Ken Borland

With the World Cup rapidly approaching, the selection of South Africa’s squad to face Wales in the incoming series in July will be under the spotlight and three former Springbok greats have called for the introduction of some fresh blood.

South Africa will defend the title they won in Japan in 2019 when the next World Cup kicks off in September 2023 and Joel Stransky, John Smit and Victor Matfield all believe the time is now for Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber to start building depth for that tournament.

“The Springboks should use the Welsh games to see who the next eighthman, flyhalf and outside centre will be. Other than that we have depth,” 2007 World Cup winning captain Smit said.

Stransky, the hero of South Africa’s 1995 World Cup triumph, said there should also be change at fullback.

“There must be an eye cast forward to the World Cup because Jacques will probably have to pick his squad in 12 months time,” Stransky said.

“Some guys are getting on a bit, if we pick a similar squad to 2019 then there’ll be half-a-dozen players 33 and over. It’s a chance to blood youngsters, even off the bench.

“He needs a fullback, Willie le Roux last year was already borderline and I don’t think Jacques should pick him. I would love to see Warrick Gelant play there, there’s Aphelele Fassi or maybe even Cheslin Kolbe.

“But now’s the time, there were guys who have shone in the URC and you can’t ignore them. But my concern is that some of them have not even been at the alignment camps,” Stransky said.

“Whoever is going to play at the World Cup, whatever their age, they must play now,” Matfield, man of the match in the 2007 final, added. “It was not a great year for the Boks in 2021 and they need to build a team and their confidence.

“There are one or two players who everyone says should be in the side, but they haven’t been at the alignment camps. Warrick Gelant and Evan Roos are unbelievable game-breakers.

“If you have one or two youngsters between the experienced players, then it will feel like they’re playing provincial rugby. But we’re not saying pick five or six new guys,” Matfield said.

The legendary lock said he hoped a couple of x-factor players as well as Bulls second-rower Ruan Nortje would be added to the Springbok party.

“I don’t believe in testing players at Test level, but you need one or two players with x-factor that can bring the magic, otherwise you struggle to break teams down, especially with defences being so tight.

“Ruan Nortje is a fantastic player, but it’s unfortunate for him that we have four unbelievable second rowers: Eben Etzebeth is the best in the world, Lood de Jager is arguably second; there’s RG Snyman if he’s ready and Franco Mostert always adds value,” Matfield said.

Neither the Bulls nor the Sharks are expecting a gentle introduction into the Currie Cup final at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, with the defending champions looking to settle the outcome early on, while the visitors are aiming to exert consistent pressure for the whole game.

In the semi-finals last weekend, the Bulls blew Western Province away in the opening 16 minutes by racing into a 24-5 lead; the Sharks had to go the distance in seeing off Griquas 28-24.

“We basically beat Western Province in the first quarter and I expect to start the same way as we did last week, why not? We’ve only made two changes to the team and the Sharks lost two weeks ago at home to the same Western Province team that was on the ropes against us. Last year’s extra-time final is irrelevant, all the Springboks played and now the Sharks are missing seven guys in Australia.

“If it’s going to be a dogfight, finals rugby, whatever; we must just play at our best. Western Province were desperate when they beat the Sharks and so if we are more desperate than them tomorrow then we will be okay. if you look at the trophy and the history, if it’s just another game for us then we’ve lost perspective. We have a massive opportunity to be the first team to win the Currie Cup twice in one year,” fired-up Bulls coach Jake White said on Friday.

The Sharks are expecting to have to weather an early storm and will then be hoping to outlast the Bulls.

“Both teams are going to have to handle the intensity. The Bulls were sublime in the first 20 minutes against Western Province and that will pose a challenge. There will be nerves and the team that settles down first will make a better start, which is really important in a game of this magnitude. You can’t underestimate the influence of scoreboard pressure.

“So we can’t afford to give away early penalties. We want a consistent performance and it has built character for us to play under pressure to qualify for the final, that helps. We have also played quite a few games at altitude and coped very well, we don’t see it as a factor and two weeks ago we beat the Lions by fifty points. We will play what’s in front of us and a full defensive line means there’s space behind,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said.

Both teams have had halfback issues.

Johan Goosen, who was instrumental in the Bulls’ semifinal win with his skill and vision, has tested positive for Covid and has been replaced at flyhalf by Chris Smith, who came off the bench and kicked the 79^th-minute penalty to level the scores in last season’s final between the same two teams at the same venue. There is no specialist flyhalf cover on the bench with wing Ruan Combrinck or rookie utility back David Coetzer bracketed amongst the reserves.

The Sharks have SA A scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba starting, but with Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams and Cameron Wright all injured, U20 player Lucky Dlepu, uncapped at senior level, is on the bench.

Teams

Bulls: David Kriel, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Nortje, Janko Swanepoel, Mornay Smith, Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Jacques van Rooyen, Jacques du Plessis, WJ Steenkamp, Keagan Johannes, Ruan Combrinck/David Coetzer, Stravino Jacobs.

Sharks: Curwin Bosch, Yaw Penxe, Werner Kok, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Sanele Nohamba, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Gerbrandt Grobler, Le Roux Roets, Thomas du Toit, Kerron van Vuuren, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Thembelani Bholi, Reniel Hugo, Lucky Dlepu, Jeremy Ward, Anthony Volmink.

