Ken Borland

The message from captain AB de Villiers to Quinton de Kock was a simple instruction to try and not lose his wicket; the wicketkeeper/batsman did that and delivered so much more as his unbeaten century marshalled South Africa to a big total and ensured they capitalised on the great work of centurions Stephen Cook and Hashim Amla on the first day.

De Kock blasted 129 not out off 128 balls and ensured that the last three wickets added 139 runs, a memorable way to notch your maiden Test century and exactly what South Africa want from their wicketkeeper and number seven batsman.

“AB said I must just try and get a not out and the game changed after we lost Temba Bavuma. I decided that if there was any width, I would throw my hands at it and I was quite relieved to get my first Test hundred. But it’s just a start.

“After I was dropped the first time, I focused on stepping back into my game plan and I took a bit of a liking to Moeen Ali’s spin and tried to take him on. I’ve faced a lot of spin with the SA A side and in franchise cricket I also target the spinners, I don’t want to let them bog me down,” De Kock said on Saturday after England had reached 138 for two at stumps in reply to South Africa’s first innings of 475.

Although it is way too early to place the burden on De Kock of comparing him to Adam Gilchrist, the role the great Australian wicketkeeper/batsman pioneered is exactly what South Africa are banking on their 23-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman producing in the future.

“They used to call me ‘Gilly’ at the Highveld Lions and it’s falling into place for me at the moment. But it’s not just him I’d like to emulate, players like Matt Prior and Brad Haddin were also key batsmen who England and Australia relied on,” a typically unfazed De Kock said.

Since being dropped in Bangladesh after making a duck, part of a miserable 2015 that included his wretched World Cup and injuries, De Kock is hard on the comeback trail.

“It’s not a bad way to start the year after being dropped last year because I just wasn’t scoring runs. I was told to go and score some runs, but I was in a bad space then and I just didn’t care. I didn’t enjoy cricket for a bit, but life goes on and I carried on working, and then things change. I made runs and was enjoying the game again. It all fell into place, it was just about getting runs again and mentally, I was happy again,” De Kock explained.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who took four for 86 in South Africa’s innings, said they were hoping captain Alastair Cook could go on to a really big score on Sunday, having reached 67 not out at the close of the second day, his first half-century of the series.

“I think all three results are still possible and we were able to get through a tough patch with the bat this afternoon, we’ve done well to be only two down. Alastair has obviously struggled in this series and when he got to fifty it was almost like he’d scored a hundred because we were all so pleased for him. Hopefully he can go on tomorrow and make a big one.

“On the first morning the pitch was very slow but as the sun shone on it, it quickened up and there was a bit more pace in it today as well. But Nick Compton was very unlucky to get out to a ball that rolled, it’s the first one that’s misbehaved. Hopefully there aren’t any more on that length,” Stokes said.

Having reprieved both Stephen Cook (on 47) and Amla (on 5) on the first day, England dropped De Kock three times on the second day – on 28, 80 and 90.

“We realise we let them massively off the hook, allowed them to get that big score. Especially Amla, he really made us pay, good players do that. We expect to take those half-chances, but you just have to put it behind you and get on with it,” Stokes said.

Much like De Kock has put the first half of 2015 behind him and got on with scoring runs in his own uncomplicated, fluent manner as he enjoyed his day in the sun at Centurion on Saturday.

This has been a season of renewal for the Bulls and one of the fresh faces to have really come to the fore in SuperRugby has been loose forward Marco van Staden, a man of frenetic energy, great physicality and no little skill in doing his ball-pilfering job at the rucks.

A couple of the writers who regularly cover the Bulls were fortunate enough to get to interview the 22-year-old recently and he revealed that he played no provincial schoolboy rugby. This is probably largely due to the fact that he went to Hoerskool Bekker in Magaliesburg, not one of the traditional rugby powers.

He has made it this far – now being rated as one of South Africa’s most promising young forwards – thanks to his single-minded determination to fulfil his dream of being a professional rugby player and a bursary to study sports science from the University of Pretoria. Van Staden graduated last month and is the exception to the rule when it comes to how rugby players move through the development pipeline.

This got me thinking about the numerous, who knows how many, talents that fall through the cracks in South African rugby because of our obsession with a handful of elite rugby schools and provincial U19 and U21 competitions and the Varsity Cup.

Our results whenever we get to play against other countries – whether in the Pro14, SuperRugby or at Springbok level – show that our rugby is not well. The main reason for that is the terrible structure of our game. We desperately need a system that includes as much as possible of the undeniable talent that comes flooding through every year.

Instead, our rugby is elitist and there are barriers everywhere. It starts at school level where a few elite schools just get richer and richer through the ridiculous amount of attention that is lavished on them. Just turn on the rugby channel and you are very likely to be watching a schoolboy game.

These youngsters are fawned over from a young age and if you didn’t go to the ‘right’ school then chances are you won’t be playing in Craven Week, which means you won’t get snapped up by a province or university; in other words you are out of the system, generally for good.

