Ken Borland

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi on Friday pronounced himself 100% ready to give everything and inspire his team to do the same in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town on Saturday.

Kolisi played in the Test against Georgia but then missed the two SA A games due to a brush with Covid, and questions have been asked in some, largely foreign, quarters over his readiness for what will certainly be an all-out game of Test rugby.

“I’ve had a good build-up. Obviously it was tough testing positive and going through isolation and everything, but I was involved in every meeting and looking at the team’s preparation. And then I felt really good when I went back to training because fortunately I did not have any Covid symptoms. I was fine by the second day and after that it was all just mental being isolated in my room.

“The coaches know if I get tired, they are very good at noticing that and making substitutions a the right time, and they will definitely take me off. But I know what our bench can do, we have depth and they will turn it up even more, so I won’t be holding back, I am going to give it my absolute all on the field. My focus is just on the stuff I can control and I have a very big job on the field,” Kolisi said on Friday.

Particularly in the northern hemisphere, there have been whispers that the Springboks’ World Cup triumph was somehow a fluke and they should not be considered the best team in the world anymore. The 2007 World Cup champion Springboks were extremely motivated to beat the Lions in 2009 just to counter any such suggestions themselves and Kolisi hinted that his outfit are using similar fuel to fire them up.

“I spoke to John Smit last night and we have the same mindset as the 2007 side. We have come through many challenges, guys have been out for a long time with injuries and we have worked hard to get here. It’s rare to get this opportunity to play against the Lions again, most of us won’t. So we really want to win and we will give everything for that result.

“It’s going to be all about whose plan comes out on top and our plan hasn’t changed at all. It’s going to be about who is able to adapt and enforce their game-plan for 80 minutes. Our fitness levels and plans are there. We are also in a place of privilege to put smiles on peoples’ faces when unfortunately the country is not doing well, and that drives us even more,” Kolisi said.

It would be tempting, given their superb fightback to level the series against the West Indies at 1-1 over the weekend, to give the Proteas a general amnesty for the shortcomings in their T20 game, but with the third match looming on Tuesday night, there are a couple of areas that still need attention.

Despite not having a recognised sixth bowler, the Proteas did exceptionally well with the ball to limit the deep and explosive West Indian batting line-up to just 150 for nine on the small St George’s ground on Grenada.

Spinners George Linde and Tabraiz Shamsi were absolutely outstanding. Coming on straight after the powerplay, they bowled six overs in tandem and squeezed the home side so effectively that they collapsed from 53 for two after six overs to 76 for five at the end of the 12^th over. The combined figures of man of the match Linde (4-0-19-2) and Shamsi (4-0-16-1) were a remarkable three for 35 in eight overs.

Kagiso Rabada and the excellent Anrich Nortje, the pick of the pacemen in both matches so far, learnt quickly from the mauling in the first T20 that if you are going to bowl fast on this more typical Caribbean pitch then you have to bowl full. But Lungi Ngidi, bowling like he’s in a Test match, has really struggled, conceding 95 runs in his seven overs thus far.

A change needs to be made and white-ball specialist Sisanda Magala, who has the skills to do well on these pitches, would be a good pick. Swing bowler Beuran Hendricks and Lizaad Williams, who has shown an ability to adapt to different conditions, could also be in the running.

South Africa’s other big problem is the lack of animation shown by the batsmen in the second half of the innings. Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock have done well up front, with powerplay scores of 53 for one and then 69 without loss (the Proteas’ fourth highest score ever in the first six overs), but then the innings have fizzled out.

In the first T20, South Africa were 95 for two after 11 overs but instead of doubling their total as could reasonably have been expected, they limped to 160 for six. In the second match, their finishing was dire as they scored only 28 runs in the last five overs and lost four wickets (138-3 to 166-7).

It has not helped that the dynamic De Kock has been dismissed in the seventh over, straight after the powerplay, in both matches.

Heinrich Klaasen has really struggled for boundaries, not getting a single one in the 23 balls he has faced. Given that the Proteas need a sixth bowler, Aiden Markram could be pressed into duty in a new T20 role in the middle-order.

Wiaan Mulder and Andile Phehlukwayo are both established bowlers but choosing them would weaken the batting.

When Sharks coach Sean Everitt loans out most of his starting line-up to the Springboks this week, it will give him the chance to work with the players who are likely to play for the bulk of the rest of the year and fix the problems that were evident in their weekend loss to the Stormers.

