Ken Borland

More than just providing the joy and relief of his first T20 series win, coach Mark Boucher said the Proteas’ 3-2 victory over the powerful West Indians offered great insight into what could work and what won’t in the T20 World Cup that will now be held in the United Arab Emirates in October.

South Africa won the fifth and final T20 by 25 runs at St George’s in Grenada at the weekend to finally vanquish a West Indian team that is rated as one of the favourites for the T20 World Cup. The win was built on the outstanding second-wicket partnership of 128 in 14 overs between Quinton de Kock (60 off 42) and Aiden Markram (70 off 48), followed by another magnificent display of wrist-spin from Tabraiz Shamsi (4-0-11-1).

Shamsi, the player of the series, was given great support this time by an impressive return to form by Kagiso Rabada (4-0-24-2) and Lungi Ngidi (4-0-32-3), while all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, included for the first time in the series, did an excellent job with two for 31 in his four overs.

“The biggest thing from the series is that we take a lot of knowledge from it because we will probably have conditions like this in the UAE. The pitches there are also going to be dry after the IPL and we’ve seen you’ve got to be skilful and smart and not just bash away. We saw that with our bowling today, the guys listened and bowled in the right areas.

“We’ve had a couple of guys out of form but we’ve still won the series, so we must be doing something right. We just want to be very smart in difficult conditions, play our brand of cricket and the guys have bought into it. Maybe why we don’t score so many runs at the end of the innings is because the Windies are very skilful there, but we are very skilful in the middle overs and in the end we won the series,” Boucher said.

Nowadays, everyone quotes a batsman’s six-hitting figures or their strike-rate as being the most important factor in T20 cricket, but the West Indies clearly dominated those statistics and yet still ended up on the losing side. Which shows that a one-paced, all-or-nothing, six or dot-ball approach is not the way to go.

“There are a couple of things in our game that we know can be much better and we would like to finish our innings better. But just because someone is out of form in one series, in tough batting conditions, does not suddenly make them a bad player. But if we can find an extra 15-20 runs – get past 180 – then it becomes very difficult to chase that in dry conditions.

“We have a basic idea of our best XI, especially when we are firing on all cylinders, but there are still places that need to be solidified. We will take confidence from beating a very good team though, and that is immense. We’ve learnt that if we really rock up on the day, we can probably beat anyone,” Boucher said.

The Springboks were understandably a bit over-boisterous, rusty and inaccurate for the opening half-hour of their first Test in 20 months, but they then settled into their work and dispatched a tough Georgia team 40-9 at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The opening quarter saw the Springboks perhaps trying too hard, leading to ill-discipline, and several penalties not only allowed Georgia flyhalf Tedo Abzhandadza to slot all three of his kicks at goal but also robbed the home team of any momentum.

Georgia led 9-5 until the 35^th minute as the Springboks were just generally inaccurate, especially in their kicking game.

Their one bright moment had been a try on debut with his first touch by wing Aphelele Fassi, who galloped down the touchline for a fine finish after a lovely double-line attack that saw fullback Willie le Roux join the line and flank Pieter-Steph du Toit looping round to provide the scoring pass.

Without fans, Fassi’s marvellous run was not greeted with the acclaim it deserved, but the bench were noisy. The 23-year-old enjoyed an outstanding debut.

The Springboks seized control of the game with two tries in the last five minutes of the first half. Hooker Bongi Mbonambi scored from a maul and then Le Roux, outside centre Jesse Kriel and Fassi counter-attacked well from their own territory before Fassi put a good chip-kick infield, the ball bouncing wickedly for scrumhalf Cobus Reinach to gather and race away for the try.

Leading 19-9 at halftime, the Springboks were in complete control in the second half. Such was their dominance that at times it seemed like the tries could be dished out by a tombola lucky draw.

The replacement front row of Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Frans Malherbe scrummed superbly and set up a first Test try for eighthman Kwagga Smith, the deft boot of flyhalf Handre Pollard led to a try for replacement scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies and Marx scored from a powerful lineout drive.

The Springbok forwards, led by ubiquitous lock Franco Mostert, just kept battering away and the backs tried a lot, some of it was very good.

Du Toit would also have been a contender for the man of the match prize if there had been one.

In the end It was a good run-out for the Springboks, but, with the British and Irish Lions coming up, they will need to show further progress next week in the second Test against Georgia.

Scorers

South Africa: Tries – Aphelele Fassi, Bongi Mbonambi, Cobus Reinach, Kwagga Smith, Herschel Jantjies, Malcolm Marx. Conversions – Handre Polllard (4), Elton Jantjies.