Having been taught win-at-all-costs rugby at school level, to the detriment of skills development, these cloistered kids become professional rugby players at the age of 19, big fish in a small pond just going to another small pond. Many of them play in a Varsity Cup that shares little resemblance to the sort of rugby they will need to play if they are going to make it with the Springboks.

That rugby is being jealousy guarded as the preserve of a few was rammed home by two recent incidents.

Wanderers U21 players laid a complaint of vicious racism and assault against Roodepoort, with the disciplinary hearing held on May 9 by the Golden Lions Rugby Union. Seven weeks later and this issue has still not been resolved.

If South African rugby wants their sport to be played and enjoyed by most people in this country then incidents like this cannot be tolerated. If a blind eye is turned to what happens at club level, SA Rugby are discarding the probable solution to their structural crisis. By growing a healthy club rugby culture between the junior and professional ranks, there will be a pipeline that provides opportunity for way more talent.

But this lack of inclusivity is even seen at school level. Hilton College and Paul Roos (still sponsored by a Steinhoff subsidiary) fielded lilywhite teams in their Premier Interschools matches against Maritzburg College and Grey High respectively. Encouraged by blanket television coverage, they are allowed to get away with this gross dereliction of duty.

Both those schools spend a fortune on recruitment, so it is obvious making sure their teams reflect the demographics of our country by obtaining Black talent does not even register on their radar. And these are the schools which are meant to be preparing our children for a future South Africa!

Winning the series against England and twice showing their ability to bounce back after a really poor outing against Wales is a great credit to the Springbok management team and the senior players.

What was really impressive was the way they did it – not just while fulfilling their transformation goals, which the whole country should celebrate – but also the way they played: they wanted to outscore the opposition, they showed freedom on attack and they wanted to try things.

The way they came back from big deficits showed real guts and character, they showed the ability to accept adversity, not to shy away from it, to grasp the nettle and come back. When teams continually bounce back from those sort of scorelines – 3-24 at Ellis Park and 0-12 in Bloemfontein – then you know something special is brewing.

In contrast, it has been disappointing to see England unravel both on and off the field.

It was not good to see an international coach or Mike Brown interacting with fans. Verbals come with the territory; international rugby produces extreme emotion, not just among the fans but in the players as well because the stakes are high and the pressures are huge.

When England were winning 18 games in a row everything was working well. Now they have lost six in a row and they are under pressure, so we want to see their character emerge in hard times. We want to see fight, but not off the ball, not players pushing and shoving and swearing. We want to see hard hits in the collisions and when clearing out the rucks.

In the first 20 minutes of both Tests, England have played with positive intent but have then just died a death. And you can’t win Test matches if you give away so many penalties; you have no chance if you concede so many set-piece penalties. Those kill you at any level because they give away field-position and push your forwards into a really negative mindset.

One has to credit the Springboks for not showing the same emotions when under pressure. They have stuck their chests out and decided to do something about it, for which one must give credit to the leadership group. What happens on the field is not always about the coaches, they often can’t have an influence sitting a hundred metres away in the stands. Then it’s about your senior players and one has to give credit to Handre Pollard, Duane Vermeulen and Siya Kolisi. They have set the standard in terms of discipline, they have really come through and managed to get the younger guys to follow them and play better.

You have to ask why England’s senior players have not been able to do the same? Their coach bickering with the crowd is a real problem and they are obviously a group in freefall judging by the behaviour of the senior players.

So this weekend in Cape Town could be a defining moment for the England team, they have got to arrest their slide. But hopefully the Springboks will show sufficient intensity, will and attitude to put them away. If they can win the series 3-0 that would be a huge statement. This same England team won so many games in a row, they are a massive scalp, but maybe the Boks have put the final nail in their coffin.

It’s been a fascinating series and at a different level to the Tests between New Zealand and France, and Australia versus Ireland, in terms of intensity and the quality of the rugby, plus sheer excitement and the fever sweeping the country. There is definitely a renaissance brewing, the resurrection of Springbok rugby.

There are obviously things the Springboks still need to correct though, like their backline defence and the way they’ve been exposed any time the ball has been moved wide, but they have been scoring tries.

The way Vermeulen has come back after a huge season in France, playing 80 minutes of every Toulon game, and then producing this sort of form in June shows his commitment to Springbok rugby.

The Springboks are definitely a different animal in South Africa as compared to away from home, just as our SuperRugby teams are. Their real challenge is to play as they do in South Africa when they are away from home.

It must have been a really difficult week for Eddie Jones and it’s tough to play the Springboks three weeks in a row in Africa, he must be in a flat spin at the moment. His teams always seem to have the tendency when they lose to go into a deep run of defeats – examples of that are when he coached Australia to seven successive losses in 2005 and the Queensland Reds to nine defeats in a row in 2007. This week is a real test of his character and ability to turn things around.

It is with some sadness that I hear this could be the last Test at Newlands, which is a really special venue. Just the history of the place is amazing and the drive in from the brewery was always quite interesting as a coach of the Bulls! It was certainly far more enjoyable as part of the Springbok coaching team.

