Bulls coach Jake White may be saying he will be looking to play more from scrums in the United Rugby Championship going forward, but that is not going to weaken the resolve of his front row to make a point when they come up against the Sharks at Kings Park on Friday night.
White said one of the differences in northern hemisphere rugby that his team will need to adapt to is that sides tend to use the scrum as an attacking platform and not something from which to earn penalties.
But the outspoken coach made a point of saying how much he was looking forward to seeing former Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis taking on Bongi Mbonambi, the incumbent in the Green and Gold No.2 jersey. He is also keen to see how another Springbok, Lizo Gqoboka, does as he comes off the bench as tighthead cover, having switched back to the other side of the scrum, where he started his career.
“I don’t really want a whole lot of penalties at scrum time,” White said on Thursday. “In South Africa you see the scrum is used as an opportunity to get out of your half or get points, via penalties.
“But in the rest of the URC, teams see it as an opportunity to attack, with eight forwards all tied in there. They try and get the ball in and out quickly.
“The Sharks have been speaking for months about how strong they will be when all their Springboks return and then it will just be a matter of time before they dominate. Well this is it now, it’s a home game for them and their Boks are back.
“Bongi has been the dominant hooker for South Africa, while Bismarck is also a World Cup winner who has played 79 Tests. I’m sure he will introduce himself to Bongi and I’m looking forward to that battle,” White said.
While the likes of Ox Nche and Aphelele Fassi have for some undisclosed reason been blacklisted from playing for the Sharks on Friday night, the KwaZulu-Natalians will have Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi also lining up alongside Mbonambi.
Am has moved to inside centre, setting up an intriguing tussle with a Bulls backline that sees David Kriel playing at outside centre and Kurt-Lee Arendse at fullback.
The spectacular Kransberg towers over the Marakele plains
The amazing thing about the Marakele National Park is you drive through the entrance gate into the Acacia bushveld – areas of dense dry thornbush interspersed with more open grassy or shrubby areas – just over a thousand metres above sea level, seeing arid country specials like Pied Babbler and Great Sparrow; and less than 20 kilometres away you can be in the mountainous vegetation, reminiscent of the Drakensberg, of Lenong Peak, at an altitude of more than 2000 metres.
From the arid woodlands of the western parts of the park, one is transported into a different world of low cloud and windswept grassland with almost alpine vegetation and four different species of Proteas.
There is a viewpoint at the end of the Lenong Drive, making the daunting single-lane mountain pass along a concrete track all the more worthwhile.
We had already seen Cape Vulture, soaring high overhead, the third bird we saw driving through the entrance gate earlier that morning, after bushveld regulars Chinspot Batis and Southern Black Tit.
But apart from stunning scenery, the Lenong viewpoint, at an altitude of 2039m, also provides the most convenient view of the Cape Vulture breeding colony: at about 800 breeding pairs it is one of the largest in the world for this threatened raptor.
It is both a serene and exhilarating sight to see these large scavengers floating and wheeling around the cliffs across a valley to the south-west of the viewpoint.
Just as thrilling was to discover an inquisitive pair of Buffstreaked Chat hopping around the small rocks at our feet. This striking bird is a familiar resident of the more moist Drakensberg grasslands and this population in the Waterberg is isolated.
Female Buffstreaked Chat
Male Buffstreaked Chat
They were joined by a male Mocking Chat, standing proud with his glossy black plumage glistening in the sun, Cape Rock Thrush and busy Cape and Cinnamonbreasted Rock Buntings on the ground.
But it was the Chats that stole the show and my wife Lauren gave the spot the entirely fitting name of ‘Chatty Corner’.
Mocking Chat
Descending down the mountain, there was still another high-altitude specialist waiting for us in the form of a Striped Pipit, at 1791m above sea level (a.s.l.), which flew off the road and into the grass and rocks alongside.
Red Hartebeest were also enjoying the lengthy highveld grasslands close to the road.
