Ken Borland

GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – Malcolm Mitchell dared to take Driver on a dozen holes on Friday in the second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at Humewood Golf Club and quickly reaped the rewards as he raced up the leaderboard with a five-under-par 67 lifting him into a share of the lead heading into Saturday’s final round.

The wind was still up on Friday but Mitchell dropped just one stroke on his way to a total of four-under-par after the first two rounds, tied with 27-year-old Richard Joubert and veteran Hennie Otto.

Collecting six birdies, three on each loop, suggests an aggressive approach by the former Eisenhower Cup representative, but apart from backing himself with Driver, Mitchell felt his strategy was pretty risk-free.

“The two parts of my game that have been good for a while have been my driving and putting, which really helps on a links course. There were only two holes where I did not take Driver, but I’ve only missed four or five fairways on the first two days, so I’ve pretty much always been in a good position and my putting has been very good over the last while.

“In terms of being aggressive, in the moment there might be one shot that I might feel I can have a go at, but then there are others where I’ll aim 20 feet right or short. So I don’t go at it too much, I don’t change game-plans and I just try to stay in the moment and enjoy it,” Mitchell said after his round.

And being focused on the present and having fun is exactly what Mitchell will be doing in the final round, having learnt some lessons from his runners-up finish in August in the SunBet Challenge at Wingate Park Country Club in Pretoria. In that tournament he also went low in the second round, a 65 lifting him to second, but then he closed with a 72 to leave him three adrift of Estiaan Conradie.

“It’s funny how life teaches you different things. You work so hard to stay in the present but then sometimes you mess it up and get ahead of yourself or start thinking of the past. But winning three times in 2019 always sits there. Those memories are there to go back on, they can only help. It means I’ve been there, even though it was the Big Easy Tour, and knowing how to win definitely sticks in the back of your mind,” Mitchell said.

One man who is unlikely to have any trembling knees if he stays in contention on Saturday is Otto, because he has done it all before with 13 wins on the Sunshine Tour, the most recent being at the Sibaya Challenge in October 2019. The 45-year-old also finished in a tie for second in the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Sishen at the end of August.

Otto has had a run of four successive top-30 finishes on tour and the former SA Open champion was looking dangerous as he fired a four-under-par 68 on Friday.

Joubert was just one stroke off the lead after the first round and, starting on the 10^th, he soared into the lead with an eagle on the par-five 11^th and then holed out for an eagle-two at the par-four 16^th. Bogeys at 17 and 18 undid some of that amazing work though, and he dropped two more shots on the front nine, but finishing with three straight pars gave him a 71 and he is far from done-and-dusted in this race.

Overnight leader Tristen Strydom shot a 73 on Friday and is one stroke back on three-under for the tournament, alongside Michael Palmer (68) and Daniel Greene (69).

There are three golfers two shots back on two-under-par who will need to be watched carefully as well – Christiaan Basson (68), Jean Hugo, who fired a brilliant 66, and Jayden Schaper (69).

Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee is loving the build-up week to the Currie Cup final against the Sharks and especially the chance to join such Loftus Versfeld legends as Naas Botha, Thys Lourens, Anton Leonard, Piet Uys and Victor Matfield in lifting the famous old trophy.

Coetzee, whose previous South African playing experience was with the Sharks, had not yet arrived in Pretoria back in January when the inspirational Duane Vermeulen led the Bulls to their first Currie Cup crown since 2009, winning an extra time thriller against the self-same Sharks.

“To be mentioned alongside those names, you just feel humbled and honoured. It’s obviously a big dream to win the Currie Cup, but it also comes with great responsibility. We are just trying to be calm and enjoying it. My Dad is a huge Bulls fan and my sister as well, while my brother and mother support the Sharks. So there could be a bit of civil war in the house!

“I don’t want to take anything away from what the Sharks did for me, but this is a special Bulls team and there is a great atmosphere here. Just to see legends of the game here like Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez is amazing. And you can feel the excitement in Pretoria as well, we feel they are behind us even though it is very heartsore that Loftus won’t be packed,” Coetzee said on Tuesday.

The man with the bole-like arms and legs said mental composure is going to be as important to beat the Sharks as any physical characteristics the Bulls might bring on Saturday.

“The last final here was touch-and-go and the Sharks were well on their way to winning it, but then luckily fitness came into it. We’re expecting another neck-and-neck contest, there’s no way it’s going to be an easy game and we definitely can’t be nonchalant about anything. We’ve taken some learnings from that match, but we also have some new personnel and some older, wiser heads.

“It’s going to come down to composure and who executes better. When the pressure comes, you have to stick to your guns and that’s when experience comes into play. You never know how finals are going to play out, but it will come down to composure, execution and discipline on the day. Discipline especially will play a big role, we can’t leak soft penalties,” Coetzee said.