I hope the players can feed off the energy of the fans on Saturday and South Africa get the 3-0 whitewash.

John McFarland, the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan, was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

I had great expectations for the new-look Springboks last weekend against Wales and I thought a young and energetic team under a fresh coaching staff would play with real vigour and physicality. So it was a surprise to see them play so ponderously and under pressure they seemed scared to take the initiative and impose themselves on the Welsh.

It was strange to see a guy like Ivan van Zyl, who at the Bulls is always keen to move the ball, to keep the flow going, suddenly slow the whole game down. He normally plays an up-tempo passing game, so why did he become a box-kicking player in one week?

To offer some perspective though, it was a difficult away Test and it was obviously just a money-making venture to send them all the way to Washington. It was the  Springboks’ choice  to have only one training session in Washington, and a captain’s run and then play. An international coach has a lot of time for planning and preparation, with Rassie Erasmus resigning from Munster in November,  they had those alignment camps, but they chose not to have training camps which possibly came back to bite them in hindsight.

The conditions were the same for both sides, the Springboks really needed to play a lot more adventurously. Obviously Wales also did a lot of kicking, but whenever the Springboks fielded the ball they tended to slow things down, a whole line of forwards involved in the ruck very slowly setting up the box-kick, and it meant there was no width to the chase. That whole set-up tactic also gives time for the opposition to drop men back to deal with the kick they know is coming because there is no attacking shape, and it’s made easier for them because the chase is so narrow, the Springboks exposing themselves out wide. The big problem for the Springboks was that Wales were able to deal with their kicks and showed more adventure; they were able to put in attacking kicks on the open wing, regain possession and put more pressure on the Boks.

On the positive side, the Springbok set-pieces were good, they scrummed well and were able to get their own lineout ball well, forming the driving maul easily and quickly. Marvin Orie also had the measure of the Wales lineout at the end of the game and was able to steal some crucial balls.

The defence was not up to scratch according to Erasmus, but I didn’t think it was too bad, they had good line-speed when they were set and generally kept the attack from getting gainline and momentum. There are things that they need to put in place better, but they’ve got time now ahead of the first Test against England.

The first try conceded was because of the ball just squirting out at a ruck, while the scrumhalf try after that came after a very poor kick-chase and there was a blocker in the line who took out our props. I don’t understand why they are front-line on a chase, you don’t want to expose them to wings or fullbacks. The Springboks then did not get set in the pillar area, they were moving outwards at pillar two when Tomos Williams broke, which is a basic error.

Obviously they regrouped at halftime and the Springboks’ line-speed forced an error and Travis Ismaiel’s intercept try brought them back in the game. Having been 14-3 down, they did well to get back into it.

But then came the last try conceded by the unfortunate Robert du Preez. One had to ask where the blockers/screen were around the ruck? There was massive space left which enabled Wales to come through easily and put pressure on the replacement flyhalf. Two chargedowns in a passage of play will definitely lead to a try at this level.

While Du Preez had his problems at the end, I also didn’t feel Elton Jantjies controlled the game that well. Van Zyl also did most of the kicking and I think it was probably an instruction for them to kick from scrumhalf because that’s what worked for Rassie at Munster, but then he did have Conor Murray, the best scrumhalf in the world!

Apart from the Springbok scrum being good, they were also very flat and direct on attack from the scrum and they went hard over the gain-line. Jantjies did a lot of this too, but then that means the flyhalf is on the floor for the next two rucks and by the time he is back up on his feet he has static ball, which is why Elton used the outlet of a kick-pass so often. No flyhalf enjoys not having quick ball because that’s when the defence dictates and rushes, and a static flyhalf easily has his wide runners picked off.

The Springboks now need to get back to their best quickly for the England series, which everyone is really looking forward to. It certainly is interesting, as it always is with Eddie Jones and his words off the field. He’s under pressure and deflecting from the fact that England have lost their last four games, which is quite a run and includes their worst ever loss at Twickenham, against the Barbarians in their last outing. They are coming in with no confidence and they rarely win in South Africa – three wins in 13 Tests – so Eddie could be staring down the barrel of seven successive defeats if the Boks hit their straps.

The Springboks are also under pressure though because a world ranking of seven is certainly not where a side with the strength and rugby culture of South Africa wants to be. But it will be a completely different game to Erasmus’s first one in charge, playing at altitude at Ellis Park, which is a super-quick, big field with quick ball.

It’s a bit strange that England have gone to Durban to prepare and have not come straight to altitude. Maybe they wanted to escape winter on the Highveld, but they are definitely going to feel it at the back end of the game and they will need a strong bench to cope. At altitude you have to use 23 players.

I am looking forward to seeing Willie le Roux back at fullback, and with Handre Pollard at flyhalf it means the Springboks have left and right-footed kickers. Willie is tremendous at seeing things on the field, he has great vision in terms of spotting space, and chips and other little kicks -plus he’s lightning quick -to exploit it. He’s also very safe under the high ball.

John McFarland was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. He won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls as their defence coach. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

He is currently the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan.