Ken Borland

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was a bit crabby over the ill-discipline his team showed in the first half, but otherwise he pronounced himself satisfied with the way they had gone in the first Test against Georgia at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

A string of penalties in the first quarter allowed Georgia to lead 9-5 and denied the Springboks much momentum. But once they gave themselves a foothold in the game with two tries in the last five minutes of the first half, they took a firm grip on the game in a rock-solid second half that saw South Africa ultimately win 40-9.

“The discipline was poor in the first half, but you have to credit Georgia as well because they put us under pressure until the back end of the first half. We all knew they would bring physicality but they caught us a little bit in the first 20 minutes. But that’s exactly why we were desperate to play a Test, we wanted a nice physical battle and we couldn’t have asked for better opposition for that.

“With no marker because we haven’t played for 20 months, it was difficult to know where we are at, but now we have a starting point. I don’t have worries but obviously we will work on the things that aren’t good and we probably have to improve in everything. We saw a notable change, what we wanted to see, in the second half when we imposed our game-plan on them more,” Nienaber said after his debut Test as head coach.

It was the Springbok forwards who bore the brunt of the responsibility for softening up the Georgians and captain Siya Kolisi said he was happy with the way his team responded.

“We didn’t hold back but we did not start as well as we wanted, we couldn’t get our maul and scrum going at the start, which is most important for us, we will never hide away from the set-pieces being important for us. Our discipline let us down too. But we wanted the same 2019 physicality and to be the Warriors, do the things that don’t require talent, that’s what we wanted to see today.

“We knew what Georgia are capable of and it was most important that we beat them and we responded well in the second half. But we need better discipline and we want to impose ourselves on the opposition more as individuals. We responded well but we still left a couple of opportunities out there,” Kolisi said.

A marvellous unbeaten century by Aiden Markram lifted the Titans from some otherwise mediocre batting on the first day of their 4-Day Domestic Series match against the Warriors in Centurion, taking the home side to 272 for six at stumps.

On a day that was shortened by a wet outfield in the morning and then bad light in the afternoon, Markram batted through to a classy 149 not out, a boundary-laden innings with 27 fours and a six off just 189 deliveries.

The Titans had been sent in to bat and struggled initially against the Warriors seamers, slipping to 66 for three before a focused Markram added 82 for the fourth wicket with Sibonelo Makhanya (26). Playing with much good judgement, the Proteas hopeful was watchful but ruthless in putting the bad ball away, his driving being especially easy on the eye, and he and Rivaldo Moonsamy (35) then put on 92 for the sixth wicket for the Titans to claim the first-day honours.

Mthiwekhaya Nabe was the best of the Warriors bowlers, taking three for 77, including the prized wicket of Dean Elgar (20) caught behind off an awkward lifting delivery.

At the Wanderers, Sisanda Magala took five wickets on his Imperial Lions debut to have the Knights in terrible trouble before the visitors rallied to reach 291 for nine at stumps.

Sent in to bat, the Knights were a parlous 121 for five before Grant Mokoena showed great determination for his team as he dug in to score a five-and-a-half hour 50 to turn the tide along with Farhaan Behardien (35) and skipper Shaun von Berg (27).

Fast bowler Migael Pretorius then punished his former team to the tune of 73 not out off just 91 balls, stroking 11 boundaries, as he and Gerald Coetzee (27) added 54 in 12 overs against some wayward Lions bowling.

Magala showed he will fit in very well at the bouncy, pace-friendly Wanderers as he took five for 57 in 14.2 overs.

At Kingsmead, the obduracy of opener Senuran Muthusamy and the flashing blade of Dolphins captain Marques Ackerman dominated the day, before the Cape Cobras were unable to capture the key wicket of Khaya Zondo.

Muthusamy, promoted to open after wicketkeeper Grant Roelofsen scored just 3 runs in his four innings at the top of the order, defied the Cobras attack for nearly five-and-a-half hours, doing a fine job after the Dolphins were sent in to bat.

