Ken Borland

SA Rugby announced this week that this coming SuperRugby season will see the local franchises teaming up with the Marvel Comics Universe, with each of them being assigned a kit based on one of the famous superheroes from the recently-passed Stan Lee’s wonderful imagination.

Goodness knows our Super Rugby teams can certainly do with some superpowers, but unfortunately this arrangement will only be for the local derbies, so it won’t really help our chances of overcoming the dominance of the New Zealand teams or keeping ahead of the Australians.

The Bulls kit will have the blue colours of Captain America, the Lions will be based on Spider-Man’s red and black, the Sharks’ kit will be inspired by Black Panther and the Stormers will be wearing Thor’s colours. Ironically, rugby’s Thor – Duane Vermeulen – has moved from the Stormers to the Bulls, via Toulon.

This all got me thinking about what a Marvel 1^st XV rugby side would look like … This is a game I love to play and another variant of it often occurs during the hot midday hours in a game reserve and I choose a rugby team based on the animals in the park. You know, rhino and hippo in the front row with the honey badger at hooker, elephant and giraffe as the lock pairing. Cheetah and springbok are on the wings, lion and leopard in the loose trio, along with hyaena as the openside flank and monkey at scrumhalf. Buffalo would have quite the physical presence at inside centre, but does the elegant Sable Antelope play at flyhalf or fullback?

In our Marvel XV, Captain America, the archetypal blue-eyed boy, would be an obvious choice as skipper and flyhalf, much like our own Naas Botha. But there is another option for captain – Black Panther, being the king of Wakanda, is a great leader in his own right and his agility, immense strength and great intelligence make him the ideal eighthman.

The Beast, not Tendai the Tremendous but the blue-furred simian/feline hero of both the X-Men and the Avengers, is another agile and super-strong contender for the loose trio and would be my openside. Who better to play blindside flank than the real Iron Man?

In the second row, it is a case of putting together the classic pairing of the physically imposing number four with a more mobile, beanpole number five. Colossus of X-Men fame is not only 6’7 tall but can also transform his entire body into a type of organic steel. According to Marvel Comics, while in his armoured form, Colossus requires no food, water, or even oxygen to sustain himself, and is extremely resistant to injury. He is capable of withstanding great impacts, large calibre bullets, falling from tremendous heights, electricity, and certain magical attacks. In other words he’s pretty much like Bakkies Botha.

His lock partner would be the brilliant scientist and leader of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic. He has the ability to stretch his body into any shape he chooses, so even the most wayward lineout throws would be in his grasp and his ability to steal ball at the rucks would be unsurpassed, which differentiates him from Victor Matfield.

A front row of his Fantastic Four colleague The Thing at tighthead and The Hulk at loosehead would be impossible to shift and would certainly boss the gainline, while Wolverine would bring a ferocity to the hooker position that has not been seen since the days of John Allan headbutting Sean Fitzpatrick in the first scrum of a Springboks/All Blacks Test.

For me, the sharp-witted Ant Man, with his ability to shrink through any gap or enlarge himself to block any hole, is the obvious choice for scrumhalf, while Quicksilver and the Falcon, whizzing about on his jet-powered wings, are the obvious heroes to play on the wings.

Thor, the god of thunder, would be a powerful force at inside centre that not many would get past, while Spiderman would be a nimble and superstrong outside centre, with his spider sense able to alert him of any threats to the defence.

Finally, I would like Daredevil at fullback, also imbued with super senses and tremendous agility, even though most modern coaches now seem to prefer a more conservative selection in the number 15 jersey.

I’m sure the late great Stan Lee will forgive me my misappropriation of his creations for a rugby team, but daydreams are what he sold and I have a feeling he would approve. I’m pretty sure the idea of putting them on rugby jerseys never crossed his mind though.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20181208/282329681019157

We have a full house of SuperRugby fixtures this weekend for the local franchises and it will be a very exciting clash in Pretoria as the Bulls, having been given a lot of confidence from their win over the Hurricanes, take on a terrific Lions side.

