Ken Borland

South Africa are looking to beat England for the first time in six outings in Sharjah on Saturday for a possible semi-final place in the T20 World Cup. A lot has to go right for the Proteas to upset the form book and win against the undisputed tournament favourites.

Ken Borland highlights four occurrences that will probably need to happen for Temba Bavuma’s spirited team to prevail.

1. Quinton de Kock to fire at the top of the order – It’s been a rough tournament for the wicketkeeper/batsman. His bizarre dismissal against Australia was followed by his equally baffling decision not to take a knee and rather withdraw from the match against the West Indies. He has not passed 50 in any T20 match in eight innings, but he looks in form. De Kock is due and he is undoubtedly a potential matchwinner for South Africa.
2. Heavy dew after winning the toss & bowling first – Sharjah is known for its dew and it would be a marvellous early Christmas present for Bavuma if he could win the toss and elect to bat second. No-one would suggest England’s impressive attack are ill-equipped to handle a damp ball, but if South Africa can set themselves up to chase 140-150, and De Kock gets going, it would give the Proteas serious hope.
3. A pitch that is really tough for batting – England like to play aggressive T20 cricket, setting matches up with their dashing batsmen going hard from the outset. But if the pitch is a bit of a snakepit, say like the one the Dutch were bowled out for 44 on less than a month ago at Sharjah, then it could take them out of their comfort zone. They adapted brilliantly against Sri Lanka at the start of the week, but what if the pitch is even tougher and Jos Buttler fails? South Africa have the spinners to hound them in the middle overs.
4. Fired up new-ball bursts by Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje – Rabada was superb in the win over Bangladesh and Nortje is enjoying a magnificent World Cup. But if something can get them really cross before the England innings and they come out really firing, England could lose a couple of wickets in the powerplay to their sheer pace.

Top South African golfer Justin Harding says he faces a predicament in arranging his schedule once professional golf resumes because he plays in both Europe and the United States and has to juggle their mussed up schedules with the quarantine and travel regulations of the various countries hosting events.

It is a problem facing many golfers as the U.S. PGA Tour hopes to resurrect their schedule on June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial and the European Tour is supposedly going to start again at the end of July with a run of events in the United Kingdom. But many of the world’s top golfers hop between the European and American tours, which now becomes a logistical nightmare with all the quarantining and testing that will be required for international travel.

“The European Tour is going to try put on four or five weeks of action in the UK, and hopefully there will be reduced quarantine measures by the end of that otherwise it’s going to be a scheduling nightmare. If you want to play in America you have to go 14 days beforehand, and going to Europe you also need 14 days’ quarantine. The PGA Championship is scheduled for the second week of August, so if you play in the British Masters from July 23 then you miss the quarantine deadline.

“The Korn Ferry Tour [the secondary U.S. tour for which Harding has full status] sent out a 57-page memorandum on the different regulations for when they start on June 8, but I have no intention of playing a full schedule on that tour. I need the world ranking points from the European Tour, and it doesn’t make sense quarantining for six weeks just to play three tournaments,” Harding said in a recent Sunshine Tour virtual press conference.

And before one accuses the 34-year-old world number 111 of being lazy, it is a viewpoint shared by many other golfers and Harding has proven his credentials by playing all over the world in recent years. One trip to the United States that he is willing to make, however, is for the Masters, which has been rescheduled for November 12-15. Harding made an impressive debut at the Masters last year, finishing in a tie for 12^th just five shots behind winner Tiger Woods, earning himself an invitation for this year’s Major.

“I’m certainly happy that the Masters wasn’t cancelled like the Open Championship! I’m dying to go back again and I wasn’t in a great run of form when we stopped playing golf but hopefully I can go to Augusta in November and be competitive. It’s a very strategic course and you need to put the ball in the right places. But I have no idea what the course will be like at that time of year.

“I’m sure Augusta will look different, I think it will be quite firm after it was quite wet last year. It will also be the debuts of Erik van Rensburg and Christiaan Bezuidenhout there so that’s going to be good fun. I think they’re the most upset about golf being suspended because they were both flying! Whereas I had had a dip in form which I was trying to play through, so the 10-week break might be good for me,” Harding said.

Pote Human admitted that the time is coming when he has to start rotating players, but for now the Bulls coach is able to just freshen up his squad in one or two areas, as he did on Wednesday when he announced a team with three changes in it to face the Chiefs in their SuperRugby game at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Centre Burger Odendaal and flank Ruan Steenkamp, both probable first-choice players, return to the starting line-up after prolonged injury absences, while a shoulder niggle for regular fullback Warrick Gelant has convinced Human to rest the Springbok for this weekend and bring in Divan Rossouw as the last line of defence.

