Ken Borland

Coach Jacques Nienaber said on Tuesday that the Springboks need to return to their “soul”, and one of their usual strengths they have sorely missed over the last fortnight has been physical dominance on the gainline.

The South African team is known for massive ball-carries and bone-crunching defence, both of which were strangely absent from their defeats against Australia.

So when the decision was made to give hardworking utility forward Franco Mostert a break and play him off the bench in Saturday’s Test against the All Blacks, it was surprising that the Springboks did not take the opportunity to play a big ball-carrier at blindside flank (such as one of the Du Preez twins), instead opting for the pace and Sevens skills of Kwagga Smith.

Nienaber explained on Tuesday that this particular selection was a balancing act.

“If you want to get a result against New Zealand then you have to test them in various areas. Physicality is obviously one area we enjoy, but you can’t only bring physicality, you need to test them in more than one department. You have to look at the balance of your pack and weigh up ball-carriers against players who can cover width and scramble for you.

“We have a lot of strong ball-carriers in the pack and Kwagga can carry in a different way with his evasion skills and timing of his carries, he brings those Sevens skills. You don’t want to have too many of the one kind of player. Franco has been a real stalwart for us this season, playing 80 minutes after 80 minutes, and moving him to the bench is purely to give him a bit of a break,” Nienaber said.

The Springbok backline has also missed some cutting thrust, some penetration, and Nienaber has looked to boost that department by returning to a 5-3 bench, with Elton Jantjies and Francois Steyn recalled to the matchday squad.

While the Springboks tried to go wide more often last weekend, they were not direct enough to create space for their wings and Jantjies is adept at playing flat and getting his backline away, while Steyn can hopefully make big metres across the gainline.

“What Australia did really was beat us with our own game, they changed completely from how they had played in the games against France and New Zealand. We probably got caught up in that a little and played twice the amount of rugby that they did. We probably pushed things a bit, but we need to play when it’s on, when the opportunity is there. We forced a few carries.

“The pressure from ourselves as a team is probably more than what the public put on us. We are all – coaches, management and players – in it together and we have been open and honest with each other, we can talk straight up with each other. We take the criticism, it is tough to swallow, but I would worry if there was no criticism – it shows that people feel something for the team,” Nienaber said.

Springbok team: Willie le Roux, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Kwagga Smith, Siya Kolisi (captain), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Trevor Nyakane. Bench – Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Marco van Staden, Herschel Jantjies, Elton Jantjies, Francois Steyn.

Since making his debut last November, George Linde has played in 14 of South Africa’s 18 T20 Internationals and done rather well, so his omission on Thursday from the Proteas’ squad for the T20 World Cup starting in October in the United Arab Emirates came as a shock.

Linde has taken 15 wickets in those games, at an average of 22.66 and a very tidy economy rate of 7.08 runs-per-over. Although he has not yet been able to really do justice to his talent with the bat, he has a strike-rate of 130.

The two left-arm spinners named in the squad are Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin.

Maharaj has yet to make his T20 International debut, although his performances in ODIs suggest this is overdue. Over the same period since Linde’s debut, Fortuin has played just six T20s.

Convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang on Thursday struggled to explain the selection tangle, which makes it look like the wrong horse has been backed for the last 10 months.

“George is one of our all-rounders, he has done well with the ball but we have decided to go with our senior all-rounders [23-year-old Wiaan Mulder and 32-year-old Dwaine Pretorius, both seamers] and in terms of a left-arm spinner, Bjorn. And the selection panel felt Keshav would bowl really well in those conditions. In terms of role-clarity, George has done really well on the bowling side, but Bjorn can also bowl up front and that swung it,” Mpitsang said.

Linde is the only White player amongst those three left-arm spinners, so questions were immediately asked about quotas in the make-up of the squad. Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said no policy was given to the selection panel, and Mpitsang said “there just happens to be” seven players of colour in the 15-man squad, as there have been in every Proteas world cup squad for at least the last decade.

Linde was named as one of the three travelling reserves, along with seam bowling all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo and paceman Lizaad Williams. The rest of the T20 squad are all in Sri Lanka for a three-match series that starts on Friday, apart from captain Temba Bavuma, who is back home having had surgery on a fractured thumb. He said he expects to have recovered in about four weeks.

None of South Africa’s T20 free agents – Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers – have been included.

It seems Morris has officially signed the divorce papers from Cricket South Africa, with Smith saying “he has made himself unavailable for international cricket”, while agreement could not be reached with Du Plessis. Tahir has a ready-made replacement in Tabraiz Shamsi and De Villiers stated in May that his international retirement was final.

“With the free agents, you have to find a balance that works for both the team and the player and unfortunately, with Faf in particular, we struggled to find a solution that would work for both parties. Imran has had a great run and been very successful, but we are very confident in our current crop of spinners and they deserve their chance,” Smith said.