Georgia: Penalties – Tedo Abzhandadze (3).

One of the things that makes the Springboks such a tight-knit unit is the acknowledgement that they have all been on their own individual journeys to get there, and Retshegofaditswe ‘Ox’ Nche has found his way back into the camp, saying he only had “hope and hard work” to rely on in the last couple of years.

Loosehead prop Nche made his Springbok debut back in June 2018 as Rassie Erasmus, in his first Test as coach, bravely sent a new-look team to the United States to play Wales. South Africa succumbed to a late try in losing 22-20, but the process of sifting the players and building depth that bore fruit in the 2019 World Cup had begun.

Except that for Nche, who had started that Test ahead of Steven Kitshoff, he did not play again for the Springboks. But the 25-year-old will get the chance to put on the Green and Gold again on Friday against Georgia in Pretoria as he once again takes the No.1 jersey, with Kitshoff wearing No.17, thanks to Tendai Mtawarira moving on and Bulls star Lizo Gqoboka not being favoured by the Springbok management.

“It’s the dream of every rugby player to represent their country and be the best player you can be, and playing in 2018 was a real honour. And since then I’ve been doing everything I can just to get back there. In terms of staying patient, I only really had hope and hard work to rely on.

“But I’ve learnt whether playing Craven Week, SA Schools, Varsity Cup, Currie Cup or Super Rugby, that the great challenge is every week you have a different team posing a different challenge. You just have to be willing to give it your all, whether it’s Georgia or the British and Irish Lions. I can’t wait to show what I’m capable of at the highest level,” Nche said.

He follows in the footsteps of some marvellous loosehead props like the miraculous Os du Randt, ‘Beast’ and Kitshoff, but while he takes inspiration from them, he is not worried about emulating their stirring deeds just yet.

“It’s a privilege to have this opportinity and I don’t compare myself to Os or Beast because I am still at the beginning of my journey. I try not to think about emulating them because those guys are legends and I don’t want to put extra pressure on myself. I’m just going to focus on how I can contribute to the team as much as I can.

“I’m excited for the Georgia challenge, they are a very good physical team and taking them on up front will be the major challenge. They scrum low, but I am 1.75m tall so I can go down there too. It’s going to be an exciting battle up front, but we are aiming for the same intensity and standards as at the World Cup in 2019, that’s what we thrive on,” Nche said.

Captain Phepsi Buthelezi suffered a head knock against Griquas and will miss the Sharks’ Currie Cup game against Western Province in Cape Town on Wednesday, but coach Sean Everitt is confident the eighthman will have recovered in time to join the squad in Johannesburg as they go into lockdown ahead of their match against the British and Irish Lions on July 7 at Ellis Park.

The focus of the Sharks is facing a testing time because they have the crucial match against Western Province to concentrate on, but also the excitement of the game against the British and Irish Lions and all the Covid protocol palaver that goes with that fixture.

“I presume Phepsi will be ready for the Lions, he feels 100% but just didn’t pass all his tests. So he’s nearly there and it wasn’t a serious concussion. Hopefully he’ll be able to join us on Friday when we fly to Johannesburg and go into a six-day quarantine. We are allowed to train on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and we’ll have PCR tests on Friday, Monday and Wednesday before the game.

“We’ve had no clarification yet on our kickoff time in Cape Town, but I presume it will be moved from 7pm, but that will have no impact on our preparation. Our message to the players this morning was that we need to be squeaky clean and we would like them to treat it as if they are in self-isolation, just coming to the stadium and going home. Otherwise they could miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime against the Lions,” Everitt said on Monday.

The weather in Cape Town is expected to be poor, so it is excellent news for the Sharks that the booming boot of flyhalf Curwin Bosch is back.

“It’s great to have Curwin back. Everyone goes through disappointments in sport, it’s not the first time he’s had it and he’s over what happened with the Springboks. But he’ll want to make sure he puts in a good performance to show Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber that he can step up if needed. He has a huge boot and that could be a deciding factor.

“It’s beautiful weather in Durban today – 28⁰ – so it’s going to be a bit of a change in Cape Town. I see the Junior Boks were playing in torrential rain on a muddy pitch in Stellenbosch, but we have the game-plan for those conditions and we are able to do the kicking game if needed. But we don’t want to bring a one-dimensional approach either,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward (c), Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Mpilo Gumede, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Khutha Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, JJ van der Mescht, Reniel Hugo, Dylan Richardson, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.