Ken Borland

Europe seems to be the new proving ground where several South African rugby players go to be transformed from boys to men and the squad lists for the four teams that will contest the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals later this month shows Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has plenty of overseas-based options to consider ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour.

The Champions Cup final at Twickenham on May 22 will be an all-French affair after Toulouse beat Bourdeaux-Begles 21-9 and La Rochelle overcame Leinster 32-23 in the semi-finals at the weekend. The Challenge Cup final will be like a curtain-raiser as it will also be played at Twickenham, on May 21, with Leicester, who beat Ulster 33-24, taking on Montpellier, who were 19-10 victors over Bath.

Amongst the players to have shown their readiness to make the step up are Jasper Wiese, the former Free State player, who has put in numerous storming displays from eighthman for Leicester and the 25-year-old is strongly tipped to be part of the Springbok squad.

There are two other loose forwards who have featured prominently in Europe this season in the shape of Hanro Liebenberg, the former Bulls captain who has also starred for Leicester, and his older brother Wiaan, who has been an effective ball-carrier for La Rochelle.

Nico Janse van Rensburg usually plays lock for Montpellier, but he turned out in the No.6 jersey in their semi-final and is making the most of his chances with the French club.

But it is the players who are already Springboks who will be most keenly watched come finals weekend.

Top of that list will be flyhalf Handre Pollard, who played for the first time in eight months when he came off the bench in the final quarter for Montpellier, and kicked a penalty to ensure victory.

Hooker Bismarck du Plessis, who won a couple of trademark turnovers, and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach also came off the bench for the French club, while Johan Goosen, who is heading for the Bulls at the end of the season, started at outside centre.

Cheslin Kolbe, whose hot-stepping feet dazzled once again in the semi-final, and utility forward Rynhardt Elstadt are the Springboks who have helped Toulouse to the final, while Dillyn Leyds and Raymond Rhule are two almost forgotten Springboks who have been key players in the La Rochelle backline.

South Africans in the European finalists’ squads

Leicester – Jasper Wiese, Cyle Brink, Luan de Bruin, Hanro Liebenberg, Jaco Taute, Kobus van Wyk.

Montpellier – Bismarck du Plessis, Johan Goosen, Henry Immelman, Nico Janse van Rensburg, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Jan Serfontein.

Toulouse – Cheslin Kolbe, Rynhardt Elstadt.

La Rochelle – Dllyn Leyds, Raymond Rhule, Wiaan Liebenberg.

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?”

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council on Wednesday approved the new constitution that embraces the governance recommendations of the Interim Board based on the Nicholson Report, which means the organisation can now move on to the process of choosing their new board made up of independent and non-independent directors.

The Interim Board on Wednesday clarified the process by which these directors will be appointed, disputing suggestions published by The Citizen that they have any knowledge of who the applicants to be independent directors are and that they play any role in drawing up a shortlist for the Nominations Committee.

The Nominations Committee should be in place later this week and that six-member panel will comprise either a men’s or women’s former international player nominated by SACA, alongside a former CSA president nominated by the Interim Board, a Members Council representative and people from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Directors and the Legal Practice Council.

“The Interim Board does not know who has applied and will not be involved in the nominations process other than recruiting one former CSA president to serve on the Nominations Committee. All the applications are under lock and key in the office and will be passed on directly from the office to the Nominations Committee as soon as they are in place,” Interim Board spokeswoman Judith February told The Citizen.

The planning for the long-delayed AGM of Cricket South Africa can now go ahead, with the election of the new board likely to happen around May 14, which is when the extended tenure of the Interim Board is set to end.

Interim Board chair Dr Stavros Nicolaou said he was looking forward to the focus now moving from the boardroom to the field of play.

“Cricket is now poised to move forward with a new governance structure. We look forward to taking the focus away from the boardroom and to the field of play, especially ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year. I would like to thank the Members’ Council for ensuring that this resolution is passed.

“We have now reached the stage where we can move to complete one of the outstanding issues of our mandate which is to hold the Annual General Meeting. We have kept Minister Nathi Mthethwa fully briefed on the latest developments,” Nicolaou said.

The Minister will hold a joint press conference with the Interim Board and the Members Council on Friday, at which the new Memorandum of Incorporation is expected to be made public as South African cricket finally starts to emerge from two years of poor leadership, in-fighting and enormous damage to its credibility.

Cricket South Africa’s Interim Board have clarified the process for the appointment of independent directors and, as long as the Members Council are still behaving like adults and have given the new MoI majority approval by 11am on Wednesday morning, what the new constitution says about the recruitment of new board members will be thoroughly explained to the public.

The Interim Board on Wednesday morning disputed suggestions published by The Citizen that they have any knowledge of who the applicants to be independent directors are and that they play any role in drawing up a shortlist for the Nominations Committee.

“The Interim Board does not know who has applied and will not be involved in the nominations process other than recruiting one former CSA president to serve on the Nominations Committee. All the applications are under lock and key in the office and will be passed on directly from the office to the Nominations Committee as soon as they are in place,” Interim Board spokeswoman Judith February told The Citizen.

The Interim Board hope to make the whole Memorandum of Incorporation public once the Special Resolution accepting it has been confirmed and will hold a briefing to take the media through the process thereafter.

The Nominations Committee also needs to be put in place later this week and that six-member panel will comprise either a men’s or women’s former international player nominated by SACA, alongside a former CSA president nominated by the Interim Board, a Members Council representative and people from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Directors and the Legal Practice Council.

“The Interim Board is certainly not going to be appointing the new board and according to our agreement with the sports minister, nobody from the Interim Board is going to be standing for the new board,” February added.