Ken Borland

Sharks coach Sean Everitt is known for his backing of young players, but he has also ensured the acquisition of some wise old heads to impart their wisdom like a herbal infusion spreading its aromas through Kings Park.

On the playing front, the well-travelled, 32-year-old flyhalf Lionel Cronje was acquired on loan from Toyota Verblitz, and highly-rated former Leinster Academy boss Noel McNamara was appointed as attack and backs coach, with world-renowned defence guru John McFarland also proving to be a big hit in Durban.

“A guy like Noel has a great impact, he’s really vibrant, he has good energy and he works closely with the players. He’s really clear with what is expected and when the Sharks go to the Northern Hemisphere, it’s going to be great to have a guy in the camp who has such insight into the conditions, who has that background. He’s really adding value for the younger guys.

“And John has won five Currie Cups and is very passionate about South African rugby. He’s a really good defence coach and we’ve improved that side of our game over the last couple of weeks. He knows what he wants and I worked with him before in 2012,” Cronje, who played five matches for the Bulls, said.

“And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience of coming back to the Sharks as they develop an exciting new culture. I’m just trying to pass on my experience and add value to the very talented youngsters in the group. The Sharks want to play an exciting and captivating brand of rugby that allows the players to flourish and Sean is a very positive coach.

“I worked with him when I was here before and he wants the players to express themselves. Hopefully we can keep building on that. But it’s been really exciting for me to challenge myself here in the latter part of my career and I’m also trying to add some leadership support. There’s stuff I’ve learnt abroad – we have a lot of New Zealand coaches in Japan,” Cronje, who previously played 23 times for the Sharks in 2014/15, said.

One youngster Cronje mentioned as having a germ of greatness in him is fellow flyhalf Curwin Bosch.

“There is a ton of talent in Curwin, we just need to keep backing him. He’s very aware of the areas of his game he needs to be working on, but he’s a great talent. He’s a phenomenal kicker and he has attacking ability second-to-none. There’s no reason why he should not become a household name at Springbok level. I’ve really enjoyed playing with him.

“Curwin’s only 24, but we are so spoilt for talent in South Africa and the fans are so critical, they expect a certain level of play at 21 years old. But we need to keep trusting his talent to develop and, as a player, it’s nice to get four or five games in a row under the belt, that’s how you get rhythm and start understanding the game-plan,” Cronje said.

Bulls coach Jake White says the Lions team they will meet at Ellis Park on Saturday are a dangerous try-scoring force because of a mix of returning to their old way of playing and the open nature of the Currie Cup this year.

The Lions have climbed to fourth on the log and have scored four tries in four of their seven matches, including 12 tries in their last two games. It has been reminiscent of the triumphant era under former coach Johan Ackermann between 2013 and 2017, when they dominated South African rugby with their expansive style and fluent attacking play.

“Looking at where the Lions are on the log, I have no doubt that they will try and score as many tries as they can. They are the one team who has really troubled us before our last game at Loftus three weeks ago and we struggled in our last match at Ellis Park in May. But as long as we are aware of the challenge, we should be okay.

“I think having guys like Warren Whiteley and Julian Redelinghuys involved in the coaching, the Lions will play like they used to. I am sure they are pushing that style of play because they had massive success with that as players. But the competition itself is also going like that with referees being very strict on certain aspects that create more space.

“That allows teams to have more of a go and the conditions we’re playing in – in the afternoon – it’s like school rugby, at the best time of day. So it’s not only the Lions scoring a lot of tries, ball-in-play time is up to 36-38 minutes and that shows the tempo of the games, the pace and the skill levels. It’s nice for everyone,” White said on Friday.

Nevertheless, White has decided to make nine changes to his starting line-up for the match and is confident he can get full value out of swapping his bench players and his starters from the weekend win over Griquas.

“You always want the best players on the park, but I’m comfortable these guys will bring energy. Hopefully we can use the bench wisely, they are there if we need them, or we can even spare them if the starters have played well enough. We have a nice fresh team which is important because we could have 12 consecutive weeks of play later on.

“We don’t want to get caught short in two months time with injuries and having to select players who have not played enough. I rate all the guys coming in very highly, they are very good rugby players, and you don’t only want to give them a chance when the game is already won. The end of the game is different because there’s more fatigue. We want to grow our depth and confidence,” White said.

Bulls team – 15-David Kriel, 14-Madosh Tambwe, 13-Lionel Mapoe, 12-Harold Vorster, 11-Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10-Chris Smith, 9-Keagan Johannes, 8-WJ Steenkamp, 7-Muller Uys, 6-Arno Botha, 5-Janko Swanepoel, 4-Walt Steenkamp, 3-Jacques van Rooyen, 2-Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 1-Simphiwe Matanzima. Replacements: 16-Schalk Erasmus, 17-Gerhard Steenekamp, 18-Mornay Smith, 19-Ruan Nortje, 20-Elrigh Louw, 21-Zak Burger, 22-Johan Goosen, 23-Stedman Gans.