Descending still further down the hairpin bends of Lenong Drive, at 1375m a.s.l., the rocky outcrops and shrubby grassland is ideal habitat for rock thrushes, but it was still unexpected to come across the Short-Toed Rock Thrush, which is apparently only sporadically found in the Waterberg. But there it was with just a hint of white flecking on the forehead and, of course, the blue-grey mask stopping at the throat rather than on the breast as in Sentinel Rock Thrush.
I was relieved to only come across our first Elephant once we had returned to the plains, with their open tree savanna and rich grassland around the wetlands, along with patches of thicker woodland. I have had the misfortune of having to reverse down the steep narrow pass at pace while being chased by one of those behemoths, which is far from a peaceful experience.
Heading back to our rustic but very comfortable thatched chalet at Griffons Bush Camp, one heads back along the base of the very mountains that not so long ago we were summiting.
The thornbush shrubland and deciduous forest, which is rather dry in May, starts to give way to more moist savanna in the shade of the cliffs. Passing through areas with more substantial understorey, I was delighted to see the secretive Coqui Francolin, South Africa’s smallest francolin.
Back at Griffons, we were given a warm welcome by Foxy the tame Meerkat, who doesn’t mind a scratch but does have quite a nip on him!
The broadleaved woodland around Griffons is a good place for bird parties foraging through the canopy and lower down, and seeing White Helmetshrike and Greyheaded Bush Shrike clicking and working their way up from the ground to the crowns of the trees, was a highlight, as was the presence of a Striped Kingfisher.
Sightings List
Chinspot Batis
Southern Black Tit
Cape Vulture
Forktailed Drongo
Blackbacked Puffback
Warthog
Southern Boubou
Cardinal Woodpecker
Brubru
Great Sparrow
Crested Barbet
Pied Babbler
Blue Waxbill
Black Flycatcher
Southern Masked Weaver
Tsessebe
Blue Wildebeest
Plains Zebra
Yellowbilled Hornbill
Giraffe
Ostrich
Goldenbreasted Bunting
Arrowmarked Babbler
Blackeyed Bulbul
Grey Lourie
Rock Martin
Chacma Baboon
Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting
Buffstreaked Chat
Buffstreaked Chat
Cape Bunting Cape Rock Thrush Mocking Chat Streakyheaded Canary Striped Pipit Red Hartebeest Familiar Chat Yellowfronted Canary Short-Toed Rock Thrush Elephant Rattling Cisticola Striped Kingfisher Helmeted Guineafowl Impala Nyala White Helmetshrike African Hoopoe Coqui Francolin Greater Kudu Speckled Mousebird Yellowthroated Sparrow Meerkat Greyheaded Bush Shrike Cape White-Eye Redbilled Woodhoopoe Glossy Starling
GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – If being a professional on the Sunshine Tour since last year has taught Siyanda Mwandla anything, it has apprised him of the fact that he needs to be enjoying himself more while he is trying to make a living playing golf.
Mwandla, who was one of the most exciting amateurs in the country during his days at the Ernie Els Fancourt Foundation, won his tour card last year and finished 137th on the order of merit after playing 10 events.
This year he has built on that experience and is sitting 107th, having played a dozen tournaments. The last of those, the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series Mount Edgecombe leg, saw the 27-year-old post his best-ever round on tour, a 67 that saw him lying second after the first day. A par of 73s to close saw Mwandla finish in a tie for 38th, but it is all part of the learning experience.
This week’s Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event at Humewood is another opportunity to take a step forward in his career, with his game definitely trending upwards.
“The way I approach tournaments this year has been the difference. In the past, if I played with friends on a Saturday or on my own, I was happy and excited, but then I would be playing in the Sunshine Tour on the Wednesday and I would be anxious. It felt like two different rounds when it should be the same. I didn’t understand that I was meant to be having fun on the course whatever I was playing.
“I’ve been working with a sports psychologist and no tournament should be bigger in terms of mindset. I need to stay in the moment, in the present, and not get too far ahead of myself. So nowadays I don’t ask for much, I just want to play the final round and make cuts consistently, so I don’t have to think about that,” Mwandla said on Wednesday at Humewood as rain forced him to take a break from preparations for the fourth leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.
