Ken Borland

They say a week is a long time in rugby but the Sharks proved – at least in the first half – that a couple of days can also bring a massive change in fortunes as they matched the British and Irish Lions blow-for-blow until the red card to scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse knocked the stuffing out of them.

Having been hammered 54-7 by the touring Lions at Ellis Park in midweek, the Sharks fielded a new-look team for their hastily-arranged rematch at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday and produced a tremendous first-half display as they held the Lions to 26-26 at the break. The physicality and intensity of the Sharks was at a whole new level, and they managed to create the first cracks we have seen in the touring team, who conceded four tries under the pressure.

And then Hendrikse was red-carded five minutes into the second half for elbowing an opponent in the head, and the wheels fell off as the Sharks succumbed to a 71-31 thrashing.

“In terms of intensity, we were matching the Lions but then the red card obviously didn’t help. We knew we had to come out firing in the second half as well, we had to keep that intensity after the break. For our young team, with lots of 21-year-olds, to put them under pressure was fantastic. The loose trio, especially, they all played for the U21s last year and they certainly matched the Lions’ physicality.

“In the first half we managed the game well and the defence was outstanding, we certainly put pressure on them. That’s a really important aspect because it complements your attack and you can use that turnover possession. I think the Springboks would have seen that with a good kicking game and strong defence, there will definitely be opportunities to force the Lions into mistakes,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said.

Everitt added that he had sympathy for Hendrikse, a 21-year-old who had a moment of stupidity broadcast around the world.

“Jaden is not a malicious player but there was a bit of niggle in the game and it was a tough contest. He’s a youngster who did something stupid and he’ll get to know where to draw the line, he will learn from it. We have to respect the opposition and we will have a chat.

“Off the field Jaden is totally the opposite, he’s actually very quiet. I feel for the guy, he’s very remorseful and I’m sure it won’t happen again,” Everitt said.

Duane Vermeulen must be used to being the object of huge admiration from rugby fans by now, so it was nice on Thursday to hear the talismanic Springbok eighthman almost gush over the prospect of teaming up with Marcell Coetzee for the first time in the Bulls’ loose trio when they take on the Stormers in their massive Rainbow Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

Coetzee, who earned himself legendary status at Ulster when he moved there from the Sharks in 2016, will make his debut for the Bulls on Friday night in a highly-anticipated North/South derby that could well decide who wins the South African leg of the Rainbow Cup.

Vermeulen and Coetzee will be hoping to reproduce their epic performance for the Springboks back in 2014 when they beat the All Blacks 27-25 at Ellis Park to end a five-game losing streak against their great rivals. Vermeulen was immense despite playing with cracked ribs and won the man of the match award.

“Marcell has good character, he has great energy on the field and I’m really looking forward to playing with him again. He’s a good ball-carrier, he has pace to the ball. He’s actually just a really well-rounded player – he tackles and carries the ball well, and can play to the ball.

“And it’s going to be nice to have young Elrigh Louw playing with us, he can learn a lot from Marcell now too. Marcell is really experienced and he can back me up on decision-making as well,” Vermeulen said on Thursday.

Vermeulen is no stranger to playing with pain to this day, and Bulls coach Jake White said it was the courage of his captain that eggs his team-mates on to greater heights.

“Every week Duane is in the doctor’s room getting things drained out of his knee. He could hold back every week, he could say ‘Coach, I need a break’. But he always fronts up, it’s why he has achieved what he has and with that sort of leader I know I’ll have no problem with any other players. I don’t feel like anyone is not going to put their body on the line and give their absolute best,” White said.

The coach was similarly excited about being able to pick Coetzee, saying he can play in each of the loose-forward positions, but adding the Bulls’ combination of Vermeulen, Louw and Coetzee, with Marco van Staden on the bench, is probably the best in global club rugby.

White also praised his conditioning staff for ensuring Coetzee and fellow Springboks Ivan van Zyl and Gio Aplon have all been able to return to action in a crucial match in which the Bulls will need all the quality they can get against a powerful Stormers team that is gaining momentum.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Madosh Tambwe, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (C), Elrigh Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Jacques van Rooyen, Trevor Nyakane, Janko Swanepoel, Marco van Staden, Zak Burger, Chris Smith, Gio Aplon.

South African rugby fans can rest easy that the four Rainbow Cup franchises won’t merely be going through the motions in yet another tournament of local derbies when the new competition kicks off on Saturday, with the massive incentive of a place in the European Champions Cup possibly being up for grabs.

Talks are apparently underway for the winners of Rainbow Cup SA to be given a spot in the 2021/22 European Rugby Heineken Champions Cup. That prestigious and lucrative tournament has prizemoney of about one million euro for the champions – the equivalent of nearly R17.5 million, which would be a huge boost for any of South Africa’s franchises given the constrained economic outlook for rugby in this country.

