Ken Borland

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus may be downplaying the importance of winning the inaugural Nations Championship, but filling his team with World Cup winners and first-choice regulars to play England at Ellis Park on Saturday makes it clear how seriously South Africa are taking their opening Test of the year.

With only the injured Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu absent, the backline is probably the one Erasmus would name if it were the World Cup final on Saturday. And up front are all the formidable old names – the now-established first-choice loose trio of captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese; Eben Etzebeth and Ruan Nortje in the second row, and Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit in the front row.

One can probably vigorously debate whether Grant Williams or Cobus Reinach are the number one scrumhalf; but Williams has played 28 Tests already and can no longer be called inexperienced, while Reinach has not played any rugby since his injury on Stormers duty at the end of April.

Du Toit may or may not be South Africa’s best tighthead prop, but English pundits have nothing but praise for him, the 31-year-old having taken the European game  by storm during his three years at Bath. With Wilco Louw fatigued after a tough URC campaign, the Sharks-bound Du Toit gets an early chance to lay down a marker in the Springbok jersey, his mobility for a high-paced game at altitude being a plus.

It is fit and proper that Erasmus and the Springboks are taking England so seriously, in contrast to many South Africans who expect them to be filling their boots against Steve Borthwick’s visitors.

Yes, England struggled in the Six Nations, but let’s not forget that at the start of this year, it was this weekend’s clash at Ellis Park that was creating the most excitement for the early rounds of the new Nations Championship. England had risen to third in the world rankings thanks to their unbeaten run through their Autumn Internationals, including a 33-19 dismantling of the All Blacks, and them versus South Africa seemed to be a match-up between the two most in-form teams on the planet.

The momentum was lost in the Six Nations, until England nearly beat champions France in Paris. They looked back on the up again and showed that they do still have some potent weapons.

“Our mindset is just to win another Test match and I’m pretty sure England are the same. The Barbarians match was a nice warm-up and it helped get the guys into the structure, but this is now a big Test. England are always tough, their strength in numbers is really good, many of their players were in the Premiership final so their standard is very high,” Erasmus warned when announcing his team this week.

“There are not a lot of games against England in our squad and it will be all about how quickly we can get cohesion, alignment and playing together. England should have won their last game against France, they only just lost, and having been here a while, they’ve probably adapted to altitude.

“We’ll have to see how they run the ball, but they have a young and energetic side that fits an open, running game. We’ll have to get the better of them facet by facet of the game, try and win by dominating the different departments of the game.

“This is a big year for us, there are young guys there in our squad but they don’t have a lot of caps and next year is the World Cup. The priority is to keep our momentum and belief, so we’re just trying to win, we won’t be chasing bonus points. If we win all our games, we’ll win the Nations Championship.

“We just want to try and get on the front foot, get momentum, but it’s not going to be easy. Which is why we’ve chosen a more experienced side. If it goes well on Saturday, then we can use more youngsters in the next few weeks,” Erasmus said.

The double World Cup winning coach’s caution is also justified by history: the last Test the Springboks played at Ellis Park was their embarrassing 38-22 defeat to Australia on August 16 last year, while the last time they played England in Johannesburg was on June 16, 2018.

On that occasion, the Springboks won 42-39, recovering from a horror start in which they went 24-3 down. It was just Rassie’s second Test as head coach and Siya Kolisi was the first Black African to lead South Africa in a Test match. The lesson from that game was that momentum can shift very quickly at Ellis Park.

Last year’s defeat to the Wallabies provided another salient lesson and warning – it is easy, given how fast-scoring matches can be at Ellis Park, to get carried away. The Springboks were near-perfect in the opening quarter, leading 22-0 with some scintillating rugby. But then they hit a speed wobble, over-played and Australia were well-deserved winners.

Using Manie Libbok at flyhalf worked marvellously when the Springboks were in charge and on attack, but his game management was exposed when the Wallabies fought their way back into the contest. It seemed on that day that Libbok had only one gear – flat out – and their game eventually spiralled out of control, a bit like what has happened to English cricket with their Bazball.

This Saturday at Ellis Park will be the first Test since then that Erasmus is using Libbok in the No.10 jersey. The injury to Feinberg-Mngomezulu nows gives the former Stormers star the chance to show that the effective job he has done coming off the bench since then can be repeated from the start.