His Mount Edgecombe performance was a sign for Mwandla that the swing changes he put in place with coach Emile Steinmann are starting to bed in and he is not expecting any drama around the Humewood links this week, even if the weather, already windy and wet, continues to worsen.
“The swing changes were not all that comfortable at first but we are trying to get more consistency. I stuck with it and two weeks ago I saw some results. I like the Humewood course and I’ve had some nice amateur finishes here. You’ve got to have a bit of luck with the draw because you can be playing 12 holes with no wind and then for the last six you’re suddenly playing into the wind.
“You have to play a lot of knock-down shots here and sometimes you even feel like there’s a wind blowing when it’s not. It’s a thinking course from Hole One and although I’ve been working on getting my ball-flight higher since I moved to Johannesburg, growing up on the KZN North Coast means I subconsciously still have the low shots, I don’t have to even think about it. So I’m very comfortable here,” Mwandla said.
Due to their reliance on physicality and aggression, the Springboks have often been regarded as the bad boys of rugby. Which is all well and good when it comes to intimidating the opposition, but not so helpful when, in the eyes of the referees, you are the team who needs to be watched more carefully.
It’s a stereotype of course (which we know all about in this country), but it’s funny how, almost as surely as night follows day, South Africa win a World Cup or are the best team in the world and the narrative from overseas begins that the way they play the game is bad for rugby.
By way of contrast, New Zealand’s All Blacks are the golden child of rugby – everything they do is skilful, dazzling and how the game should be played. Even when they are kicking more than any other team or mastering the dark arts of niggle and consistently killing the ball in their own 22.
South African rugby has, however, gone through phases when it was unacceptably dirty and it is fair to say our natural tendency is towards conservative, defensive, backs-to-the-wall type play rather than embracing risk and flair. As current Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has pointed out though, it is the differences in style, in the DNA of teams, that makes international competition interesting. It would be really boring if everyone played the same way.
When I was a boy, there were no neutral referees so teams did not worry about the perceptions of the officials. The history books show that overseas teams considered it extremely difficult to win in South Africa, describing the refereeing as rather patriotic.
But now, the referee and his viewpoint are now an important part of an international team’s preparation for a match. And it is probably fair to say the current Springbok team is having a hard time with how referees are perceiving them at the moment, judging by Rassie Erasmus’s notorious video and the number of calls that seem to be going against them at the moment. In the last week we have had Faf de Klerk’s yellow card that set the tone for their poor second Test against Australia now being exposed by no less an authority as Nigel Owens as being a wrong call.
Probably the last time the Springboks faced such a PR crisis was between the 1995 and 2003 World Cups. Prior to 1995, James Small had been the only Springbok ever red-carded, when Ed Morrison sent him off against the Wallabies in Brisbane in 1993. But between 1995 and 2003, another five players were sent to the showers early and there were also numerous yellow cards.
Boy, did South Africa have a problem with discipline no matter how hard the likes of Andre Markgraaff and Rudolf Straeuli try to run the team like an army camp.
So when Jake White took over as Springbok coach in 2004, it was one of the key areas he identified as needing to improve. It was one of the reasons John Smit was appointed as captain, because the hooker was well-liked by referees and had a good ‘bedside manner’ with them.
As Smit built a rapport with the referees around the world and White clamped down hard on any on-field ill-discipline, so the Springboks’ reputation improved and they began to get more of the 50/50 calls. By 2007 they were world champions and the same group of players continued to dominate until the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal when Bryce Lawrence failed to read the script or the law book properly.
But the current Springboks’ issues with officiating and their efforts to get a fair deal are more likely to be resolved through gentle diplomacy than angry videos. Captain Siya Kolisi is one of the most respected people in global rugby, so I would like to see him take a leaf out of John Smit’s book and begin a charm offensive with the referees.
So what if the vanquished Northern Hemisphere teams don’t like the game-plan, but getting on the right side of the officials is a vital part of winning rugby.