The Champions Cup brings together the 20 top teams from the three major European leagues – the English Premiership, France’s Top 14 and the Celtic Pro14, in which the four South African franchises are scheduled to appear later this year.

Conquering Europe may be as ambitious a plan as some of astronautics’ efforts to land on Mars but the rewards are great and will be worth the immense planning and effort. One of the things that will be required is larger squads and talks are already underway with SA Rugby for them to increase the 45-player limit for franchise squads.

Bulls coach Jake White is certainly in favour of further expansion into Europe.

“Hopefully something will be formalised because we want to take part in the Heineken Cup. There are massive incentives to play in that tournament and I remember when I coached Montpellier, the French clubs put a lot of pressure on you to qualify for that event. The importance was shown when Leinster played Munster in the Rainbow Cup last weekend and rested 13 players because they have a Champions Cup semi-final this weekend,” White said on Friday.

“Leinster have used 57 players this season in all competitions and so we’ll try and find out from SA Rugby if we can have bigger squads and more money because it’s important we get the same resources as those European clubs. If we lose players to the Springboks and get a couple of injuries, will we be strong enough to compete at three levels – Currie Cup, Pro14 and Europe?”

There is a massive irony in a body such as Sascoc, wracked by internal strife and lacking credibility, making an intervention in the affairs of Cricket South Africa, a federation that seems to daily provide a new definition of rock-bottom.

But one can only hope this is a rocket (a spark would have little effect on the thick-skinned people sitting on the CSA Board) that leads to a real shift in the mindsets of those arrogant directors that refuse to budge a centimetre from a place at the top table of a sport they have parasitized rather than served.

If Sascoc threatening to take over does not force the CSA Board into standing down and releasing the Fundudzi Forensic Report, then the next option has to be for them to be threatened with being declared delinquent directors. There have been a litany of governance disasters at CSA over the last couple of years and there is no way they can continue to deny their own involvement and culpability.

There is no doubt people like former CEO Thabang Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza have been involved in malfeasance, but who appointed and enabled these self-serving charlatans? The directors did and they have failed in their fiduciary duties, which have a clear legal basis.

The Members Council and the CSA Board of Directors are meeting together in Johannesburg over the weekend and, as one delegate put it, this is “make-or-break” time for the organisation. Will selfish, individualistic priorities prevail and continue the death spiral into chaos and oblivion? Or will there finally be some leadership and accountability shown?

Either way, Sascoc are going to impose a task team inquiring into CSA’s affairs, which is no bad thing. But if leadership and accountability win the day then there are enough top-class people who love cricket who will be able to step into the leadership vacuum and help CSA back to stability.

One of those is Judith February, a lawyer based at the Institute for Security Studies, the former head of IDASA’s governance programme, a Visiting Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and a massive cricket fan.

“You cannot be on a board and not take responsibility, resigning just before the AGM is too little, too late because they have presided over matters to that point. Directors have left in silence or written letters, but it was because they did not flex their muscles that Thabang Moroe was allowed to operate in that way. CSA’s Memorandum of Incorporation is very clear and they have breached it on every front.

“We can join the dots intelligently and see that there is something deeply wrong with the system and the people who manage it and the people who oversee them. A clean break is the best option and clearly we need to interrogate why someone of such integrity and capability as Jacques Faul could find no space to work in CSA. The players’ statement about the boardroom shenanigans was also really important,” February said this week in a Daily Maverick webinar discussing cricket in South Africa’s fight for survival.

Does February, a governance specialist and former executive director of the HSRC’s Democracy and Governance unit, not just sound like the perfect candidate to be an independent director on a new-look CSA Board?

There are also some brilliant, impressive people on the Members Council – one thinks of Ben Dladla, Craig Nel, Anne Vilas and Tebogo Siko – who are dong their best to restore the credibility of CSA, but their efforts are being stymied by the presence of seven directors of the Board in the 14-strong Members Council itself.

The Nicholson Inquiry, which the CSA Board have now committed to return to eight years after its release, called for change in how the Board was constituted, recommending nine of the 12 directors be independents.

But in 2013 it was the selfsame Sascoc who refused to accept that and pressured CSA (although it probably suited their Board back then too) into going with a 7-5 split in favour of non-independents. And that’s a major reason why CSA are in the mess they are in now.

Directors without the competence, skills or experience to run a billion-and business have been voted in to ensure certain powerful figures enjoy support and can dispense patronage in return. In some cases, these directors have been earning twice as much from Board fees as from their ‘main’ source of income; no wonder they are desperate to keep their noses in the CSA trough.

In the coming weeks, Sascoc have a vital role to play in supporting the efforts of those who want to change this system and put cricket back in the control of people who firstly love and serve the game, and secondly have the expertise to run it properly.