Ken Borland

South Africa’s Rugby Championship participation is obviously dependent on government approval, but player welfare is also a major concern for Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus and his personal opinion is that the Springboks are going to be underdone in terms of game time.

South Africa’s opening Rugby Championship game is against Argentina on November 7 and they have to arrive in Australia by October 18 in order to quarantine for two weeks, but that means the members of the Springbok squad that are based in South Africa will only have a maximum of 240 minutes under their belts – SuperFan Saturday, this weekend’s Green v Gold match and the opening round of Super Rugby Unlocked.

“We desperately want to play because it would be terrible to have a year with no Test rugby. But we’ve had no clear answer from the English clubs about their semi-finals and final, we have to take a massive squad because you need four players in each key position and we all have to arrive at the same time because of two weeks quarantine, during which we can practise together.

“The science tells us that the players need five or six games, 400-500 minutes, before playing Test rugby is safe because of the injury risk and player welfare. It’s a tough one because we know we have to go, but we just don’t know how it’s going to be possible. And we don’t have much time to sort it out, the decisions all have to be done by October 10. It’s a matter of high performance and player welfare, we want to be competitive but 240 minutes is the most our players will have,” Erasmus said on Monday.

It’s fortunate that the players don’t have to be isolated in their hotel rooms, stuck on their cellular phones and gaming devices, for their two-week isolation, but even playing intra-squad matches between themselves is fraught with risk.

“We’ll be lucky if most of them have more than 200 minutes game time when we arrive in Australia, but we can probably still play against each other, a 46-man squad means we have two teams of 23. So if we play twice then that adds another 160 minutes, takes us to 360, which is nearly there. And there may be more intensity than usual because the guys will be playing for spots. “But then there’s also the risk of more injuries. And it’s not just your 15 players that you are worried about, it could be any of 30 guys on the field at any given time. Plus all 46 of the squad have played less than 200 minutes and have been under strict Lockdown, the toughest in the world. So there are a lot of problems with that as well! But ultimately the decision will be made for us,” Erasmus said.

It took no more than half-an-hour of their SuperFan Saturday game against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld for the Bulls to head off into the west and disappear into the sunset, such was their dominance in terms of power and pace on their way to a 49-28 victory.

In that opening half-hour, the Bulls were simply dazzling as they raced into a 35-0 lead with five wonderful tries. The Sharks struck back with a try after the halftime hooter, and went into the break 7-35 down. The Bulls replaced almost their entire 1^st XV after 52 minutes, and the visitors were able to make the scoreline less embarrassing.

But there was no doubting they had been blown off the park in the first half by the Bulls’ dazzling combination of immense forward power and extreme pace and elusiveness in the backline, with veteran flyhalf Morne Steyn running the show with aplomb and thoroughly enjoying all the front-foot ball he was given.

The Bulls opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a fairly typical driving maul try scored by hooker Schalk Erasmus, but thereafter it was the guys with the fast feet and rocket-pace at the back who stole the show. Coach Jake White had said during the week that we should watch out for the likes of Gio Aplon, Stedman Gans and Kurt-Lee Arendse and they did not disappoint, while former Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks shone as he moved into the inside centre position.

Outside centre Gans stepped brilliantly and raced away after the Sharks had failed to handle a bomb from Steyn, wing Arendse then scored the try of the game as he outpaced everyone from 80 metres out after the Sharks, hard on attack, had knocked on in the maul, and lovely work by Hendricks then sent Arendse over for his second try 10 minutes later. Gans also turned provider as he set up wing Travis Ismaiel for the fifth try.

As sparkling as the running of the backs was, it was obviously the tremendous graft of the pack that made it possible. The sheer physicality of prop Jacques van Rooyen, locks Ruan Nortje and Jason Jenkins, and loose forwards Duane Vermeulen and Arno Botha meant the Bulls won the battle of the gain-line, while Marco van Staden was the terror of the breakdowns.

There was no doubting the character of the Sharks though, and the defence of the Bulls was also given a good workout and generally stood up well.

The Sharks dominated the latter stages of the second half, scoring four tries in all. But the loss of momentum, both on the field on Saturday and in terms of where they left off in Super Rugby, will be of great concern for coach Sean Everitt.

Points scorers

Bulls – Tries: Schalk Erasmus, Stedman Gans, Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Travis Ismaiel, David Kriel (2). Conversions: Morne Steyn (5), Chris Smith (2).

Sharks – Tries: Grant Williams, Marius Louw, Daniel Jooste, Jaden Hendrickse. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2), Jordan Chait (2).

Having attended a private school in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, I’m as used to the accusations of my alma mater being stuck-up as I am to the reality that in national terms, we are pretty low down the pecking order in terms of schoolboy rugby.

Barring the odd golden periods, the private schools generally struggle to compete with the likes of your Grey College, Paul Roos, Paarl Gym, Affies and Paarl Boys’ High. But where their contribution is proportionally greater is in providing Black players for the pipeline.

And perhaps this is one of the key reasons a thriving schoolboy scene does not translate into greater success for our Junior Springboks side. There has been a lot of angst expressed in the last week over their performances on their tour of the United Kingdom – they were hammered by England and could only snatch a last-minute win over Wales.