Dylan Sage and Tim Agaba, the players displaced by Odendaal and Steenkamp, are both on the bench, along with returning lock Eli Snyman.

When one considers that available players such as Roelof Smit, Marco van Staden, Jaco Visagie, Aston Fortuin, Travis Ismaiel and Johnny Kotze are all unable to get into the match-day 23 right now, then one can see that Human suddenly has the depth to start rotating players and ensure his squad stays fresh in the toughest competition in world rugby.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to select the team but it’s a good place to be. Some Springboks do need game-time off as well, but we have Marco, Manie Libbok, Johnny and Travis all back and available and it was close between Jaco Visagie and Corniel Els for the substitute hooker position this weekend. So it’s a nice position to be in,” Human said at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.

The Chiefs, despite their mediocre start to the campaign, remain extremely dangerous opposition and the Bulls will need to shut them down at source on Saturday. The Bulls pack have certainly rolled up their sleeves in the first month of SuperRugby and Jason Jenkins and Hanro Liebenberg did well enough as the starting lock pairing against the Sharks in their last game for Human to persist with them as they tackle Brodie Retallick and his forwards.

“We kept the same locks because they did very well against the Sharks and they will be very physical, which is what will be needed against the Chiefs. We will try and force our game on their’s and if we can win the battle up front then we’re halfway there. We have the pack to do it so I think we’ll be okay.

“The scrums have been a big plus point for us, with Daan Human [scrummaging coach] coming in and he has done unbelievable work. I’m old school: If we can do well in the scrums and get go-forward then we’ll be okay,” Human said.

Squad: 15-Divan Rossouw, 14-Cornal Hendricks, 13-Jesse Kriel, 12-Burger Odendaal, 11-Rosko Specman, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Ivan van Zyl, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Jannes Kirsten, 6-Ruan Steenkamp, 5-Jason Jenkins, 4-Hanro Liebenberg, 3-Trevor Nyakane, 2-Schalk Brits, 1-Lizo Gqoboka. Replacements – 16-Corniel Els, 17-Simphiwe Matanzima, 18-Dayan van der Westhuyzen, 19-Eli Snyman, 20-Tim Agaba, 21-Embrose Papier, 22-Manie Libbok, 23-Dylan Sage.

If the South African Rugby Union were a kid, based on their 2016 performance they would be the one who failed to pass their grade and has to repeat the year, hopefully being shamed into harder work and improvement by the embarrassment of sitting in a class with a bunch of people a year younger than you.

Unfortunately, if I was their teacher in that school, I would be forced to conclude already at this early stage of the year that Saru are doomed to fail again because they are simply repeating the same mistakes.

We are two weeks away from the start of Super Rugby and we still don’t know yet whether Allister Coetzee will continue in his post as Springbok coach. If he does – and that looks likely given how tardy Saru have once again been in sorting out their most important appointment (apart from arguably the CEO, who has done another of his disappearing tricks) – then Coetzee will once again find his planning set back by an administration that seems intent on tying one hand behind his back.

The contracts are apparently in place and the official announcement is supposed to be made in the next week, but we’ve heard that line before.

There is another vital appointment that Saru is also dragging its feet over and one that just creates enormous uncertainty amongst the best junior talent in this country and their parents, many of whom are probably sitting on offers from overseas.

Dawie Theron finished his tenure as national U20 coach in June and a replacement has still not been named. There is a great candidate – both in terms of the success he has achieved with young rugby players and the tremendous transformation message it would send – sitting in Potchefstroom by the name of Jonathan Mokuena, previously a manager of the Junior Springboks side, a winner of the Varsity Cup and a successful coach of the Leopards senior team.

But instead there are strong suggestions Abe Davids, the brother of Saru vice-president Francois Davids, is being lined up for the job.

Former traffic cop Francois Davids is also the president of Boland rugby, the union which suspended Abe Davids in 2014 for faking his coaching qualifications, and has been accused of such nepotism by the clubs in the area that the administration was called the “House of Davids”.

The only good news coming out of Saru lately  is that they have invested in getting Brendan Venter back involved with the Springboks. With him and Franco Smith, working with Matt Proudfoot and Johann van Graan, Coetzee will finally have back-up staff worthy of the Springboks.

Of course the name of Rassie Erasmus still pops up from time to time and the former Springbok and director of rugby has put in a lot of time and effort in plotting his coaching career-path. A leading Afrikaans Sunday newspaper seems be the PR company for his ambitions.

While the dithering and politicking carries on in the Saru boardroom, the All Blacks have already held their first camp together and the gap just widens. One would hope the news that the Springboks could be ranked as low as seventh after the next round of Six Nations matches would shock Saru into decisive action, but the wheels of their bureaucracy turn with the speed of a sloth.