Muthusamy scored 79 off 245 deliveries, adding 99 for the third wicket with Ackerman, who cruised to 66 off 86 balls before once again falling to a loss of concentration when well set, top-edging a pull off medium-pacer Aviwe Mgijima to mid-off.

But Zondo dominated the late afternoon, stroking an entertaining 60 not out to take the Dolphins to 277 for five and he will obviously be the key man on Tuesday with the Dolphins having all-rounder Ruan de Swardt at the wicket with him and the stubborn Prenelan Subrayen to come.

WorldRugby may have this week opened a window for the Rugby Championship to take place in New Zealand between November 7 and December 12, but the situation is still far from ideal for South African participation. But commercial imperatives dictate that the Springboks simply have to find a way to get over there and play, otherwise SA Rugby will suffer devastating financial losses.

It is the Sanzaar competitions that bring in the bulk of South African rugby’s revenues and with SuperRugby having been scrapped after just half-a-dozen rounds, it is the Rugby Championship that needs to save the broadcast deals through providing some live content.

As SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said recently, the Rugby Championship is a very expensive competition to run, but the broadcast revenues are significant enough that the commercial value compels Sanzaar to continue the event. The difference between revenues and expenses is the reason SA Rugby can use the Rugby Championship to cross-subsidise several other competitions.

One of those competitions is the Currie Cup, which used to be an event of industrial proportions in South African rugby, the envy of the world. Sadly SA Rugby has over the years allowed the jewel in their crown, their most valuable property after the Springboks, to fade into relative insignificance.

But the imminent demise of SuperRugby is likely to bring a resurgence in domestic competition and a Currie Cup style tournament this year is going to play a crucial role in the Springboks returning to action; hopefully that local action will continue to be a focus in 2021 and beyond.

Even though playing in Europe seems to be the big prize at the moment, and private equity investors in our franchises are already saying this is essential for them to get a return on their money, hopefully SA Rugby will still put energy and resources into having a strong purely local competition.

In the meantime, the top eight teams in South Africa are going to play a tournament later this year to at least get rugby back on the go locally. Apart from providing some content for SuperSport, who pour millions into the game, those eight teams are also going to play a vital role in getting the Springboks ready for action.

With New Zealand and Australia already back playing rugby for half-a-dozen weeks and South African players realistically only returning to action in mid-September, there have been understandable concerns expressed that the Springboks are going to be on a hiding to nothing if the Rugby Championship is played this year, being so far behind in terms of preparation. There have been angry mutters about their World Cup win being tarnished.

But the reality of the situation is that even if the Springboks are going to disappoint in terms of on-field results, they simply have to return to action and our television screens, it is a financial imperative. And they have played for financial reasons before, most recently when they lost to Wales in Washington in June 2018.

New Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has said a squad of 45 players are going to have to travel to New Zealand and quarantine before entering their bio-bubble, and there have even been complaints from local coaches that that will decimate their provincial squads. As is often the case in South African rugby, the unions are going to need a reminder that they are there to serve the national cause, any local competition this year is mostly about getting the Springboks ready for action.

Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos certainly knows the value of the Springbok brand and last weekend he was stressing the importance of them returning to international action before the end of the year. And as we saw at last year’s World Cup, in which they were certainly underdogs, the ability to rise above the obstacles in their path is a great property of the Springboks.

“By no means will the playing field be level, but the Springbok side have a deep, steely resolve, and I know Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber will optimise whatever time they have to be as competitive as possible,” Marinos said.

Nienaber says the players in the Springbok squad need at least six games beforehand in order to be able to play in the Rugby Championship. They are unlikely to get much more than six matches unless rugby somehow resumes later this month, but at least they will be going to New Zealand feeling fresh.