There is no denying that the death overs of an ODI, with set batsmen at the crease, are a daunting time to be bowling, but as the old saying goes, diamonds are created under pressure and the Proteas could do with unearthing a gem soon.

The death bowling has been a perpetual problem for the Proteas and it was once again their achilles heel in the second ODI against Ireland in Dublin, with the home side lashing 95 runs in the last eight overs on their way to a shock 43-run victory, their first ever against South Africa.

The third and final ODI will be played at the same Malahide venue on Friday and the Proteas have to win to avoid arguably their most embarrassing series defeat ever. And, judging by his comments after the second game, captain Temba Bavuma has lost patience with the bowlers who have failed to execute the plan.

Changes in personnel are likely on Friday and Lizaad Williams, the Titans seamer who has been in fine form in domestic white-ball cricket, looks likely to be included for the decider. The 27-year-old has shown in the Momentum One-Day Cup that he has good accuracy and, in the four T20 Internationals he has played, he stayed aggressive and looked up for the intensity of the game at the highest level.

“Temba probably has reason to be upset because the team did not perform well. The last 10 overs went for more than a hundred runs and the death bowling was something we spoke long and hard about in the West Indies. But now we find ourselves in the same situation again. So we’re looking at making a few changes. Lizaad is definitely in the picture.

“He’s been doing well, he’s a skiddy bowler and he brings different skills. In the middle overs we want to be bowling wicket-to-wicket, but at the death I just think the game-plans have not been executed. Maybe the guys are trying too many things, perhaps they have too many different balls in their arsenal and maybe we should be telling them to just limit themselves to a couple,” bowling coach Charl Langeveldt said on Thursday.

Langeveldt also agreed that the Proteas needed to take more wickets up front, with Ireland’s openers batting through the 10-over powerplay in both matches so far. He hinted that the policy of playing the best team for every game might also be under review.

“Our plan is to take wickets up front, squeeze in the middle and then hopefully you’re bowling to all-rounders and bowlers at the end of the innings. We’ve spoken long and hard about taking wickets up front, applying pressure and then it becomes much easier to bowl in the middle when the opposition don’t have set batsmen and new guys can’t just come in and play.

“A lot of other teams use different players for the different formats and maybe we can do that a bit better. It can be hard changing from hard Test lengths to T20 cricket, that’s not an excuse, but maybe we can use fresh players, with fresh minds, more. But then again our bowlers won the T20 series for us in the West Indies, they bowled well there,” Langeveldt mused.

Nollis Marais and Pine Pienaar are old friends who have been up and down the Bulls’ coaching structures ever since they arrived at Loftus Versfeld in 2011, but now they have been reunited on the SuperRugby coaching team as director of rugby Jake White announced his overhaul of the senior staff on Wednesday.

Marais was the Bulls’ head coach in 2016-17, a period marked by poor results and an even worse working relationship with high performance manager Xander Janse van Rensburg, who has subsequently been investigated for fraud and corruption. Marais was demoted when John Mitchell arrived at Loftus, but White has now elevated the man with probably the best junior rugby record in the country to the new position of dedicated breakdown specialist for the Bulls SuperRugby team and all sides representing the union.

Pienaar has been the Bulls’ defence coach but has now been shifted to the role of technical advisor, with Joey Mongalo, a former Bulls Currie Cup player, taking up the defence role he fulfilled at the Lions under both Johan Ackermann and Swys de Bruin.

“Teams have always had consultants or forwards coaches addressing the breakdown as part of their broader roles. This will become a key focus area for us going forward, especially with the breakdown laws being changed.

“It also speaks to the type of rugby we will be looking to play. Nollis has been around the block and knows exactly what we need. I have no doubt that he is the perfect man for this job,” White said in a statement released by the Bulls on Wednesday.

White had previously announced the appointment of Russell Winter, formerly with the Lions and Stormers as the forwards coach, and former Springbok flyhalf Chris Rossouw will continue as backline coach.

The Bulls have released Daan Human, who helped turn Lizo Gqoboka and Trevor Nyakane into one of the best propping pairs in SuperRugby last year, to the Springboks and White said a new scrum coach would be announced “in the near future”.

CJ van der Linde, who played 75 Tests for South Africa and was a member of White’s 2007 World Cup winning Springbok squad, and subsequently coached with him at Montpellier, is favoured to replace Human.

In the last week the Bulls have also boosted their playing resources by confirming the return of Springbok wing Travis Ismaiel and the signing of talented youngsters in former Western Province hooker Schalk Erasmus and Walt Steenkamp, a 2.03m, 121kg lock who has played for both the North-West Leopards and the Free State Cheetahs.