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Ken Borland



Pollard okay to play & put quarantine time to good use 0

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Ken

The good news for the Springboks is that flyhalf Handre Pollard is okay to play in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions and even though he was in quarantine, he was still putting the time to good use by doing plenty of analysis on their opposition in Cape Town on Saturday.

Pollard, one of the main architects of the 2019 World Cup triumph, was one of the Springboks who tested positive for Covid, but his brush with the virus has not been serious.

“I feel good, luckily I didn’t have any symptoms and I was able to get through the 10 days of quarantine quite easily. I’m ready to go and, as a team, there’s no way we’re not going to be ready. We’re the world champions playing against the British and Irish Lions, so we will be emotionally and physically ready. We’ve had hard weeks of training, we are so ready.

“The Lions have quality players everywhere and we were analysing them as hard as we could when we were stuck in isolation. So we have a good idea of what’s coming, it helps to pick up small cues and what their individual tendencies are. I’m sure they’re doing the same on us too. So after some good time spent on mental preparation and analysis, this week it’s back to physical training,” Pollard said on Monday.

Pollard did a fine job of being South Africa’s general in the 2019 World Cup, where their successful strategy was built around forward power and suffocating defence to boss the gain-line, deft kicking to exploit space and then ruthless finishing to capitalise on the forced mistakes. Over the weekend, certain critics described it as being ‘boring’, to which Pollard had an excellent response on Monday.

“That’s the most beautiful thing in the world to see, apart from my wife. Throwing the ball around is nice for the people watching on TV, but ourselves and the Lions probably play pretty similar games – it’s going to come down to physicality and the set-pieces, as it usually does in these big Tests. The flyhalf always plays a big role too in providing direction, steering the ship.

“It’s going to be a big series, but nothing changes – I still have to do my job first before worrying about the other guys. I have to make sure we’re playing in the right areas,” Pollard said.

Backline coach Mzwandile Stick acknowledged that having the 27-year-old Pollard available is excellent news for the Springboks.

“We know Morne Steyn is very high quality, he manages the game so well, and Elton Jantjies had a great match against the Bulls with his kicking game and his physicality was right up there. But Handre has got massive experience, he was there when we won the World Cup final and you can’t replace that experience. As coaches, we always appreciate experience.

“They are the players who know when to switch on and you can see the guys are now in the zone in the team room,” Stick said.

Uganda putting initial suspicions & tragedy behind them to embrace rugby 0

Posted on November 04, 2016 by Ken

 

Having gone through the agony of a young player tragically dying on the field and initial suspicions about the game, the Uganda Rugby Union is now seeing a rapid rise in interest at schools which can only be good news for a country that has enormous unharnessed talent.

Yusuf Saidi Baban, a player with Nile Rugby Club and student at Jinja Senior Secondary School, died following a Uganda Cup game against Buffaloes in July 2013. There had already been some resistance to rugby being played in schools with the perception being that the game was not “godly” because it was rough and the ball was passed backwards!

But since then, there has been a dramatic change in attitude, thanks to the hard work of the Uganda RU and the support of WorldRugby’s Get Into Rugby programme and the private Bhubesi Pride charitable initiative.

“WorldRugby obviously give us their usual grants and help with training and education, but their Get Into Rugby programme has been very good for us. Since 2014 it has gone into really remote areas that have never seen a rugby ball and we are beginning to familiarise the game at schools,” Uganda RU president Andrew Owor said.

“We now have 248 primary schools playing rugby, mostly non-contact through the Tag Rugby Trust. But we are running up-skilling programs alongside that and Uganda’s Get Into Rugby is a blend of Tag and Uganda Rugby Union programs. We are locating rugby centres, going to schools that we have had contact with before.

“But schools now write to us saying they want rugby there, which shows the change in mindset. Before, there was a bit of stigma about rugby in schools and we needed a lot of education, starting with the teachers. The key is also getting parents fully on board and then you get two or three brothers all playing at different high-level clubs.”

Bhubesi Pride is the initiative Richard Bennett started in 2010 to bring together rural communities, NGOs and government departments in Africa with lovers of rugby union. It selects volunteers from all over the world to help develop rugby and harness its benefits for society in general.