The Lions have a very proud record of not losing to a South African side for the last three years, while the Bulls have obviously been revitalised under John Mitchell.

I think it will be quite a high-scoring game because both sides are really committed to attack and keeping the ball alive in all situations.

Having been privileged to be able to watch a few of their training sessions, one can certainly see that what the Bulls have been working on came out against the Hurricanes, like the tip-ons and offloads. To see South African forwards display such dexterity and skills – locks Lood de Jager and RG Snyman were especially good – was really wonderful.

The Bulls have also worked a lot on their fitness; for prop Pierre Schoeman to get up and score the matchwinning try, beating five or six Hurricanes defenders to get to the ball and be the first player up in support and show up constantly around the field, was proof of this.

It will be interesting to see whether the team that the Lions announced will be the team that runs out on to the field … it’s very unusual for them to name their team on a Tuesday. It will be very exciting to see Franco Mostert at number seven, however, but I think the Lions will miss another ground player. You really need someone to slow down the ball on the highveld and it was great to see Roelof Smit back to his best for the Bulls, buying time for the defence to set.

The Lions had a really good solid win over the Jaguares and Aphiwe Dyantyi really announced himself with an even better try than he scored in the first round. To see a wing beat international wings for pace and then a sidestep is really special. You can’t coach the sort of things he does on attack, although there are obviously things he needs to work on and defensively he was out of position for the two late tries that cost the Lions the bonus point. But he is one of a lot of exciting young wings in South African rugby, along with the likes of Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi.

The Lions might rue those two late tries though because if they end up in the middle of the table then bonus points could be crucial.

The Sharks will be looking to bounce back from their defeat in Johannesburg in the opening round when they take on the Waratahs in Durban, but they really have to scrummage better if they are to be any threat in this competition.

It would possibly have been better if they had chosen Thomas du Toit to come on at tighthead at the back end of the game because then they can start with their specialist tighthead. It would be easier for Thomas to come on when the guys are tired, because in the first 20 minutes scrummaging is certainly much harder and at the start of games, referees are really looking at the scrums.

While with the Springboks between 2012 to 2015 we did some research on how many scrum penalties were awarded at the back end of games and it was certainly a lot less. Which is why it was easier to use Coenie Oosthuizen as a replacement tighthead, although in his early years he was a tighthead at school.

But I expect the Sharks to come out firing after their bye, which would have allowed them to work on a lot of stuff. They were also certainly in the game until the last minute against the Lions in Johannesburg.

Three out of the four South African franchises were in action last weekend and they all put in great performances against overseas opposition. Including the Stormers, whose forwards were absolutely superb in the set-pieces where they really dominated the Waratahs, and were most unfortunate not to win the game. The scrum provides such promising opportunities and for the Stormers to do that against one of the strongest packs was most impressive.

But unfortunately an exit lineout went wrong, the calling system broke down, and the Stormers will rue that as being one they should have won and banked four points.

But when you destroy a pack in the scrum as Steven Kitshoff, Wilco Louw (the incumbent Springbok props) and the tight five did then it’s a really good sign away from home.

The Stormers now tackle the Crusaders in Christchurch after the two New Zealand derbies last weekend were try-fests but a lot of it was illegal. There was some quite clever obstruction around the pillars and cleaning out beyond the ball, which is the job of the assistant referees to spot. In the Dunedin game it was not picked up in two of the tries and the officials need to be a lot more vigilant.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

Two not entirely unconnected happenings in the world of cricket caught my eye this week: The first was an article (http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/1098043.html) on CricInfo about the looming player strike in Australia and how the relationship between their administration and their players has almost entirely broken down; the second was that Cricket Australia’s executive manager of broadcast, digital and commercial, Ben Amarfio, had come to South Africa and briefed local cricket stakeholders on their successes, in particular the Big Bash League.