This is a bye week for the South African teams in the Rainbow Cup and the Springboks will be holding an alignment camp. Then the stars will return for the last two weeks of the competition and what has now become a three-horse race for a place in the June 19 final against the European winners, following the Sharks’ weekend loss to the Stormers and the Lions upstaging the log-leading Bulls.

“Playing local derbies four weeks in a row has been really tough and it takes a toll physically. The guys deserve some rest and we’ll now have a week to work hard on the larger squad, get them ready for the Currie Cup. It’s a good opportunity for me to work closely with them, make sure they are ready to rock ‘n roll.

“Losing two in a row won’t give me sleepless nights, but I’ll be pondering how to fix the problems. And I’m not worried because the problems are fixable; if there was a lack of effort, enthusiasm or energy then we would be in trouble, but you can’t question the effort of the team, they worked hard and gave everything against a very powerful Stormers pack,” Everitt said after their 22-25 defeat at Kings Park.

The Sharks intimated that they would rather have taken on the Stormers with the sun out, instead of the overcast, wet weather which forced them into an arm-wrestle against one of the better packs in the competition.

“The Stormers always try to slow us down, we scored tries from quick lineouts and quick taps in Cape Town, that’s a part of our game and we got reward for that in our last match against them. We want to play a fast tempo of rugby but it was difficult in these conditions, especially late in the second half, when it rained quite hard. We had dominance for the first 30 minutes and for patches in the second half.

“But the lineout is a massive source of possession and a big contributor to the number of tries you score. We did really well in the first half, but we were under the pump in the second half, the Stormers have three really good jumpers, some really tall timber. So there’s a lot of hard work ahead on that, that’s the main area that let us down, while we also had lapses in defence,” Everitt said.

Tens of thousands of people will probably die tragically of Covid in India over the next week, which should give all South African sports fans pause to think as we clamour for the return of spectators to stadiums.

The daily death toll from the pandemic climbed to over 3600 in India this week, with at least 300 000 positive tests per day.

Having been to India three times, it is the country that most reminds me of our poorer communities, the places at the wrong end of the most unequal society in the world, and I cannot but imagine what might happen here if another wave of Covid strikes during winter.

The sudden resurgence of Covid in India has been partly attributed to the government allowing a series of mass nationalistic or religious gatherings, that rapidly became super-spreader events in the populous country.

So one can understand government’s caution when it comes to allowing spectators back into stadiums for rugby or football or any other sporting event. I thought Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa gave a very reasonable explanation on Friday for why there has been no date set yet for the return of fans.

“In terms of fans, we have to look at the codes’ plans from a health perspective. It’s not up to the Minister of Sport, we are not going to decide as individual departments. The National Command Council weekly meeting guides society as a whole, not just one aspect. Our medical advisors are telling us that between May and July there is the possibility of a third wave.

“They say we are facing a storm and we can’t just kill people by allowing them back into stadiums. So each sport has to put together a plan. For example rugby has proposed 50% capacity for the British and Irish Lions tour, which will be looked into. But if the FNB Stadium has capacity of 90 000, that means 45 000 people and how do we ensure that does not become a super-spreader event?” Mthethwa said.

Of course all rugby fans want crowds to be able to watch the Lions matches and recreate the sort of atmosphere that electrified proceedings when Tendai Mtawarira began dismantling the legendary Phil Vickery in the scrums at Kings Park or when Jaque Fourie squeezed over for his improbable try at Loftus Versfeld the last time Britain and Ireland’s finest toured here in 2009.

But is it worth tens of thousands of people dying? Even though SA Rugby’s budget will take a severe knock without crowds, it is not worth mass mortalities.

I would postulate that once spectators are allowed at sporting events again, they will return in their flocks because of how long they have been starved of live action. Perhaps club rugby, generally played in wide open areas, would be a good place to start safely bringing crowds back?

And club rugby will be returning shortly.

It is a level of the game that has been treated quite curtly by some professional coaches, but it was pleasing to hear Bulls coach Jake White, ever the traditionalist, say he will be keeping an eye on club rugby in the Pretoria region to see if there are any hidden gems who have the aptitude for franchise rugby.

He has shown his backing for club rugby by allocating each of his 45 contracted professional players to a club and, if they are not selected for the Bulls, they are expected to play for their clubs (although this won’t apply to the Springboks). White has made a rule that players will wear their club socks once a week at Bulls training and once a month they will come to Loftus Versfeld in their club kit, as well as actually go to their clubs periodically to help with training or social functions.

Resurrecting club rugby as a factory for the professional game would be a great gift for rugby in this country.