Ken Borland

Victor Matfield’s love for the Bulls is well-known given his legendary career at Loftus Versfeld and so it was no surprise to hear the former Springbok captain say that Jake White’s team are clear favourites for him when it comes to their United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against the Sharks in Pretoria on Saturday.

And the presence of White, who was coach of the Springboks when they won the 2007 World Cup with Matfield the man of the match in the final, is one of the differences between the two teams for the former lock, who backed him to get the better of Sharks coach Sean Everitt, whose ability to get the best out of a star-studded Sharks team has been questioned in some quarters.

“The Bulls must be favourites,” Matfield said. “They are better coached at the moment, they know how they want to play and how to win.

“The Sharks are a fantastic team on paper, it’s just that they don’t always play the way we know they can.

“Playing at Loftus Versfeld will also definitely be an advantage for the Bulls, they know how to play there and have had a very good record there for the last two-to-three years.

“But the Bulls scrum will need to stand up because the Sharks have won a lot of penalties there. The Sharks scrum very well,” Matfield said.

The lineout maestro also said he wanted to see the Bulls really pile on the pressure in the opening exchanges, using their powerful forwards to batter the Sharks and have them crying for mom early on in the quarterfinal.

“The Bulls struggle when they start games too loose, they are very good when they start by getting that forward dominance.

“In some games we’ve seen them not employ a drive at the first three lineouts, instead going to the midfield and trying to play ball-in-hand rugby.

“But I think once they get that momentum, that forward dominance, then they can spread the ball and really test the defences.

“I would like to see them build first, really squeeze the Sharks, and then they can throw the ball around,” Matfield said.

If the Bulls do beat the Sharks, however, then Matfield said a likely semi-final against Leinster at Aviva Stadium in Dublin would be a daunting prospect.

“Once they get over to Europe for the semi-finals then it becomes much more difficult. To beat Leinster you have to be at your best.

“But I believe the Bulls and Stormers can compete against them if they get their packs of forwards really up for the game,” Matfield said.

Rain washed out the second day’s play of last year’s Boxing Day Test against India at Centurion and, while the tourists enjoyed a lunchtime feast including broccoli soup, Chicken Chettinad and lamb chops, Proteas captain Dean Elgar was giving his team some of his famous tough love after a poor first day.

Having allowed India to rattle up 273-3 on the first day on a pitch that assisted the pacemen, Elgar told his team to “toughen up mentally, take responsibility and wear your big-boy pants”.

South Africa did fight back, but that first day had ultimately done too much damage. Their determination did, however, make them the most tenacious of opponents in the rest of the series and they pulled off a thoroughly unexpected series triumph.

It’s the sort of inspirational captaincy Elgar has now become famous for and he believes England’s newly-appointed skipper Ben Stokes will lead in similar vein when they host the Proteas in a Test series in August.

“I wouldn’t call it ‘stubborn’ captaincy but I’d say we are both f****** tough cricketers,” Elgar told The Citizen on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a battle of feisty characters and Stokes is a world-class cricketer, and we know what he’s capable of because he’s done pretty well against us, albeit just as player.

“But as captain you need to get the best out of your players and it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes with the added responsibility.

“We play with our hearts on our sleeves because we always want to push for the win, but Test cricket comes down to who controls their emotions best. If you let them get the better of you, then the results generally don’t go your way,” Elgar said.

Elgar and Stokes are both left-handed batsmen, but their contrasting styles are very much the yin and yang of Test cricket.

Stokes is immensely strong and provides much attacking thrust to England’s middle-order, while Elgar, as an opening batsman, does not play with the same freedom but the time he spends at the crease can be equally draining for the opposition.

Both Stokes and Elgar have played 12 Tests since the start of 2021, with England’s new captain scoring just 633 runs at an average of 26.37.

Elgar, on the other hand, has been leading from the front since his appointment, with 881 runs at an average of 41.95.