“I have a clear understanding what my role is. I need to go out there and lead with my voice, drive the team around the park and make sure we execute our game plan. I need to do my exits, make sure we are in the right areas and play with the right balance,” Libbok told SuperSport this week.

“It’s especially about looking after the forwards, not wasting their energy and overplaying them. I need to handle the pressure, kick at the right times and get in their territory,” Libbok said, perhaps in reference to the feeling that the Springboks had shot their bolt way too early against the Wallabies last season.

South Africa are going to have to box smart against England and it will require a much more controlled performance from them if their proud record against the Red Rose in Johannesburg is not going to go the same way as their one against Australia went to everyone’s shock last year.

England have not won at Ellis Park since 1972 and anywhere on the Highveld since 2000, while Australia’s previous win at the intimidating venue came in 1963 and they had not triumphed anywhere in South Africa since 2011.

England are a competent side across the board and the Springboks will be looking for a knockout blow via their usual weapons of physical dominance at the gainline and in the set-pieces, with a lethal backline able to both create space and take advantage of what materialises thanks to their mighty forwards.

I don’t normally like to ascribe too much importance to the toss, but there is no doubt Western Province calling correctly on the first morning of the CSA 4-Day Series final against the Central Gauteng Lions at the Wanderers has turned out to be a big advantage for the visitors.

Having sent the Lions in to bat in heavily overcast conditions, WP backed it up with excellent bowling and an astonishing first 100 minutes saw the hosts crash to 35 for five. That the Lions eventually made it to 225 all out was thanks to fringe player Delano Potgieter showing what a useful cricketer he is by scoring 81, and their batting depth as the left-hander shared crucial partnerships with Wiaan Mulder (41) and Codi Yusuf (34).

Despite the rearguard action, WP were in no mood to allow the initiative to slip and Eddie Moore capped a great day for the Capetonians with a dominating 35 not out off 31 balls that took them to 49 without loss at stumps.

To be fair, it was not just a case of winning the toss and bowling first and dominating for WP. With the weather forecast predicting very hot weather and the pitch likely to dry out and crack (there was turn on day one for Kyle Simmonds), batting last will be tough as well. WP captain Kyle Verreynne admitted the decision was difficult when he said at the toss: “I was going to bat first but when I saw the floodlights were on I decided to bowl.”

There was a tinge of green on the pitch on the first morning and, with the overhead conditions, there was swing on offer. But credit to the WP bowlers, especially Dane Paterson, who found exactly the right areas of prime real estate on the pitch to cause major problems for the Lions top-order.

Paterson turns 35 in little over a month, but he does not look like retirement is on his horizon. And, after all, he has just returned from playing Test cricket for the Proteas in New Zealand, taking three for 39 in the second Test as South African gained a first-innings lead in Hamilton.

Lions openers Josh Richards and Dominic Hendricks seemed to have negotiated the first five-and-a-half overs comfortably enough, but then Paterson struck.

Richards found himself across his stumps and trapped lbw by an inswinger and the next delivery had Zubayr Hamza caught in the slips via a loose drive that seemed more appropriate for a game of garden cricket than a prestige final.

At the end of his next over, Paterson claimed the considerable scalp of the regular Proteas Test captain, Temba Bavuma, for a two-ball duck. Having survived the hat-trick ball, Bavuma could not have done much more with his second delivery, defending compactly on off-stump, but a beautiful away-swinger moved just enough to find the edge and wicketkeeper Verreynne took a fine one-handed catch diving in front of first slip.

Captain Hendricks survived for the first 45 minutes, before edging Beuran Hendricks to Verreynne and when Ryan Rickelton (9) edged Mihlali Mpongwana into the slips playing a loose punch outside off-stump when a leave would have been better in that situation, the Lions top-order had folded quicker than the origami world champion.

Mulder, enjoying a marvellous season with the bat, helped Potgieter to restore some balance, adding 77 for the sixth wicket before he also edged Mpongwana into the slips.

When Bjorn Fortuin, trying an overly-ambitious drive, was caught behind in the same over, the Lions had crashed to 112 for seven. But Potgieter played an inspired innings, his 81 coming off just 106 deliveries with 12 fours and a six.

His aggression paid off and his determination kept the Lions in the game, especially since the sun came out in the afternoon and batting definitely is becoming easier, at least until the back end of this five-day match.

The last pair of Malusi Siboto (32) and Tshepo Moreki (8*) then sat in for over an hour to stretch the total towards respectability.