And there is a large gap between the Rugby Championship kicking off and the end of SuperRugby Aotearoa and SuperRugby Australia. The New Zealand competition ends on August 16, with no final, while the Australian final will be held on September 19. Whoever handles the double-edged sword of rust versus fatigue best will have a large advantage, and I wouldn’t write off the Springboks just yet.

A single miss in an otherwise top-class kicking display by Pat Lambie cost the Sharks victory as they went down 26-28 to the Reds in their opening SuperRugby match in Brisbane on Friday.

Lambie missed a penalty three minutes from full-time that would have snatched a fortuitous victory, given that a Reds team that played with 14 men for 20 minutes outscored them by four tries to two.

With Lambie earlier kicking six-from-six, the Sharks enjoyed a 26-18 lead with 16 minutes remaining, but a poor finish to the game saw them concede two tries.

The Sharks made a great start with a try in the second minute when the Reds were throwing passes around and flyhalf Quade Cooper dropped the ball, outside centre Lukhanyo Am pounced and a quick interchange with wing Kobus van Wyk then put flank Jean-Luc du Preez away to storm over the tryline.

Lambie’s conversion made it 7-0, but the Sharks were unable to threaten the Reds’ tryline again in the first half, largely because they had to make do with a tiny proportion of possession, their failure to hang on to the ball for long periods meaning they had to do most of the defending.

Cooper and Lambie traded two penalties each to make the score 13-6 at the half-hour, but Van Wyk then turned village idiot and tried to take a quick lineout inside his own 22, an isolated Curwin Bosch conceding a scrum. The Reds forwards drove strongly and eighthman Scott Higginbotham dotted down through the pile of bodies for the home side’s opening try, Cooper’s conversion levelling the scores at 13-13.

Lambie snuck a penalty in the last-minute of the first half, thanks to lock Ruan Botha twice putting great pressure on Reds scrumhalf Nick Frisby, for the Sharks to lead 16-13 at the break, and the visitors showed hitherto unseen control in the opening exchanges of the second half, dominating territory and hanging on to the ball much better.

Lambie succeeded with a 43^rd-minute penalty to stretch the lead to 19-13, but Queensland centre Samu Kerevi struck back with the first of his two tries six minutes later.

Running with great power and awareness, he burst through a gap between scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and Am, to score after the Reds chose a scrum under the shadow of the poles instead of a kick at goal. Cooper failed with an easy conversion attempt, which allowed the Sharks to hang on to a slender one-point lead.

With referee Nick Briant suddenly remembering that there is no tolerance for neck-tackles this season, Reds lock Kane Douglas was yellow-carded for pulling at Beast Mtawarira’s neck in the 57^th minute.

With a lot of the Reds muscle gone, the Sharks understandably went for rolling mauls when awarded penalties, but there was no accuracy in their first couple of attempts, but eventually eighthman Tera Mtembu rumbled over in the 61^st minute after the Queenslanders disintegrated.

Lambie converted for a 26-18 lead, but they were to score no further points as they seemed to lack a clear plan in the final quarter.

Kerevi is a particular threat in this Reds side and he muscled over from close range again in the 64^th minute, but the killer blow was landed by his midfield partner Duncan Paia’aua, who ran an excellent line back inside, cutting straight through before replacement scrumhalf James Tuttle finished strongly.

The result was a sharp reminder to the Sharks of the accuracy that is required to win overseas – they simply made too many errors in discipline and decision-making, although a losing bonus point was some reward for the competitiveness they showed.

Mtawarira was full of energy in the front row, Du Preez was a force with ball-in-hand and Am was exciting at times in the backline, but the overall Sharks performance was not good enough to earn victory.

Scorers

Reds – Tries: Scott Higginbotham, Samu Kerevi (2), James Tuttle. Conversion: Quade Cooper. Penalties: Cooper (2).

Sharks – Tries: Jean-Luc du Preez, Tera Mtembu. Conversions: Pat Lambie (2). Penalties: Lambie (4).

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-rugby/1438777/clumsy-sharks-fluff-their-lines-at-vital-moments/