Ken Borland

Lionel Cronje is an extremely well-travelled rugby player, but he is yet to win the Currie Cup and probably still burns a bit from his experience in last year’s final, giving the flyhalf a good reason to return to the Sharks and try and put that right.

The Sharks announced on Monday that the 32-year-old Cronje has returned to Kings Park on a two-year contract. Apart from playing for the KwaZulu-Natalians in 2014/15 and on loan last year, he has also  been on the books of five other South African provinces as well as playing in Australia for the Brumbies and, most recently, for Toyota Verblitz in Japan.

While on loan in Durban last year, he spoke candidly about his burning desire to win the Currie Cup, but the Sharks were hammered 44-10 in the final by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld. The chance to play in Europe, in the United Rugby Championship, also figures high up on Cronje’s wish-list.

The Sharks have had a bit of an issue at flyhalf this season, with Curwin Bosch suffering a poor run of form and Boeta Chamberlain and Tito Bonilla not excelling enough to suggest they can help the Sharks to European glory. Cronje’s experience will now be thrown into the mix.

You would think that, with all the money they now have in their coffers from the MVM consortium, the Sharks could attract a world-class, high-profile flyhalf to Kings Park, but for the moment they are backing Bosch, but Cronje will be putting pressure on his position when he becomes available for selection in September.

The Sharks have also announced that locks Emile van Heerden and Renier Hugo have signed contracts that will keep them at Kings Park for the next three years, while exciting scrumhalf Grant Williams has extended his contract by another two years.

Rain washed out the second day’s play of last year’s Boxing Day Test against India at Centurion and, while the tourists enjoyed a lunchtime feast including broccoli soup, Chicken Chettinad and lamb chops, Proteas captain Dean Elgar was giving his team some of his famous tough love after a poor first day.

Having allowed India to rattle up 273-3 on the first day on a pitch that assisted the pacemen, Elgar told his team to “toughen up mentally, take responsibility and wear your big-boy pants”.

South Africa did fight back, but that first day had ultimately done too much damage. Their determination did, however, make them the most tenacious of opponents in the rest of the series and they pulled off a thoroughly unexpected series triumph.

It’s the sort of inspirational captaincy Elgar has now become famous for and he believes England’s newly-appointed skipper Ben Stokes will lead in similar vein when they host the Proteas in a Test series in August.

“I wouldn’t call it ‘stubborn’ captaincy but I’d say we are both f****** tough cricketers,” Elgar told The Citizen on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a battle of feisty characters and Stokes is a world-class cricketer, and we know what he’s capable of because he’s done pretty well against us, albeit just as player.

“But as captain you need to get the best out of your players and it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes with the added responsibility.

“We play with our hearts on our sleeves because we always want to push for the win, but Test cricket comes down to who controls their emotions best. If you let them get the better of you, then the results generally don’t go your way,” Elgar said.

Elgar and Stokes are both left-handed batsmen, but their contrasting styles are very much the yin and yang of Test cricket.

Stokes is immensely strong and provides much attacking thrust to England’s middle-order, while Elgar, as an opening batsman, does not play with the same freedom but the time he spends at the crease can be equally draining for the opposition.

Both Stokes and Elgar have played 12 Tests since the start of 2021, with England’s new captain scoring just 633 runs at an average of 26.37.

Elgar, on the other hand, has been leading from the front since his appointment, with 881 runs at an average of 41.95.

“I don’t dwell too much on individual battles, my focus is on us as a team,” Elgar said. “And I haven’t had a lot of personal interaction with Ben, even though we have played against each other numerous times since an SA A series against the England Lions in 2015.”

The Sharks finally stopped giving Leinster get-out-of-jail-free cards as they scraped a 28-23 win in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park on Saturday.

Wasteful Sharks

The Sharks held the upper hand for most of the game but they were extremely wasteful. It started with flyhalf Curwin Bosch missing two penalties in the first 12 minutes. They also gave away several soft penalties when in possession deep inside the Leinster 22, for things as unnecessary as shoving their own player into contact or grabbing an opposition player around the neck when their maul was only a few feet from the line. Basic errors in handling and poor decision-making when players had made line-breaks also contributed to the Sharks being their own worst enemies.

The 31st man

One of legendary former Sharks and Springbok coach Ian McIntosh’s most famous quotations is that “the referee should be No.31 on the field and not No.1”. Unfortunately, the URC decided, in their wisdom, to appoint a 27-year-old referee with just one previous game under his belt in this competition, to officiate in a crunch fixture between two of the top sides in the tournament.

