandwich in a pair of birdies on 16 and 18.

An eagle on the par-five fifth gave the winner of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event at Mount Edgecombe some momentum and a pair of birdies took him to the turn on four-under for the day.

The 25-year-old from Dundee then birdied the next two holes as well, soaring up the leaderboard when the second-round frontrunners could not make much headway on a testing day.

“This is a long course, the wind was tricky and I didn’t always get it right, but tough conditions get me going and to shoot six-under was very pleasing,” Albertse said. “There are more scoring opportunities on the front, but the back nine is harder, there are a few really long par-fours and the wind got up. But I still played really nicely.

“It’s hard to get close when you’re hitting five or six irons in, so it helps when your putter gets hot and to have just 24 putts today was very nice.”

Anton Haig had three successive bogeys from the 15^th hole to shoot a level-par 72 and stay two shots back on seven-under, Rupert Kaminski also remaining on his second-round score.

Jayden Schaper was putting together a great round, six-under-par through 10 holes to take the lead, but the highly-rated youngster then suffered a meltdown, dropping five shots in the last four holes as he came home in 42, finishing the third round on five-under for the tournament.

Albertse is being pursued though by two hugely experienced golfers in Ulrich van den Berg and Trevor Fisher Junior, who are both just one stroke behind after shooting 68s on Saturday.

Van den Bergh is an eight-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, although it is more than seven years since he last took the honours, at Euphoria Golf Club, also in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.

Fisher Junior is in a good run of form with four consecutive top-20 finishes and is a nine-time winner on tour.

A dozen golfers are within four shots of the lead and the Blair Atholl Championship is set for a thrilling conclusion on Sunday.

But Albertse is already in the top-10 of the order of merit in a breakthrough season for the third-year pro, he is high on confidence and good in the wind.

“Winning before changes your frame of mind a bit, you know you can do it, you did it once so you can do it again. It frees up your game a bit and you give yourself more chances,” Albertse said.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster gave the Springboks their due after the world champions had edged out the new No.1 side in the rankings 31-29 in their thrilling Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast on Saturday, while South African coach Jacques Nienaber was delighted with the belief his side showed and the improvement in their play.

Like the previous match between the two powerhouses, it took a penalty at the death to decide an epic encounter, but Foster was fulsome in his praise of their conquerors.

“It was a massive arm-wrestle, South Africa were superb, they came with huge attitude, carried hard and moved us around. They had a very strong third quarter and got us a bit flustered, but I was very proud with how we got back,” Foster said.

“Then we just lost a bit of discipline in the last two minutes. We just weren’t as accurate as we needed to be at one ruck and we were beaten in that moment.

“We were up against a foe whose playing style we know can suffocate you, we showed we can deal with it, but we need to deal with it for longer periods.

“We got a bit muddled in the third quarter and in the last quarter we struggled to play with ball-in-hand in their half, but we hung tough. It was a tough old game and the Springboks probably played their best game today.”

Nienaber also pointed to the result being decided by a couple of decisive moments.

“The margins between one and three in the world are so small, last weekend against New Zealand and in the first Test against Australia we lost in the last plays of the game, but this weekend fortunately we got the opportunity to win.

“We’re not at our 2019 level yet, the balance in our game was a bit better today, but we’re not there yet,” Nienaber said.

“The players never doubted, they never lost focus although there was a lot of white noise and justified criticism after the second Test against Australia.

“They never veered off what we are trying to do. But the margins are so small, one misread and you can get punished, and this week we got the last call of the game. We try to take the emotion out of it and look at ourselves objectively.”

That being said, the Springboks did manage to sheal themselves out of their shells a bit on attack, their ball-in-hand skills being highlighted by a moment of handling magic by Lukhanyo Am that led to their first try and will be celebrated everywhere in South Africa from a hut on an Eastern Cape hillside to a luxury North Coast beach house.

Replacement flyhalf Elton Jantjies produced a top-class display of how to finish a game, a lovely pass helping wing Makazole Mapimpi score, followed by a fine drop goal to go with a couple of penalties.

“We had opportunities like this against Australia and last week, closing the game and getting the result, we’ve been in that position.

“The coach encourages us to take opportunities if we see them and we just tried to stay aligned in the last five minutes when a lot happened. We showed our belief and executed our plan,” Jantjies said.

Leinster gave an emphatic demonstration of why they are considered by many to be the No.1 side in Europe as they scored 17 points in the first 13 minutes and went on to demolish South Africa’s top team, the Bulls, 31-3 in the opening round of the United Rugby Championship in Dublin on Saturday.

It was not even the Bulls’ first experience of European rugby as they travelled to Treviso for the Rainbow Cup final in June. They got hammered that day and they weren’t competitive on Saturday either. Especially after a nightmare first quarter in which they conceded two tries.

It was one mistake after the other from the start as flyhalf Johan Goosen sent the kickoff straight into touch and the Bulls were then penalised at the resulting scrum. Jonathan Sexton set the lineout and then knocked over the penalty that resulted from that to give Leinster an early lead.

Three minutes later, a good dart by former Kiwi wing James Lowe put Leinster on attack and a superb run by flank George van der Flier brought the first try.

The second try came six minutes later as the Bulls won a lineout – which did not happen as often as it should have – but there was no halfback to take the tap-down. Leinster claimed the ball and a little dink over the top was regathered before the brilliant outside centre Garry Ringrose fed Andrew Porter, a Bulls defence in disarray allowing the prop to cross an open tryline.

The Bulls showed good tenacity to stay in the contest after such a torrid start, and they produced some excellent rugby. But they lacked the polish and clinical efficiency of their opponents, who just did everything quicker and better than they did. There as a noticeable gap in skills under pressure, especially at the breakdown, where Leinster went hard and pounced on every little inaccuracy.

The Bulls wasted two excellent try-scoring opportunities in the second quarter. But the brilliant Van der Flier stripped Cornal Hendricks of the ball on the tryline after great work by wing Madosh Tambwe, who had a fine game. Goosen was at least able to kick a penalty, but then the Bulls were pressing hard when the ball was just left unguarded next to the line and Leinster pounced and were able to clear their lines.

Leinster, with classy flyhalf Sexton pulling the strings, varied their game in impressive fashion and, in the second half, replacement hooker James Tracy scored from a lineout maul. The Irish powerhouses then completed the scoring with an excellent try to Sexton’s replacement Ross Byrne that showcased their superb support play, offloading skills and use of space.

Scorers

Leinster – Tries: George van der Flier, Andrew Porter, James Tracy, Ross Byrne. Conversions: Jonathan Sexton (3), Byrne. Penalty: Sexton.

Bulls – Penalty: Johan Goosen.