According to Bennett, Bhubesi Pride has three main objectives: “To unite communities through rugby, promoting the sport’s values and life skills; empower and up-skill local staff, nurturing community leaders, male and female, in a way that maximises sustainability; and to inspire long-term developmental outcomes via tangible legacy projects, alongside in-country partners.”

Their 2015 expedition began at the end of January in Uganda with a 25-strong team of volunteers drawn from 11 different countries.

“Bhubesi Pride have raised huge awareness, especially in Jinja, which is an hour from Kampala. It was good that they went to where the boy died on the pitch, they faced that and educated the people about what happened. They go to a number of schools, holding clinics for coaches in the area and it has been a huge success. They do a lot,” Owor said.

It’s an important year for Uganda Rugby because, at the top level, their senior team will be bidding for promotion back into Africa Group 1A and their men’s and women’s sevens teams are both strong contenders to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Uganda rugby has always been renowned for a running, expansive game and the sheer pace of their players – sometimes their props could seemingly double as wings! – makes up for them being smaller than those from most other African countries. Sevens rugby would seem to be an obvious area for investment.

“We’re in the final eight of Olympic qualifying to be held in South Africa in November. Kenya and Zimbabwe are our main rivals, with one other team from Africa joining South Africa at the Olympics. We don’t have funding to travel much which is why we dropped out of the second level of the World Series.

“We’re now looking for a sponsor and we don’t have nearly as much financial backing as Kenya and not much government support, so we’re at a disadvantage. But there is enormous talent, we saw that in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games last year. They only had four months to train, but they performed so well, beating Sri Lanka and not being disgraced by Australia nor England, you could see the raw talent,” Owor said.

Get Into Rugby has also proved to be a great avenue for women’s players to excel in Uganda.

“It channels girls into sevens and has produced a multitude of players. The Uganda U19 girls won the Safaricom Sevens in Nairobi, it was the first time they had ever been outside Uganda and that shows how much talent there is, but it’s unharnessed.

“Women’s rugby is the success story in Uganda, only South Africa beat our team and the women’s sevens is the first team, across all sporting codes, to represent Uganda at a senior World Cup,” Owor said.

Apart from the usual problem of limited finance, Uganda Rugby is also longing for their own national rugby stadium. Owor is hopeful that a new agreement with the Kingdom of Buganda will see their dream come true.

“It’s a landmark partnership, going to the local kingdom, which is independent of government. They are in the process of giving us land on which we can put up a stadium, which will also be a facility for their subjects. It’s a huge collaboration with the kingdom, which is in the central third of Uganda, and now we will work together to get partners from the rest of the world and hopefully have a new centre for rugby in East Africa,” Owor said.

At grassroots level, the move to bring families and communities on board has been a key factor in the growth of Ugandan rugby, while instituting a three-tiered competition structure has seen the number of senior clubs grow to 26. The changing model has also seen a decentralisation of rugby with the four regions now empowered to run their own affairs on a semi-autonomous basis.

Franchise rugby, with two or three clubs joining together, has also been introduced and although Owor knows it will take time for all the talent in Uganda to bloom, he is confident there is enormous potential.

 

 

Bad news for Titans but good signs for the future – Walter 0

Posted on January 04, 2016 by Ken

The bad news for the Unlimited Titans after their three-wicket loss to the Dolphins at the weekend is that it has almost certainly knocked them out of contention for the Sunfoil Series title; the good news is that coach Rob Walter is nevertheless proud of their performance and believes they are steadily improving in four-day cricket.

The Titans, with three wins in eight matches, are now third on the log with two rounds remaining, 13.36 points behind the second-placed Dolphins and 30.04 points behind the bizhub Highveld Lions. That means even if they win their remaining two matches with a massive haul of points, say 40 in two games, the Lions will still only need 10 points from two games to beat them.

“Realistically it’s probably the end of the road, although we do still have a mathematical chance,” Walter admitted to The Citizen on Monday. “But we’ve focused on really improving our four-day disciplines this season and it’s important that our results reflect that, so we really want to push hard for second.”

