Ken Borland

Christiaan Basson is one of the more consistent performers on the Sunshine Tour so his blistering eight-under-par 64 to claim the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is not a total shock, but the 33-year-old from Cape Town is battling his own mediocre record in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour.

Basson has played in 30 previous European Tour tournaments, making the cut in just 14 of them, with just a single top-10 finish, in the 2013 South African Open at Glendower. He has gone low in the first round a few times in co-sanctioned events, including last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship when he opened with a pair of 69s before fading on the weekend with rounds of 74 and 75.

“It’s a funny game and you never know when you’re going to get it right, so when you get it going you must capitalise on it. I think I need to stick with the same game plan – I just tried to hit fairways and tried to play for the right areas of the greens – it worked well, so why change it?” Basson said after his brilliant round at the prestigious course alongside the Crocodile River.

Basson is three shots ahead of the chasing pack on five-under-par which includes three-time champion Charl Schwartzel.

Schwartzel could not finish his round due to a thunderstorm that stopped play at 5.26pm on Thursday, but is looking in ominous form as he collected seven birdies through 17 holes, and missed a couple of makeable putts as well.

Mark Williams of Zimbabwe and Englishman Matt Ford, both of whom collected eagles – on the par-four fourth and par-five 13^th holes respectively- are the other golfers tied for second.

Niclas Fasth of Sweden, playing his 500^th European Tour event (the 31^st golfer to reach the mark) and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands are amongst the large group of golfers on four-under-par, while 2008 champion Richard Sterne is on three-under after 17 holes.

Another former champion, Pablo Martin, the winner of back-to-back titles in 2009/10, was rapidly climbing up the leaderboard as he moved to six-under-par through 15 holes. The Spaniard had started on the 10^th, but by the time he walked off the ninth green he was practically weeping as he closed with three successive bogeys to drop down into the group tied for 12^th.

Englishman Jeff Inglis had a similar story, starting with five successive birdies but then dropping two shots at the par-four eighth and picking up further bogeys at the 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to also finish on three-under.

Louis Oosthuizen started on the 10^th and birdied the par-four first hole to go to five-under-par and a share of the lead, but was then derailed by a double-bogey seven on the second, eventually finishing on a two-under-par 70, while defending champion Branden Grace was a stroke further back.

The second World Cup, hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France, was a more competitive affair which featured a qualifying system for the first time and concluded in a scrappy final won by Australia, who beat England 12-6 at Twickenham.

That 1991 Australian team had the makings of a top-class outfit, featuring a powerhouse backline including Nick Farr-Jones, Michael Lynagh, Tim Horan, Jason Little and David Campese and with future legends such as John Eales, Ewen McKenzie and Phil Kearns in the pack.

England were a quality team themselves with players like Will Carling, Jeremy Guscott, Rory Underwood and Rob Andrew in the backs and a tremendous pack spearheaded by the front row of Jeff Probyn, Brian Moore and Jason Leonard, but they made a fatal mistake in the final by switching from a forward-orientated style of play to a running game which suited the Wallabies down to the ground.

Australia made a slow start to the tournament, with their biggest test in Pool 3 coming from debutants Western Samoa, one of the qualifiers. The Wallabies edged them out 9-3 in Pontypool, but the islanders pulled off a sensational 16-13 win over Wales at Cardiff Arms Park to also progress to the quarterfinals. The incredible upset prompted the quip that Wales were lucky they were only playing against the western half of Samoa!

Zimbabwe, featuring future Springbok prop Adrian Garvey, who scored two tries against Scotland, were Africa’s representatives with South Africa still in isolation. They were in Pool 2, which the unbeaten Scots topped to go through to the quarterfinals with fellow Celts Ireland.

Reigning champions New Zealand were with England in Pool 1 and beat them 18-12 in the tournament’s opening game at Twickenham, but the Red Rose systematically crushed Italy and the United States to ensure they reached the knockout stages.