The displays did not engender much confidence that South Africa can compete for the honours in the World Rugby U20 Championship that starts in Argentina early next month. It’s a tournament which the Junior Springboks have not won since 2012 and they have not appeared in the final since 2014.

It’s not as if they’re finishing at the bottom of the log either, though, with South Africa having finished third three times in the last four years and fourth once. But given the widely-held belief that we have the strongest schools rugby system in the world, there’s the lingering feeling that we should be doing better.

The problem is the advantages our schoolboy behemoths have in terms of strength, power and pace don’t last through into the senior ranks. Winning at all costs in the highly competitive schools scene means physical characteristics are relied upon and developed, to the detriment of skills. At senior professional level, everyone is pretty much on a par physically thanks to the scientific advances in conditioning, and South Africa loses its advantage.

This mentality also means South Africa’s great rugby schools have been ignoring their responsibility towards the pipeline of our rugby through their reluctance to embrace the need to develop more Black talent. It is time those top-10 schools become more transformed in their recruitment and in the teams they put out on to the field week in, week out.

Quotas or targets have been in place in our national teams for a long time now, and our top rugby schools really need to get with the program. That’s if they really have the national interest at heart and are truly preparing their pupils for the real South Africa outside their secluded cloisters.

Most of the Black players in the Junior Springboks system come from private schools, but I would love to see those great establishments mentioned above push more previously disadvantaged players through their outstanding rugby systems, which can only see better players being produced. I am pleased to hear that Grey College are planning big changes in this regard.

Quotas are obviously controversial and are not a perfect tool. Personally I don’t like them, but I liken them to elephant culling.

Elephants are my favourite animal and I cannot stand the thought of them being killed. But I also recognise the need for culling because if their populations in game reserves are left unchecked, elephants destroy their environment leading to the deaths of both themselves and many other creatures.

The fact that elephants are confined to game reserves is a man-made problem, therefore man has the responsibility to find a solution. Likewise, Apartheid was a man-made problem and quotas seem to be the best solution on the table right now to undo the damage.

Given how long we have waited for the Springboks to comprise just 50% players of colour, I shudder to think what would have happened if quotas were not in force.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20190504/282467120320394

Economic hardships, the lure of foreign lands and a saturated market all buffet SA Rugby’s efforts to produce an alluring SuperRugby product, but in the magnificently comfortable Cape Town Stadium last weekend they were given some massive ideas in terms of getting it to work again.

Getting spectators to watch live sport these days is all about the stadium experience, and the fact the Cape Town Stadium was sold out for the SuperRugby Superhero Sunday Double-header – warm-up matches that ultimately count for nothing – tells you the venue is doing something right.

Spacious and with plenty of open spaces along the concourses, Cape Town Stadium is also brilliantly designed so that there is not a bad seat in the house. Thanks to SuperSport, I enjoyed my first visit to the Green Point venue last weekend and I was enormously impressed.

The Cape Town public came in their droves even though the Stormers rested most of their big stars. Fortunately there were enough Springboks in the Lions, Bulls and Sharks teams to make up for that. When Duane Vermeulen walked on to the field, the Stormers faithful began cheering, until they remembered he has signed for their archrivals the Bulls, which was when the boos and jeers began.

The big success story of Superhero Sunday was bringing the kids back into the stadium. Support for rugby seems to be dying and what better way to halt the slide than by recruiting the yongsters and getting them hooked on the live game.

The fact that SuperSport and Vodacom, with huge backing from Marvel, made major efforts to market the day was obviously also crucial, but so too was the idea of four teams playing in one stadium.

Every SuperRugby franchise has a sizeable number of fans in cities outside of their province these days and I would love to see double-headers played in the actual competition as well.

The cricketers do it during their T20 tournament and the argument of teams losing home-ground advantage is easily combatted and should be set aside if, for probably the first time ever, the unions are willing to do what is best for the game.

The answer is simple: The schedule must be such that the Stormers and the Sharks visit the Lions and the Bulls on the same weekend. Seeing as though both coastal teams are now on the Highveld, they play at the same venue, either Ellis Park or Loftus Versfeld. The next year, the double-header is played at the other Gauteng venue.

The number of Sharks and Stormers fans in Gauteng is huge and all the coaches I spoke to – Swys de Bruin, Robert du Preez and Pote Human – were supportive of the double-header concept.

The superhero theme was novel and certainly attracted the kids, but it doesn’t have to continue. The success of the double-header does not rest on it, the South African rugby fan is known for the passion they bring to the game and there are other narratives that can be pursued.

Besides, the sight of a rather unathletic Black Panther and a very naff Spiderman mincing around are not things I would want to see again. Apparently Marvel insist that only their regular costume-wearers are allowed to fulfil those roles and the Americans they brought fell way short of what my imagination had been inspired to expect from the comics.

Cape Town Stadium, however, surpassed expectations and it is difficult to comprehend why Western Province rugby would not want to move there from the old and decrepit Newlands stadium, which has tradition and a proud history going for it, but not much else.

Which sounds a bit like SA Rugby at times, but a new SuperRugby season full of possibility lies before us; will they take the lead offered by two of their most loyal sponsors in SuperSport and Vodacom and come up with new, fresh ideas to re-popularise the tournament?