Ken Borland

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi manned up to the recent problems his team have been having on the field with an heroic individual effort against the All Blacks on Saturday, so it was little surprise that he was very much in touch with his emotions after a match in which he gave so much but still ended on the losing side, thanks to a late New Zealand penalty.

The flanker dashed around the field with focused intensity on Saturday and was particularly useful at the breakdowns, doing a lot of the dirty work as he and Kwagga Smith formed a great partnership. But as much as he led from the front, Kolisi was not able to drag his team across the line as they went down 17-19.

“It definitely hurts. We prepared as well as we could, we were focused on the right now. I felt on the field that we were in there with a good chance, our set-pieces dominated. So it is really hard to lose a game like that, but we know that if we stick to our processes then the results will come.

“We wanted to stand up and fight today. We knew as a team what we are capable of and it was about making sure we played properly. New Zealand brought high speed and physicality, but I can’t fault my team – our plan worked, our structures were really good. So I don’t really know what went wrong,” Kolisi said after the match.

Many critics have pointed to the Springboks’ decision, after they had taken a 17-16 lead into the last 10 minutes, to kick front-foot ball away, including two up-and-unders from the All Blacks’ 22, as the reason for their defeat. Kolisi said this was the choice of the players and he stood by the tactic.

“The players made that call, we decided to stick to the game-plan. That’s how we know how to play and we will never change from that. And it had been working all day,” Kolisi said.

The Springboks are a little nervous over how socialised they are to playing in front of a big crowd supporting the opposition because many of the players have not done that for 18 months, giving them another factor to adapt to when they play Australia on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

While the Wallabies have been the whipping boys of the All Blacks of late, the Springboks are approaching their first away game in the Rugby Championship with great caution because Australia, especially at home, have always been a side that throws up different, awkward questions for them.

And more than 25 000 mostly pro-Australian spectators in the Super Stadium, with Rugby Australia implementing a ‘bring your mate for free’ campaign, will be another curve-ball for South Africa to handle.

“We’re really excited to be playing in front of a capacity crowd again, but it means we will have to adapt our on-field communication. But it will be fantastic to play in front of a big crowd and hopefully it will spur our players on to perform even better,” forwards coach Deon Davids said on Tuesday.

“To have fans out there is going to be unreal, I can’t even remember how it feels to play in a full stadium,” prop Ox Nche said. “I’m a bit nervous about it but also very excited.”

And the Wallabies will also bring a totally different threat to Argentina, who the Springboks beat twice, with Davids saying lineouts and the tempo of their play are the two areas the world champions will need to adapt.

“They have different philosophies. We had to be smart to keep Argentina at bay and play the way we wanted too. Australia are very competitive in the lineouts, they turned over a few New Zealand balls and put them under pressure. That’s an area we really want to improve, it let us down a bit in our last game. The set-pieces will be well-contested and we have to make sure we execute well so we have a solid base and top-quality ball.

“In my past experience coaching against Dave Rennie, when he was with the Glasgow Warriors, the Waikato Chiefs and now the Wallabies, an attacking philosophy is part of his approach. He likes to play with ball-in-hand, to build pressure with the ball. I’m sure they will bring the same approach but just try to do it better in certain areas. The tempo was very high in the matches between the Wallabies and All Blacks,” Davids said.

Proteas opener Janneman Malan said his success in scoring a brilliant century against Sri Lanka at the weekend was thanks to a little help from his friends.

Malan’s brilliantly composed 121 off 135 balls led South Africa to a series-levelling 67-run win in Colombo, with the visitors posting a commanding 283 for six as their top-order dovetailed superbly, supporting him in successive partnerships of 43, 96, 38 and 86. Heinrich Klaasen then provided the explosive finish with his impressive 43 off 27 balls.

“The batting unit did really well, the coaches have set us realistic goals and expectations and we know that if we hit those then we have a good chance of winning. Reeza Hendricks’ 51 was very valuable, he scored at a run-a-ball, and Heinrich deserves credit as well. And just watching Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen with the way they go about things, our batting is in a good space.

“Particularly against spin, we’ve seen the sweep is very effective, you can trust the bounce here and the straight bat tends to get beaten by the turn. And we also bowled really well. The bowlers didn’t do too badly in the first game, but maybe we underestimated how full we can go and the Sri Lankan batsmen like to go square,” Malan said after his man of the match performance.

The arrival of the 25-year-od in the ODI team has been nothing short of incredible. Malan has now scored three hundreds and two fifties n his eight ODI innings. He has scored a world-record 627 runs in his first eight innings, and that includes a first-ball duck on debut!

It is obvious that Malan’s uncomplicated style and unfazed approach has stood him in good stead.

“You never know how many chances you’re going to get and these are new conditions and you have to try and adapt and trust your skills. I try not to think about my batting too hard, I just break it down and take it game by game. I don’t really know what to make of my start, I’m just trying to score runs. I feel fortunate to have made such a good start to my career,” Malan said.

The third and decisive ODI will be played at the same Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt had a little dig on Thursday at Argentina lock Marcos Kremer for his role in the injury of scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, that led to the call-up of team-mate Grant Williams to the Springbok squad, but fortunately the franchise do have great depth at halfback as the Currie Cup enters its final stages.

Hendrikse was tackled after he had kicked the ball by the replacement lock in the second Rugby Championship Test last weekend, and landed awkwardly, fracturing his ankle. The incident was referred to the TMO, with referee Karl Dickson and the other officials agreeing that Kremer was committed to the tackle and it was not late.

Everitt was annoyed by the tackle though, but at least could take some solace in still being able to name 2021 Springbok squad member Sanele Nohamba and 2018 Springbok tourist Cameron Wright for their Currie Cup match against Western Province in Durban on Saturday.

“I was really disappointed in the way the injury happened to Jaden. I thought it was a cheap shot,” Everitt said. “But it is pleasing to see Grant get recognition after all his months and years of hard work and resilience. He has worked incredibly hard and came through the club system [College Rovers] in Durban.

“Sanele has been with the Springboks as well and has played really well for us in his last two games, while Cameron was really good against the Cheetahs when he started. We are really blessed with our depth at scrumhalf, they have all bought into rotation and the ranking order sometimes changes, which certainly motivates everyone to work hard,” Everitt said on Thursday.

The Sharks are coming off an impressive 56-14 demolition of the Lions at Ellis Park last weekend. Although it all worked out more than okay in the end, some mediocre set-piece work at the start of the match saw them struggle in the opening quarter. Former Western Province lock Gerbrandt Grobler, who debuted for the Sharks last weekend and looked good to go for the rest of the year, is the only member of the tight five who retains their starting position for Saturday.

“We’ve rotated the front row, we’ve not really had much consistency in that department and we know Western Province have a formidable front row so we will try to negate that strength. Emile van Heerden is still working through the concussion return-to-play protocols and it’s great to have Le Roux Roets back after he had played so well.

“Gerbrandt gets the opportunity for more game-time and we would like him to really hit his straps in the coming weeks. He had not played for quite a long time since returning from France, but that cover-tackle he made on Wandisile Simelane on the Highveld at 2pm will live long in the memory. He’s an experienced campaigner and clearly a competitor. He’s made a great mark with us already,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Curwin Bosch, Yaw Penxe, Werner Kok, Murray Koster, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Sanele Nohamba, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, James Venter, Gerbrandt Grobler, Le Roux Roets, Khutha Mchunu, Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench – Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona, Lourens Adriaanse, Reniel Hugo, Thembelani Bholi, Cameron Wright, Marius Louw, Anthony Volmink.