In the frantic closing stages, Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli was at the centre of several controversial decisions.

Leinster were given two yellow cards in seven minutes, and Sharks fans will believe they should have had three.

The Sharks were then penalised at the scrum when it seemed clear Leinster had collapsed, setting up a daunting last five minutes when the visitors camped on their line. There were more big decisions by Amashukeli, including his on-field call of held-up after the final hooter, which the TMO did not find evidence to overturn.

Bridging the gap

The positive side for the Sharks is that they showed they can compete with the defending champions and log-leaders, who were missing their major stars. But the Sharks held the upper hand for most of the match, their scrum and rolling maul being dominant, their territorial kicking was better and they also showed tremendous penetration in their counter-attack.

Given all of that, the Sharks should have won more comfortably, but, once again, their finishing and composure in the red zone left a lot to be desired.

On the other hand, their composure in defence on their own tryline at the death, was nothing short of heroic, especially with replacement hooker Kerron van Vuuren yellow-carded.

Fabulous Fassi

Sharks coach Sean Everitt had said in the build-up to the game that the return from injury of Aphelele Fassi would be important for their counter-attack, and the fullback was able to cash in when Leinster kicked too long.

The Sharks were 7-17 down with halftime rapidly approaching when Fassi fielded a kick eight metres inside his own half, ghosted past the first defender and then weaved away on a brilliant counter-attack, before a lovely underarm pass to Jaden Hendrikse saw the scrumhalf score.

It was a moment of magic that kept the Sharks in the game.

Bosch was also dangerous running back kicks.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Makazole Mapimpi, Jaden Hendrikse, Bongi Mbonambi, Phepsi Buthelezi. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (4).

Leinster – Tries: Scott Penny, Tommy O’Brien. Conversions: Ciaran Frawley (2). Penalties: Frawley (3).

South Africa’s top-order enjoyed themselves on a greenish St George’s Park pitch that turned out to be pretty affable, but they were generous in giving away their wickets when well-set as they ended the first day of the second Test against Bangladesh on Friday on 278 for five.

Even under heavily overcast skies, the new ball did a bit but nothing untoward and the Bangladesh spinners had to rely on changes in pace and flight rather than turn to pose a threat. So although it was a most solid display of batting by the Proteas, with three batsmen recording half-centuries and another making 42, they will be disappointed that no-one kicked on to a really big score.

Captain Dean Elgar won the toss and elected to bat, and he flourished in the morning session as he and Sarel Erwee (24) put on 52 for the first wicket, and Elgar and Keegan Petersen then added another 81 for the second wicket either side of lunch.

Elgar had reached a fluent 70 off just 89 deliveries, his third successive half-century continuing his fine run of form, when he presented a thin edge to wicketkeeper Liton Das off left-arm spinner Taijul Islam’s impressive arm-ball, but Petersen and Temba Bavuma initially found the going easy as they added another 51 for the third wicket.

Bangladesh’s bowling tightened up considerably though after a 26-minute rain delay and they were rewarded with the wicket of Petersen for a bright, stroke-filled 64, DRS showing he was lbw to Taijul despite coming down the pitch as he missed a leg-side flick.

South Africa took tea on 199 for three and Bavuma and Ryan Rickelton were able to entrench themselves for most of the last session, adding 83 for the fourth wicket.

Rickelton continued to impress as he improved on his career-best of 39 not out in his debut Test last week, delicately treading the fine line between his natural stroke-playing intent and responsibility towards the team cause. He did eventually fall to a reverse-sweep on 42, but it was a stroke he had played well previously. But this time he just played too early at Taijul, the ball coming off his glove and looping to slip.

Bavuma had looked in control as he spent three-and-a-half hours at the crease, scoring 67, but the new ball winkled him out. The second over with the change of ball saw Khaled Ahmed produce a fine lifting delivery just outside off-stump, Bavuma defended off the back foot but edged low to first slip, where Nazmul Hossain Shanto scooped up an excellent catch.

Kyle Verreynne (10*) and Wiaan Mulder (0*) then managed to stay at the crease for the last 24 minutes before stumps.

Taijul justified his recall to the team as he took three for 77 in 32 overs and the hardworking Khaled claimed two for 59 in 20 overs.