The irony of the situation is that although the Big Bash League has been an enormous success in terms of crowds and television revenue, the damage it is doing to all other aspects of Australian cricket reminds one of the south Indian proverb that “nothing grows under the shade of the Banyan tree”.

The T20 competition might be going through the roof, but the rest of Australian cricket is not exactly excelling: results have been indifferent and the players are about to go on strike! The temptation to copy what they are doing should be resisted.

The dollar signs are already rolling in the eyes of Cricket South Africa when it comes to the new Global Destination T20 League that will debut on our shores next summer, but the actual economics of the event have been poorly communicated to many of the stakeholders who will hand over control of their stadia and players for the duration of the competition.

The state of the game in this country is currently strong, and CEO Haroon Lorgat was a well-deserved winner of the Leadership in Sport Business award at this week’s Sports Industry Awards, but the danger still exists that the lower levels of the sport, the foundation, will be ignored in favour of the riches that could suddenly become available.

We all know the immense damage done to the reputation of Cricket South Africa following the hosting of the IPL in 2009 and the money-grabbing associated with it, but our administrators seem to have short memories; how else can one explain the presence of disgraced former CEO Gerald Majola as an honoured guest, seated in the front row, at their own awards ceremony last week?

At the same awards dinner, it was noticeable that the prize for the best scorers association, previously included in the professional operations section along with the umpires, had been demoted to the amateur awards given out at the breakfast earlier on the same day. It may seem like a trivial matter – but it was certainly a slight felt by the scorers, who are an integral part of the game, just like umpires. It points to a lingering suspicion that CSA might just be undervaluing their foundations, the domestic base.

It is a fact that the best organisations look after the interests of all their people – their employees and stakeholders – and a prime example of this is the Northerns Cricket Union, who also held their awards luncheon this week.

Their Titans team is the best in the country, winning two trophies last season and narrowly missing out on the third, and that is partly because of the superb administrative structures that support the on-field performance. The Northerns team is also the dominant force in senior provincial competitions.

The administration is happy and productive because every person is treated well and with enormous respect; they are made to feel part of the success of the union and franchise. There is no greater measure of this than the fact that all the grounds staff, dressed in their Sunday best, were invited to the luncheon and the hug and kiss CEO Jacques Faul received from one of the housekeeping staff when she received her certificate.

Faul is an outstanding CEO who makes every one of his staff feel valued, and that is the secret to getting the best out of people, and the strong relationship between him and president John Wright, a true servant of sport, is also vital.

Cricket South Africa need to be warned that there is a danger of prioritising money over people and the overall well-being of the game of which they are trustees; when things are going well is probably the right time for this reminder.

*Altaaf Kazi, CSA’s head of media and communications, has pointed out, however, in response to this column that the scorers were never previously honoured during the live TV broadcast segment of the awards, whereas this year their award presentation from the breakfast was shown live on SuperSport. The reshuffling was due to the pleasing inclusion of three extra awards for women’s cricket.

Two of the main talking points among South African SuperRugby followers at the moment are the apparent slackening in the defence of the local franchises and the resting of players for the away matches against the Jaguares and Sunwolves.

Questions have been raised about the defence of the South African franchises, especially after the Bulls leaked six tries against the Blues in Auckland last weekend. But it’s not just the Bulls – there are a lot more tries being scored this year in general.

The reason is that over the last year the attack has gone a lot wider and there are more players behind the ball. Sure, the rules have changed a bit, like the tackle law favouring more offloads, but the game has changed over the last year with people more willing now to leave forwards in the wide channels.

Most teams now play 2-4-2 or 1-3-3-1 with their forwards spread out across the field, and we are seeing more loose forwards standing in the backline.

In terms of the tries the Blues scored against the Bulls, we often saw two forwards in the outer extremities running against backs. When you have a big man on a smaller man, you’re more likely to be able to get an offload away. The Blues were able to score either because the Bulls simply ran out of numbers or they were able to effect excellent offloads by having support players behind the ball.