France topped Pool 4 as expected, but Canada upset the applecart by beating Fiji 13-3 in Bayonne to also go through. The mercurial Fijians fell apart thereafter, also losing to Romania to prop up the pool.

Campese was the focal point of the quarterfinals as he scored two brilliant tries to put Australia ahead against Ireland, but then his major error led to Gordon Hamilton racing away for a try that gave the hosts an 18-15 lead in Dublin as the match drew to a close.

But he made up for it by making the break that led to Lynagh finishing the last-gasp try that kept the Wallabies alive.

Campese would score again in Australia’s 16-6 win over New Zealand in the semi-finals and, although he had a quiet final, he arguably won them the game because he taunted the English style of play to such an extent that they changed it for the showpiece game!

England beat France 19-10 and Scotland ended the Samoan dream 28-6 to set up the other semi-final.

England scraped home 9-6 in Edinburgh, Scottish fullback Gavin Hastings missing a penalty from in front of the poles, which he subsequently said he should not have taken having just been smashed by Mike Skinner in a tackle.

As rugby rapidly hurtled towards professionalism, the second World Cup was seen as a success, with increased attendance and viewers, and was viewed as a major global sporting event for the first time. Of course, the absence of the Springboks meant there was still debate for at least another year as to who the best side in the world really were.

South African hockey has travelled some tough roads in the last 20 years, but few defeats have been more dismaying than the one their women’s team suffered at the hands of Chile in their Hockey World League Semifinal at the Wits Astro on Friday.

South Africa are ranked seven places higher than Chile in the world rankings and, given how well they played in their previous game, pushing South American giants Argentina all the way, there was plenty of expectation that the home side would beat Chile and seal their place in the quarterfinals.

Alas, the only goal was scored by Chile and the 1-0 defeat now means South Africa have to beat the USA, ranked sixth in the world, on Sunday to qualify for the knockout round.

South Africa began the game by doing some nice things on attack, but too many moves broke down due to basic errors and they struggled to get sufficient numbers through the circle, all their entries into the D only bringing one short-corner the whole match.

Chile were strong in midfield through the skilful duo of Agustina Venegas and Manuela Urroz, and they earned several short-corners. Goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande was forced to make a couple of good saves and Lisa-Marie Deetlefs also blocked and cleared a dangerous penalty corner.

A fine tackle by Quanita Bobbs and a good run by Candice Manuel set up South Africa’s short-corner just before the end of the first quarter, but the variation to the pusher was not accurate enough and the chance went begging.

At halftime the match was still goalless, a flat South African team seemingly not having the drive to outwork a committed Chile side.

Given all the short-corners Chile were getting, it was always likely they were going to score and it was Urroz who slid in and managed to get her stick to the ball to deflect in what turned out to be the winning goal just two minutes into the second half.

The sluggish home side continued to labour until just before the end of the third quarter, when Tarryn Glasby found a bit of space and fired in a strong shot, but Chile goalkeeper Claudia Schuler managed to get some equipment in the way.

South Africa belatedly raised their tempo in the final chukka, but it was too late by then. It summed up their match when, five minutes from time, the ball bobbled in front of the open goalmouth to Bernie Coston, but the seasoned striker could not scramble it home.

“At the end of the game we saw some movement and passes going forward, but it was too late by then to start playing combination hockey,” coach Sheldon Rostron complained.

“We didn’t have enough go-forward ability, you can’t just keep defending. We weren’t potent enough on attack. The approach of the team has to be better, sometimes it’s easier against the bigger teams because there’s not as much expectation. But against the teams ranked below you, you have to make sure you go out and perform, it’s about consistency. It’s about execution and we have to make sure it all comes together against the USA,” Rostron said.

The most alarming aspect of the South African performance was the lack of movement off the ball. The ball-carrier had far too few passing options and this stunted the attack, allowing the Chile defence to swarm around the circle and make it very hard for the home side to find a way through.