“I don’t dwell too much on individual battles, my focus is on us as a team,” Elgar said. “And I haven’t had a lot of personal interaction with Ben, even though we have played against each other numerous times since an SA A series against the England Lions in 2015.”

Advertisers may love to say “But wait, there’s more”, but for Western Province rugby it is a case of it being far less.

At least when it comes to the money they are spending on players, and in particular on young Springbok fullback Damian Willemse.

Recent reports have alleged Willemse is earning R5.6 million a year to play for the Stormers, linking the extraordinary salary to allegations of reckless spending at the troubled union.

But Stormers coach John Dobson on Tuesday lashed out at the unethical reporting of individual player’s salaries and stated that the figures were wrong in any case.

“We have done very well to retain most of the squad we have until 2024 and we are still 15.3% below the salary cap. So we are certainly not throwing money at players as alluded to, and that’s with several Springboks staying, even though some of them were offered more elsewhere. Some players were even approached outside the transfer window.

“A line was absolutely crossed when Damian Willemse had an incorrect salary published, the figure was considerably off, it is much less than reported. To speculate about someone’s salary and then not get it right affects both the player and the cohesion of the squad. He’s a 23-year-old who is playing superbly and is desperate for Western Province to be successful,” Dobson said.

Dobson also confirmed that negotiations with 2019 World Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit are ongoing, saying that the talismanic Springbok has a strong affinity with the Western Cape.

“We’ve been talking to Pieter-Steph the whole year and he wanted to get back on to the field first before making any decisions. He has not signed anywhere overseas yet and we have planned for both scenarios – him staying with us or leaving – in our budget. But when a global star comes on the market, no South African franchise would be able to stand against the offer.

“But Pieter-Steph has got family and business interests in the Western Cape, he’s a big part of the team and the region, and he and his agents have been very transparent. Trying to match an overseas offer – if it’s a million euro or more particularly millions of yen – would break our salary cap, that would be about one-third of the salary cap on one player. But maybe he’ll go away for a short time and then come back,” Dobson explained.

Temba Bavuma would love to open the batting alongside Brendon McCullum in the T20 Global League for the Joburg Giants, but as far as copying the Kiwi’s swashbuckling style goes, that’s not how South Africa’s gutsy middle-order Test batsman goes about his cricket.

Big-hitting marquee players like McCullum, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and David Miller will be amongst the star attractions when the league gets underway on November 3, but a team’s success is often decided by how well the batsmen around those stars set up the game for them. Bavuma is able to score boundaries with ‘normal’ cricket shots and is very good at rotating the strike.

“One must understand that there are 11 positions in a cricket team and not all cricketers play the same way, they all bring their own thing to the side. You get the batsmen with x-factor who can clear the boundaries, but then you have the other guys who create the foundation for those batsmen to come in and hit the ball.

“I think that’s the role I’ll play for the Joburg Giants, not trying to emulate Brendon but do what I do, which will allow him and Colin Ingram and Chris Jonker to bat effectively as well. In terms of T20 cricket, I’ve always seen myself as a middle-order batsman and I’ve been relatively successful at that, but I’ll probably play a role up front for the Giants, looking at who we’ve signed.

“I will embrace that and welcome the opportunity because as a batsman you want to be near the top in T20 so that you can bat for the bulk of the overs. I do feel I have the necessary skills to open the batting, but I won’t change my game, I’ll just do what has served me well in the domestic game,” Bavuma said at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

Bavuma is now a Cape Cobras player, but the Joburg Giants have signed him and another local darling in Kagiso Rabada to ensure the people of Johannesburg get behind their team.

“I was born in Cape Town, but everything in terms of cricket happened for me in Johannesburg, so it has a large part of my heart. It will be a massive pleasure to once again represent the people of Johannesburg,” Bavuma said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-africa-sport/sa-cricket-sport/1634361/temba-bavuma-will-stay-true-to-himself-in-t20-frenzy/