Three or four years ago, teams would have their forwards in two pods of four, but now they leave them in channels across the field and you will often see a hooker or back-row forward in the 15-metres-from-touch zone. The All Blacks have been doing this for the last five years and England did it between 2000 and 2003.

The reason it’s being done is because it’s now been proved, thanks to every player being fitted with a GPS that measures how many metres they have run and at what speed, that a lot less energy is used if the forwards are spread across the field than if they follow the ball. That’s how this new trend has evolved.

I actually thought the quality of the Bulls defence was very good in the first half, but they were found out in the second half when they just ran out of steam, too much juice had been taken out of their legs. That meant the Bulls’ backs and wings were always in a numbers situation, they could not get their width back and get back into line, so they were always under pressure.

To be fair though, the try from the restart was because at the kickoff you usually leave players back – the three outside backs and the scrumhalf on the chip-kick – and with four players out of the defensive line you will be vulnerable. But it was a good try and the Blues’ first try also featured fantastic offloads.

It’s difficult to stop offloads in the wide channels because you’re also dealing with footwork because of all the space available out there.

We always faced these same difficulties against New Zealand sides and some days we were more successful dealing with them than on others. The keys are a high level of conditioning, especially amongst the forwards, and to work hard at the breakdown. If you can’t get tacklers over the ball to slow it down, then the opposition just gets quick ball and quicker ball, and momentum, and then it’s difficult to set a defensive line. That’s what happened to the Bulls and it put Jamba Ulengo under real pressure on the wing.

But Pine Pienaar is an experienced defensive coach, now in his fourth year in the job, and he will be very aware of all this and will know how to fix it. After all, the Blue Bulls made the Currie Cup final last year and you don’t get there without having a good defence.

Handre Pollard had a better game and I’m looking forward to him coming through, he’s going a level up every week.

But it’s an horrendous draw for the Bulls to have all those away games up front, it’s the hardest draw in Super Rugby because you can never get on the front foot. Even a brilliant coach like John Plumtree was let go by the Sharks in 2013 after that sort of draw, and Allister Coetzee also had a season starting with numerous away games with the Stormers.

So it can happen that you get on a downward spiral. Super Rugby is such a tough competition that you always go through crises, but it’s how you deal with them that counts.

There have been suggestions that South African teams are concentrating more on attack to the detriment of their defence, but they will always get enough time during the week to work on their defence, that will never change. Generally teams train for 50 minutes on the Monday, then Tuesday is virtually a full session, the major day for defence, with contact. Then on Thursday attack will be the focus, but it’s not true that teams are concentrating too much on attack!

Each coach will have equal time to work within that on their area, teams split their time evenly between attack and defence.

In terms of weakened teams going to play the Jaguares in Argentina, that would have been pre-planned. Teams have to rest their frontline players in accordance with the Saru guidelines and it’s a helluva trip. You leave on the Sunday morning, flying 10-11 hours to Sao Paulo, where you have a three-hour wait before flying for four hours to Buenos Aires, only arriving on Monday afternoon, so you can’t train then. Teams will have a light practice on the Tuesday, with just one major session on the Thursday.

And coming back from Argentina is even worse!

What coaches like Johan Ackermann and Franco Smith have done is look at their next games and those have been vital, the problem with travelling to Argentina is always the game after that one, but that’s just the nature of the competition.

Singapore is also 10 hours away and it’s very humid and hot there. The Stormers took it as a chance to get some fringe guys some rugby.

Teams are merely following medical advice on how to keep their players fresh and get their best rugby out of them, plus players are more susceptible to ailments on these long trips.

The Lions proved last year that you need home advantage to win SuperRugby, but they needed to be at their best in the knockout games, hence their decision to rest players for their last round-robin game in Argentina.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.