Ken Borland

The Bulls will fly to Italy on Monday night for the Rainbow Cup final with a powerful squad missing just three Springboks as they look to transfer their dominance of South African rugby to the European stage.

The Bulls will be taking on Benetton Treviso, the surprise winners of the European leg of the competition, and it looks like coach Jake White is only going to have to make two changes to the starting line-up that led them to an impressive win over the Sharks last weekend and a place in the final.

To think that only Morne Steyn, Marco van Staden and Trevor Nyakane are in the Springboks’ plans for the series against the British and Irish Lions is quite astonishing when one considers that the Bulls have won every trophy on offer in South Africa in the last year.

And White is in the fortunate position of being able to replace Van Staden and Nyakane with fellow Springboks in Nizaam Carr and Lizo Gqoboka.

Carr has mostly played eighthman for the Bulls when Duane Vermeulen has been resting, but Marcell Coetzee has shifted seamlessly into the injured talisman’s position at the back of the scrum, and Carr is certainly not going to feel out of place at openside flank, having played there many times before for the Stormers and the Springboks.

Gqoboka is fit to play after a foot injury that was blamed for keeping him out of the Springbok squad, with Jacques van Rooyen able to cover tighthead prop in the absence of Nyakane.

Steyn is likely to be replaced by Chris Smith, who has shown on numerous occasions already that he is going to be a very handy performer for the Bulls going forward.

Exciting lock prospect Ruan Nortje did very well in Durban in his first outing as the Bulls’ blindside flank, and if the conditions in Treviso suit running rugby then he could well continue in that position, with Janko Swanepoel and Walt Steenkamp once again teaming up in the second row.

The unrelated Muller and Jan Uys could both be on the bench, with the exciting young Zak Burger suiting up as the replacement scrumhalf.

Bulls squad

Forwards: Lizo Gqoboka, Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Schalk Erasmus, Sydney Tobias, Jacques Van Rooyen, Mornay Smith, Robert Hunt, Ruan Nortje, Janko Swanepoel, Jan Uys, Walt Steenkamp, WJ Steenkamp, Muller Uys, Marcell Coetzee, Nizaam Carr.

Backs: Ivan Van Zyl, Zak Burger, Keagan Johannes, Chris Smith, Clinton Swart, Cornal Hendricks, Marco Janse van Vuren, Stravino Jacobs, Madosh Tambwe, Dawid Kellerman, Gio Aplon, David Kriel.

South Africa will be playing in the evening again in Lahore on Saturday as they look to stay alive in their T20 series against Pakistan and opening batsman Janneman Malan said they will be better prepared having now experienced the interesting weather conditions in the ancient city and centre of culture.

Given it is winter in Pakistan and dew is prevalent in the evenings, the Proteas did the right thing after winning the toss and choosing to bat second in the first match of the series, but there was even more moisture than expected but it strangely had less impact than the visitors thought it would. They were hoping it would make a dry, slow surface more slick, allowing the ball to come on to the bat better and negating some of the turn. But that didn’t happen according to Malan.

“It was interesting weather, especially when the fog came in. Credit to Pakistan for taking two important catches in the closing stages in those conditions. There was a wet outfield, the ball was wet, but it still didn’t skid on as much as we expected, so it was quite a challenge against the spinners at the start. So we just tried to capitalise on the seamers while they tried to figure out what to do.

“But now that we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work, we’ll have better plans for the second game. Some deliveries were more difficult to hit and it wasn’t so much about execution as having the right plans. So there’s room for improvement – we probably need to commit harder and have clearer, better plans. But as a batting unit, we’re not far off where we want to be,” Malan said after blasting 44 off 29 balls in the first T20.

But after Malan’s opening stand of 53 off 42 balls with Reeza Hendricks, South Africa’s next biggest partnership was 32 for the fourth wicket between Hendricks (54 off 42) and skipper Heinrich Klaasen (12) as wickets fell regularly after Pakistan made the initial breakthrough via exciting leg-spinner Usman Qadir. Just one more sizeable partnership would have made the Proteas’ chase so much easier.

“As a batting unit, we want to win games and we’re not far off clicking. Just one more big partnership and we would have won the game. We just need to come up with the best options for each batsman. Experience is important and we’re obviously missing some of that, but it’s more important that every player focuses on doing their job, we can all add value.

“Reeza was in a difficult position when I got out because he had not faced a lot of balls, but he kept a cool head and got the strike-rate up again. He was obviously upset that he didn’t finish the game, but his dismissal was unlucky and he played a very good innings. The second game is a good opportunity for us to bounce back hard and hopefully change the momentum so we can take that into the final game on Sunday,” Malan said.