All-rounder Mpongwana eventually ended the innings to finish with four for 41 in 15 overs, an admirable foil for Paterson, who finished with outstanding figures of 16-8-31-5.

With Moore and Tony de Zorzi (12*) then starting the WP innings so well, in terms of dominant positions, the visitors are definitely enjoying a front-seater.

A successful choir obviously needs everyone singing together in complementary fashion and the Proteas’ success over the last summer has certainly been a team effort, but coach Mark Boucher has spoken of the importance of having the two captains, Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma, singing from the same hymn sheet.

Since the unfortunate experiment with Quinton de Kock as captain, Elgar and Bavuma have taken over the red and white-ball sides respectively for the last 13 months and the split captaincy has worked well, although the consistency of the limited-overs side has perhaps left something to be desired.

“Dean and Temba came in as leaders in a tough time,” Boucher said. “They are completely different characters, but they have rubbed off on each other. They feed off each other and they speak to each other a lot.

“They have also both been in really good form with the bat and have been leading from the front.

“What’s been particularly good is that they are on the same page when it comes to where they want to take South African cricket,” Boucher said.

Elgar said the success of the Test team has helped to ease the burden of captaincy, which is never easy when there is so much going on off the field to deal with.

“Everything good comes with a challenge and I like challenges,” Elgar said. “That’s why I’m still playing Test cricket at nearly 35 years old and I feel my best cricket is still ahead of me.

“If I was younger, maybe I wouldn’t enjoy the captaincy as much. It has been extremely testing off the field, but I have an amazing core of players around me, they respect and understand me as a person.

“I think we’re in a very special place as a team and that leads to me being a lot happier with what I’m doing. Getting results and playing good, strong cricket, definitely eases the burden of captaincy,” Elgar said.

Elgar and Boucher are both hard-nosed leaders who would perhaps not be out of place training recruits in the marine corps. And they have both suggested the players who went to the IPL instead of playing in the Bangladesh series will not automatically get their Test places back.

“I don’t think it’s fair to just say they come back,” Elgar said. “The guys playing now have made a massive statement. We have a decent batting pool now.

“Someone like Ryan Rickelton has taken to Test cricket pretty well, he’s had a taste and now understands it. Even if the intensity was not quite what it will be playing England.

“But it’s out of my hands whether the IPL guys get selected again,” Elgar said.

“The IPL guys did vacate their spots and there is now good competition for those spots. It’s a nice position to be in,” Boucher said.

Hooker Bongi Mbonambi is a seasoned and potent member of the front row club and he knows the importance of the Springbok pack being a cohesive unit ahead of the bruising forward battles that lie ahead against Georgia and the British and Irish Lions.

South Africa take on Georgia for the first time since their inaugural meeting and 46-19 win in Sydney in the 2003 World Cup, with back-to-back Tests on July 2 at Loftus Versfeld and July 9 at Ellis Park. The Georgian forwards are a lively bunch and they will provide decent preparation for the Lions series.

“We’re definitely focused on Georgia at the moment, they have a quality pack and they scrum very low so we have to adjust to that. As a pack we want to make sure we are all aligned and on the same page, especially in the scrum and maul. Other countries look at us and see those as a threat and it is definitely one of our weapons, but we do have other weapons too,” Mbonambi said.

The 30-year-old Stormers star, capped 36 times, also acknowledged the gulf between professional club rugby and the international game, which was so rudely exposed by the hammering of the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final last weekend.

“There’s a massive difference between local and international rugby, the intensity is about 10 times higher. But the coaches are making sure we get back there to those levels, so I am feeling it on the body at the moment. But I’m 100% sure we’ll be ready given the way we are training now,” Mbonambi said.

Apart from the scrums and mauls, Mbonambi obviously also has a key role to play in the lineouts and, as in all facets of their game, the camp in Bloemfontein has focused on ensuring there is no broken language when it comes to communicating about this crucial set-piece, which is usually a South African strength.

“We’re focused on our system and working on the lineout detail. A hooker needs to have a feel for the other players, you need to build that confidence and connection. We always have high standards, but as a thrower I aim for 100%, I want to be perfect.

“The Lions have top-class payers in the lineout so we know we will be under pressure, but we have great coaches who have put things in place and now it’s up to the players just to execute,” Mbonambi, who is renowned for his accurate set-piece work, said.