Proteas T20 World Cup squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi. Travelling reserves – George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams.

Veteran Duane Vermeulen has been on the sidelines for the last five massive Springbok Tests and as fantastic as their results have been, the eighthman said there are still many areas they can improve on.

“We can always improve. There have been small steps taken through the Georgia game, the SA A matches and the Tests against the British and Irish Lions. We slipped up on the first Test against them, but it’s been nice to see us get some continuity. We want to keep on improving and be consistent. It’s one step at a time but we’re heading in the right direction,” Vermeulen said.

So what are the areas the Springboks still need to work on?

Getting the back three more involved in attack

The Springboks’ five victories so far this year have largely been down to their tight five outmuscling and outworking the opposition. As effective as it has been, forward dominance alone has seldom triumphed in the Southern Hemisphere competition. It would be great to see Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi and Willie le Roux able to exploit space out wide more. They can also be brought into play from clever first-phase plays. Those three are all capable of breaking defensive systems and showing a clean pair of heels.

Increased tempo

One can forgive the Springboks for adopting a wear-them-down strategy against the British and Irish Lions because their lack of high-intensity conditioning after 18 months out of Test rugby made it essential. But they now have a good month of game-time and conditioning work under their belts so the time has come for them to put more speed on the ball. Unlike Argentina, Australia and New Zealand will be actively trying to quicken the game up, so the Springboks will need to be more mobile, with greater continuity between forwards and backs, and maybe even more offloads.

Better discipline

The old benchmark for Springbok teams was to concede fewer than 10 penalties per game. recently they have been in double figures most of the time. It’s not that their discipline has been bad, but under pressure they have tended to err a bit too easily. They can get their penalty count down and that will help with momentum and territory.

More accuracy at restarts

At times the Springboks have looked like a bunch of boisterous pups having a bone thrown to them when it comes to receiving the restarts. The absence of Vermeulen has been felt there and a bit more organisation and clinical execution will help make their exits smoother and relieve territorial pressure.

Improving their strengths even more

In the sage words of Nick Mallett: “It is not up to us to change the way we play because it’s not attractive. You play the way you play best in order to beat the opposition”. And the Springboks’ strengths are their set-pieces and kicking game. Which can still improve!

Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert have been immense at lineout time, but more options can be brought into play there.

Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Trevor Nyakane have excelled at scrum-time, but we are still waiting for Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe to really cut loose and destroy opposition scrums.

And the Springboks can improve their box-kicks and kicking into space.

David Miller crushing the Irish bowlers like ants at the end of the innings was one of the last pieces of the Proteas puzzle to fall into place in the second T20 International and they will be looking to build on that and complete a 3-0 whitewash in the third and final game in Belfast on Saturday evening.

Miller smashed 75 not out off 44 balls, including hitting four sixes in the final over, to lift South Africa to 159/7, a total which proved well beyond Ireland on a tricky pitch. Ironically, it was the failure of the top-order, the Proteas slumping to 58/5, that provided Miller with the opportunity for a lengthy stint at the crease, in which he posted his first half-century since his 85 not out against Pakistan in Lahore in February.

A better display by the top-order, with the Proteas still pondering their best combination there, will be one of the boxes they will want to tick on Saturday night.

But for Miller, there was just satisfaction that a run of minor contributions had come to an end.

“I have not really felt out of form, but in T20 cricket over the last six games, the situations have been tough. Which is why I try and stay away from worrying about form, I just try to make an impact. I want to be hard on myself and do well every game, but doing that in my role at No. 6 is very difficult. Today I had a lot of time to bat and I’m very chuffed to have put the team in a winning situation.

“I have been a bit low in runs, but I’ve been coming in low down the order and haven’t had a proper opportunity to score big runs. So I’ve just been trying to have an impact, rather than thinking about trying to have an average of 50, it’s the strike-rate I look at. So I just trust my instincts, I try and stay in the right mindset, that never changes,” Miller said.

The 32-year-old Miller also paid tribute to another top-class bowling display by the spinners and a vital contribution with the bat by Wiaan Mulder, with whom he shared a sixth-wicket stand of 58 off 43 balls. Wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took three for 14 and orthodox left-armer Bjorn Fortuin claimed a career-best three for 16.

“The spinners have been phenomenal, we are really blessed with Shamo, Bjorn and George Linde. You can’t necessarily play all of them but it’s a good problem to have since the T20 World Cup is obviously the goal and we are building nicely. But we are still going game-by-game.

“Wiaan also played exceptionally well, that was probably the matchwinning partnership. His intent was great, he took the pressure off me and looked to take the bowlers down. I would like to bat higher but at the same time there is a bigger goal and the other guys are finding their groove in the batting line-up. There’s a particular role required of me, but I love opportunities like this one,” Miller said.