Springbok great Victor Matfield knows better than most that Jake White is a coach who demands a lot from his players, but South Africa’s most-capped player says the fruits of his approach can be seen in the Bulls’ triumph in lifting the Super Rugby Unlocked trophy at the weekend.

Matfield ended with a record 127 Test caps to his name, but it was during White’s tenure as coach from 2004 to 2007 that the Polokwane-born player became a kingpin for the Springboks and the best lineout forward in the world, culminating in him being the player of the final in the 2007 World Cup win.

“Jake White has never been happy with average and you can see that he is demanding a lot from the Bulls players, but it’s getting the best from them, the standards are lifting at Loftus. A lot of us former players thought that the Bulls needed change and then Jake came in and brought quite a bit of change. It’s a pity that there was no real Super Rugby this year because that’s the real test, but they did very well,” Matfield told The Citizen.

While brute physical strength once again seems hip in South African rugby and the Bulls’ pack was certainly the most physical in the competition, Matfield said the team’s success went well beyond simple forward-based rugby. When the ball did get to the backs, it pinged around in impressively incisive fashion.

“When the Bulls were physically up for it, like in the games against the Sharks and Stormers, then they were just ruthless. They had a very strong tight five and their loose forwards were great at the breakdown – in fact nobody in South Africa could compete with them at the breakdown. And then they had a No.9 [Ivan van Zyl] and No.10 [Morne Steyn] who controlled the game very well.

“I must admit before the season I was worried about their centre combination and I was very surprised by Cornal Hendricks at inside centre, he was outstanding, especially against the Stormers. David Kriel also did really well at fullback and the wings played well too,” Matfield said.

Like all good coaches, Jake White does not like to elevate certain pool games to greater importance than others, but there has been an obvious lifting of the ante this week as the Bulls have prepared for the arrival of their arch-enemies, the Stormers, for their SuperRugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The importance of the match – between two of the favourites for the title; the top-of-the-log Bulls against the unbeaten Stormers – has been shown by White providing his most obvious example yet of his famous mind games since he arrived in Pretoria.

And White’s focus has been on the importance of the forward battle, with some sledges thrown the Stormers’ way over his perception that they will field a bench with six forwards and just two backs, the veteran coach implying that this was a betrayal of Western Province rugby’s running-rugby traditions.

But there can be no doubt that the Stormers’ greatest strength is their scrum and, in particular, the first-choice Springbok front row of Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi and Steven Kitshoff.

“The win over the Sharks was a good performance and a massive confidence boost, but this is a really big game on Saturday, just given the history between the two teams and the intensity of the clashes before. The Stormers pride themselves on their scrum and maul and the forward battle is going to be really important and we know we have to match them up front.

“Last week, both our game and the Stormers’ bad game against the Pumas showed that rugby has not changed, the forwards are always the ones who win the game for you and this Saturday will be one of those games too. What we learnt from the Pumas match is that the Stormers use their scrum to get out of their own half, and with that front row that works for you,” White said.

Bulls captain Duane Vermeulen was also certainly looking forward to the arrival of his former team.

“They have a quality pack, that’s where it’s all going to go down. Their forwards really pulled them through against the Pumas, the momentum they got from the scrums allowed them to kick to touch and set up mauls. They may have a 100% success rate at scrum-time, but how many times has the scrum gone down? I think there have been lots of resets, but they know how to scrum.

“We’ve lost a couple of scrums, but we will keep building. We’re trying to work on our consistency as a whole, we’re not there yet and we had a slippery start, losing at the death against the Cheetahs. It hasn’t been the consistency we want, but this is a North versus South derby and hopefully we play better as both individuals and as a team,” Vermeulen said.

Stormers coach John Dobson has been extolling the super powers of Kitshoff, his stand-in captain now that Siya Kolisi is injured, but it is the character of the men from the Cape that has probably been their greatest virtue so far in holding on for victory against the Lions and the great escape in Nelspruit.

Teams

Bulls: David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (captain), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marcel van der Merwe, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Stormers: Warrick Gelant, Edwill van der Merwe, Dan du Plessis, Rikus Pretorius, Leolin Zas, Damian Willemse, Herschel Jantjies, Juarno Augustus, Ernst van Rhyn, Jaco Coetzee, JD Schickerling, Salmaan Moerat, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff (captain). Replacements (from) – Scarra Ntubeni, Leon Lyons, Neethling Fouche, Chris van Zyl, David Meihuizen, Marcel Theunissen, Ben-Jason Dixon, Godlen Masimla, Tim Swiel, Angelo Davids, Tristan Leyds.

Kick-off: 19h00.