Ken Borland

An excellent third-wicket partnership between Zubayr Hamza and Kyle Verreynne held a tidy, probing Netherlands attack at bay in helpful bowling conditions, before the dam wall broke in the last four overs as Andile Phehlukwayo raced South Africa to 277/8 in the first ODI at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday.

Phehlukwayo lashed 48 off just 22 balls, including six mighty sixes, as he and Keshav Maharaj (18*) pounded 68 runs off the last 40 balls of the innings, including 61 off the final four overs. It provided the late boost needed to convert an average score into a good one.

Winning a useful toss under cloudy skies following heavy overnight rain, the Netherlands gained early reward for bowling first when left-armer Fred Klaassen removed both Proteas openers inside the first seven overs. Reeza Hendricks (6) played way too early and popped a catch to cover, while Janneman Malan (16) edged a loose, flatfooted drive at a wider delivery to second slip.

At 24/2, Zubayr Hamza had just the man for a crisis join him in fellow Western Province star Kyle Verreynne. The pair added 119 off 137 balls for the third wicket to give the innings a solid platform.

Hamza looked particularly good and played some wonderful strokes, while Verreynne was typically busy and positive and ensured that the Dutch bowlers never totally gained the upper hand, playing strongly off the back foot.

Hamza fell for 56 off 79 deliveries when he skied a pull off a Brandon Glover slower ball, but Verreynne went on to a career-best score and was in touching distance of a century when he was unfortunate to fall to a slower-ball gone wrong from Vivian Kingma. The back-of-the-hand delivery came out as a dipping full toss, which the wicketkeeper/batsman swung away one-handed, but straight to deep square-leg.

Verreynne had worked hard through the tough times for his 95 off 112 balls, and was all set to really launch before his dismissal.

The rest of the batting was made of flimsier material though as South Africa slid from 143/2 to 209/7; up to that point, Verreynne and Hamza had scored 57% of the Proteas runs.

Fortunately, Phehlukwayo showed his finishing ability as he belted the ball over the boundary to great effect, with skipper Maharaj providing important support as the Proteas made a strong end to their innings.

New-ball bowlers Klaassen (8-2-45-2) and Kingma (9-0-49-2) were good for the Netherlands, while Roelof van der Merwe returned to his former home ground with 1/27 in six overs of tidy left-arm spin.

Due to their reliance on physicality and aggression, the Springboks have often been regarded as the bad boys of rugby. Which is all well and good when it comes to intimidating the opposition, but not so helpful when, in the eyes of the referees, you are the team who needs to be watched more carefully.

It’s a stereotype of course (which we know all about in this country), but it’s funny how, almost as surely as night follows day, South Africa win a World Cup or are the best team in the world and the narrative from overseas begins that the way they play the game is bad for rugby.

By way of contrast, New Zealand’s All Blacks are the golden child of rugby – everything they do is skilful, dazzling and how the game should be played. Even when they are kicking more than any other team or mastering the dark arts of niggle and consistently killing the ball in their own 22.

South African rugby has, however, gone through phases when it was unacceptably dirty and it is fair to say our natural tendency is towards conservative, defensive, backs-to-the-wall type play rather than embracing risk and flair. As current Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has pointed out though, it is the differences in style, in the DNA of teams, that makes international competition interesting. It would be really boring if everyone played the same way.

When I was a boy, there were no neutral referees so teams did not worry about the perceptions of the officials. The history books show that overseas teams considered it extremely difficult to win in South Africa, describing the refereeing as rather patriotic.

But now, the referee and his viewpoint are now an important part of an international team’s preparation for a match. And it is probably fair to say the current Springbok team is having a hard time with how referees are perceiving them at the moment, judging by Rassie Erasmus’s notorious video and the number of calls that seem to be going against them at the moment. In the last week we have had Faf de Klerk’s yellow card that set the tone for their poor second Test against Australia now being exposed by no less an authority as Nigel Owens as being a wrong call.

Probably the last time the Springboks faced such a PR crisis was between the 1995 and 2003 World Cups. Prior to 1995, James Small had been the only Springbok ever red-carded, when Ed Morrison sent him off against the Wallabies in Brisbane in 1993. But between 1995 and 2003, another five players were sent to the showers early and there were also numerous yellow cards.

Boy, did South Africa have a problem with discipline no matter how hard the likes of Andre Markgraaff and Rudolf Straeuli try to run the team like an army camp.

So when Jake White took over as Springbok coach in 2004, it was one of the key areas he identified as needing to improve. It was one of the reasons John Smit was appointed as captain, because the hooker was well-liked by referees and had a good ‘bedside manner’ with them.

As Smit built a rapport with the referees around the world and White clamped down hard on any on-field ill-discipline, so the Springboks’ reputation improved and they began to get more of the 50/50 calls. By 2007 they were world champions and the same group of players continued to dominate until the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal when Bryce Lawrence failed to read the script or the law book properly.

But the current Springboks’ issues with officiating and their efforts to get a fair deal are more likely to be resolved through gentle diplomacy than angry videos. Captain Siya Kolisi is one of the most respected people in global rugby, so I would like to see him take a leaf out of John Smit’s book and begin a charm offensive with the referees.

So what if the vanquished Northern Hemisphere teams don’t like the game-plan, but getting on the right side of the officials is a vital part of winning rugby.