Cricket South Africa sadly faces suspension by the Minister of Sport after Nathi Mthethwa rejected the Members Council’s plea for a seven-day extension to sort out their impasse with the Interim Board over the introduction of a majority independent board and independent chairperson.

Having given the Members Council until 5pm on Tuesday to show cause as to why he should not take action against them following their weekend failure to approve the Interim Board’s governance proposals, Mthethwa informed the provincial presidents on Tuesday night that he considered their response “to fall short of addressing the subject of showing cause why I should not apply the provisions of Section 13 (5) of the Sports Act based on your failure to implement a critical aspect of the mandate I gave the Interim Board”, according to a letter which The Citizen has seen.

The Sports Act allows for Mthethwa to withdraw government recognition of CSA, which would prevent them from participating in international cricket, thus surely leading to their suspension from the International Cricket Council and dooming the local game to amateur status.

There is clearly a massive gorge in opinion between what most observers believe are the minister’s powers and what the Members Council are banking on, because Mthethwa mentions “a lack of alignment with my interpretation of the powers provided to me by the Sports Act”.

Mthethwa points out that in his meeting with the Members Council and the Interim Board 10 days ago, there was agreement on the desirability of a majority independent board. He also mentions a letter the Members Council sent to the Interim Board saying the only remaining item for discussion was the definition of non-independent directors.

“Your proposal to convene a multi-party stakeholder conference to deal with a matter that you have been seized with for a number of months does not make sense to me. … I do not understand what would be achieved by a further seven-day extension when you were part of a conference that announced a roadmap that targeted April 17 as a completion date,” Mthethwa said.

The gorgeous irony is that several provinces are now rallying behind the lead of Gauteng and North-West, who called on the Members Council to approve the new constitution. But it is too little, too late.

Of all the contributions Ali Bacher has made to South African cricket – captain of their first world-beating side, CEO of the United Cricket Board during the drive to Unity, running the successful hosting of the 2003 World Cup – the introduction of the then Bakers Mini-Cricket programme to underprivileged areas was arguably the one with the greatest impact on the future of the game in this country.

So one can understand Bacher feeling a little peeved when a Gauteng Cricket Board president mentioned to him almost 20 years after Bakers Mini-Cricket started that the programme was no longer having the desired outcomes.

“The first time we took cricket to the Black townships was in 1986 with the help of Bakers and within 10 years we had sent someone like Makhaya Ntini to Dale College. In 2003 I left Cricket South Africa and in 2005 the Gauteng Cricket Board president phoned me and said the mini-cricket programme is faltering.

“So I looked at the report and the problem was that any young kid with passion and talent would still not make it if they stayed in the township, because everything was against them there. I went to King Edward VII and when we left high school we were ready to play provincial cricket and Kagiso Rabada had five years of that as well at St Stithians.

“But in the townships there are no grass fields, pitches, nets or covers. There are 27 000 schools in South Africa and they are mostly Black with no facilities because they don’t have money for it. If talented players were identified there then you had to get them quickly to government or private schools that were traditionally good cricket schools,” Bacher explains.

KFC have now taken over the mini-cricket programme and their efforts deserve recognition because they are still a tremendous feeder system. But the approach when it comes to high school pupils has now changed, under the guidance of Bacher and with the support of Blue Label.

As the chief marketing officer of the mobile telecoms innovators, Rob Fleming, explains: “Transformation is absolutely critical and it needs constant love and attention. But what’s the best way of achieving it? I’ve seen multiple ideas and there’s no doubt we need to do a better job.

“Our real strength in South African cricket is our schools, but forty of them probably produce 80% of our players, so is that the right place to develop our cricket? If we take township kids to those schools then often they are not up to it academically and it affects their cricket and the whole scheme collapses.

“So it was Ali’s idea to go to old traditional cricket schools and try and reignite the game there, let’s create another forty top cricket schools. There’s no doubt the talent is there, that’s our conveyor belt and I love how coherently this programme can work with the rest of the system,” Fleming says.

What deters many schools from playing cricket is the time and expense it involves, which is where Blue Label is coming in to provide resources for Focus Schools, three of which (Uitsig, Akasia and Hendrik Verwoerd) were recently named in the Northerns region, joining schools in Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Vereeniging that are already in the programme.

Cricket is competing heavily with other codes at these schools, and teachers and facilities are few, but by combining resources, their weakness has become a strength.

Our schools are where the rubber hits the tar in terms of capacity building and getting more and more talent into the pipeline.

“Many of these traditionally good cricket schools are now 99% Black so we are completing the circle and Rob is passionate about this as well. We’ve identified government schools that were former White schools and they still have good facilities but cricket was no longer being played. For example, Krugersdorp High School, hardly any cricket was being played; Highlands North used to provide most of the Balfour Park club, who were very good, but there was no longer any cricket there.

“But if we can get cricket back on its feet again in schools like that then I reckon we will see a plethora of good players coming through. Like Queen’s High School which is on the other side of the Jeppe Hill, it’s all Black and their cricket is so good. Their U15 side only lost one match last season and they beat Pretoria Boys High, they are well-dressed and their parents are all there. This will be so good for South African cricket,” Bacher says.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180609/282243781291243