In-form spin-bowling all-rounder George Linde could be welcomed into the Proteas T20 starting XI for the first time on Friday night as South Africa look to play a sixth bowler against a typically high-scoring England team in the first match of the series at Newlands.

South Africa’s last T20 outing was also in Cape Town back in February when they were thumped by 97 runs by Australia to lose the series 2-1. Australia managed to rack up a sizeable 193 for five batting first, and then skittled the Proteas for just 96, with spinners Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa sharing five of the wickets.

One of South Africa’s chief problems that day was that they only had five bowlers – spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the pick of the attack, but three of the four seamers went for more than 10-runs-per-over. Linde, whose left-arm orthodox complements Shamsi’s wrist-spin, has been in great form this season with the bat, so he could comfortably slot in at number six in the order. On what is expected to be another slow Newlands pitch, a second spinner is probably going to be more useful than another paceman.

With Dwaine Pretorius ruled out of the matches against England due to a hamstring strain, Andile Phehlukwayo is likely to return to the side as the lead all-rounder.

Given the importance of making a good start to the season against the powerful English side and the eight months of inactivity for the Proteas team, coach Mark Boucher is likely to defy those calling for a new-look team and IPL stars like Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Faf du Plessis will surely feature because they have form and match-fitness on their side.

Lungi Ngidi was outstanding in the T20s South Africa played at the end of last summer and should play on that basis, while Temba Bavuma was also excellent as De Kock’s opening partner and should get the nod, having missed the previous Newlands game because of injury. He would replace Pite van Biljon, while David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen are probably fighting it out for one place in the middle-order.

Probable Proteas XI – Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller/Heinrich Klaasen, George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.

Cricket South Africa’s Board can look forward to more legal action against them as dismissed Head of Sales and Sponsor Relations Clive Eksteen announced on Tuesday that he was taking them to the CCMA for unfair dismissal.

Eksteen was sacked at the weekend based on a single charge that was added to his disciplinary hearing after he was suspended on October 29 for his alleged role in the non-payment of image rights to the players’ union. That extra charge was related to a loss of $100 000 the CSA Exco alleged the organisation suffered because Eksteen negotiated a deal with Amul, the multinational sponsors of South Africa’s T20 series in India last year, for an amount less than had been approved by the CSA Exco.

While Eksteen said he was cleared of all charges related to the non-payment of image rights – the presiding officer finding that the former Proteas spinner was in fact instrumental in the South African Cricketers’ Association eventually being paid – and an additional charge involving an agreement he was not even part of between the SABC and a sponsor, he was found guilty of Charge 5 and dismissed.

Eksteen said this was despite him providing evidence that the agreement with Amul was signed by his superior, chief commercial officer Kugandrie Govender, and that she knew how much they had offered before she informed Exco.

According to CSA disciplinary processes, any appeal can only be over sanction and needs to be handled by the chief executive, who is the legal officer. But acting CEO Jacques Faul is not allowed to be involved in disciplinary matters according to his contract, so he forwarded the appeal to the CSA Board, who last weekend upheld his dismissal.

“The Chair’s finding that revenue was lost was directly contradicted by the evidence of CSA’s employees, evidence she ignored. Subsequent to my conviction, I presented evidence in mitigation. This included a variety of reputable testimonials. The Chair refused to accept pertinent testimonials into evidence. She also refused to accept that Charge 5 was a minor charge, way less serious than the SACA charges on which I had been acquitted.

“In addition, I am in possession of evidence which exculpates me, which has come to light after the conclusion of the disciplinary inquiry, which evidence was known to CSA at the time. In these circumstances, I shall immediately be referring a dispute to the CCMA regarding my unfair dismissal. All of the evidence presented at my disciplinary inquiry, as well as the additional evidence which has now come to light … will be laid out before the CCMA. My attorney and I are totally confident that I will be vindicated in due course. Unfortunately, I believe I have been made a scapegoat for the shortcomings of others and I believe further that relevant evidence has been ignored or overlooked,” Eksteen said in his statement released on Tuesday.

The CSA Board, who thus far have failed to take any action against former CEO Thabang Moroe, who is suspended on full pay after losses of millions of dollars under his watch, even had the gall last weekend to issue a statement saying Eksteen had been fired after “transgressions of a serious nature”. They failed to mention it was over a theoretical loss of only $100 000 and that it had nothing to do with the dispute with SACA, who have even come out in support of Eksteen’s handling of their image rights dispute with CSA, which involved a reported amount of R2.4 million.