On paper, the Titans should have a side that regularly wins titles, but the likes of Farhaan Behardien, Marchant de Lange, Albie Morkel, Dean Elgar and David Wiese have only made limited appearances due to national and SA A call-ups as well as injuries, never mind the fact that AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Morne Morkel barely play for the franchise at all these days.

So Walter, who took over the coaching reins in 2013, has had to rebuild a competitive four-day outfit and is pleased with the progress that has been made.

“We were last in the Sunfoil Series in 2012/13 and fourth last season, so we’re aiming to win five games this season to finish even higher. We won three games last season and none the season before and once we learn to play the big moments a bit better, then we can finish right on top of the pile. Getting those five victories is hugely important for us,” Walter said.

And the Titans would probably have won their game against the Dolphins were it not for a brilliant stand of 116 for the seventh wicket between Morne van Wyk and Calvin Savage that carried the visitors from 58 for six to the brink of victory.

“From 60 for six, we would have backed ourselves to close out the game, but Morne and Calvin batted really well and showed a lot of resilience. We had a missed opportunity from Savage before he had scored 20, but I was really proud of the effort from the bowlers,” Walter said.

A superb burst of three wickets for one run in two overs from Rowan Richards had put the Titans in charge and the left-arm paceman is their leading wicket-taker this season with 29 at 27.65.

“When he gets on a roll he can be really devastating. Only the very top bowlers are able to replicate that every time they play, but where Rowan has journeyed forward this year is being able to deliver consistent performances when he’s not getting something special going,” Walter said.

As far as the batting goes, the Dolphins were able to gobble up wickets in clumps in both innings and an extra 50 runs is what eats away at Walter as he considers the game.

“If we had just been a bit smarter, we could have had at least another 50 runs. It’s disappointing, but the Dolphins were just 20% better in the crucial moments like Roelof van der Merwe’s run out in the second innings.”

“But for Dean Elgar to score a hundred on that surface was an unbelievable effort and Qaasim Adams again showed what he is capable of and it’s great that he’s getting consistency into his game.

“Theunis de Bruyn and Henry Davids had a very good stand in the first innings, but both got out to really good balls,” Walter said.

http://citizen.co.za/344990/walter-its-probably-the-end-of-the-road/

Reconciliation … so we run properly 0

Posted on May 07, 2012 by Ken

Much as I love technology, I have to admit I’m a bit behind the times and it oftens flummoxes and frustrates me no end. I’m relatively new to discovering the joys (and irritations) of a Blackberry and I enviously look at iPads like Neil Armstrong and Co must have looked at the moon during the training for their historic Apollo mission.

But even I know that you have to have the correct software running on any technical device in order for it to work properly. Windows 95 on my current laptop would be an absolute nightmare.

It’s the same with our lives. If we’re not in communion with our Creator, we’re not going to run properly. For those of a bygone technological age, it’s like those old 45″ singles you used to play on the gramaphone … the ones that had the big holes in the middle. If you didn’t centre that thing properly on the record player, the music would be horribly distorted.

Man, in disobedience, declares himself to be independent of God and causes a great separation. As Solly Ozrovech puts it so well in his book A Shelter From The Storm, “He thought that this would liberate him, but in reality he became the slave of influences stronger than himself. The egotistical I replaced God.”

But man’s declaration of independence from God has been a disaster. It’s clear that mankind cannot rule the world in their own wisdom and strength … just look at South Africa.

But here’s the Good News: “Even though humanity turned away from God, God did not turn away from his people. The purpose of Christ’s coming into this world as a man was to bridge the gaping chasm that separated man from God.”

2 Corinthians 5: 18-19 – “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Through Christ, God has revealed to us what we can become through his strength: Liberated from sin

Enriched by his Spirit living in us

and in communion with Him

Through Christ, our relationship with God is fully restored!

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  • Thought of the Day

    John 13:35 – “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

    “The Christian’s standards are the standards of Christ and, in his entire conduct and disposition, he strives to reflect the image of Christ.

    “Christ fills us with the love that we lack so that we can achieve his purpose with our lives. If we find it difficult to love, … open our lives to his Spirit and allow him to love others through us.” – Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm

    His loveliness must be reflected in our lives. Our good deeds must reflect his love.

     



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