Ken Borland

The Bulls planted plenty of attacking seeds and the important ones bore fruit as they showed they remain one of the best sides in the United Rugby Championship at home, thumping Cardiff 45-9 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

Cardiff were certainly more competitive than the scoreline suggests, but they lacked the same ability to convert chances in the 22, while the Bulls also deserve credit for a stout defensive effort.

But it was the Bulls attack that will be the focus as they scored six tries to stay fourth on the URC log. Not every pass stuck for the Bulls though, there were plenty of handling errors, but they won comfortably just through the sheer number of chances the combination of strong forward carries and a dashing, inventive backline creates.

The Bulls took a while to find their flow and Cardiff were leading 6-3 as the half-hour approached through two Jarrod Evans penalties. But when the home side finally managed to hang on to possession for several phases, fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie combined superbly to send the wing over for the opening try. Their work in tandem was beautiful to watch right through the match.

Another Evans penalty meant the Bulls were only 10-9 ahead as halftime approached, but the home side made a crucial strike on the hooter as they won a scrum penalty, set the lineout and flyhalf Johan Goosen put Arendse over for the try.

The Bulls, leading 17-9 at the break, continued to gain great dividends from their combination of power and pace and flair in the second half.

Goosen split the defence and scored three minutes after halftime as the Bulls took firm control with a 24-9 lead. They were on the back foot for the next 15 minutes, but dug in in defence, with Cardiff’s maul a threat, but a weapon they failed to capitalise on through their own errors.

The Bulls then buried Cardiff in the final quarter with three more tries. Penetrative eighthman Elrigh Louw made big inroads off the back of a lineout, lock Ruan Nortje then crashing over for the try.

Arendse then produced a lovely little dink-kick over the top of the defensive line for Moodie to score his second try, while Louw scored a deserved try with three minutes remaining as he went over from a brilliantly-deceptive splinter-maul.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Canan Moodie (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw. Conversions – Goosen (5), Chris Smith. Penalty – Goosen.

Cardiff: Penalties – Jarrod Evans (3).

Former Proteas all-rounder and current Warriors coach Robin Peterson says he felt like he was one of the first Black players to be ‘planted’ in South African domestic cricket after unity and one of his first experiences was being called a “K…..” by his favourite cricketer growing up.

Peterson made his first-class debut in January 1999 for Eastern Province B and went on to play 183 franchise games for the Warriors, Cape Cobras and Knights, as well as representing South Africa in 15 Tests, 79 ODIs and 21 T20 Internationals.

“I was probably one of the first players of colour to be planted in the system, I say ‘planted’ because it felt like that. When I played for Eastern Province, there were only two players of colour in the team, myself and Garnett Kruger. We were in the minority, everyone else was White. And I was called the K-word in a provincial game years ago by someone who represented South Africa in a lot of Test matches.

“He was actually my hero growing up and I respected him, so it was a very sad thing. As one of the first generation of Black players, I didn’t have the confidence to put up a fuss, who do you go to, there were no protocols in place. But it made me angry and motivated, and I got a hundred in that game. He is no longer involved in cricket in South Africa, I don’t feel it’s necessary to go back into that space, I just feel pity for him. And I want to confront the issues of today and not dwell in the past,” Peterson said in a recent webinar for the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation on racism in cricket.

In his new role as coach of the Warriors, Peterson called for greater consultation when it came to transformation policies, which he called ‘outdated’. This year is the 22^nd anniversary of the establishment of Cricket South Africa’s transformation committee, while the decision to make the rapid Africanisation of cricket a priority is celebrating its seventh anniversary, and it is four years since the existing quota of six players of colour, three of which must be Black African, was implemented.

“As a coach now in the system, I find it very divisive and our policies on transformation are a bit outdated, calling each other Black Africans and Coloureds. Do they align with high-performance sport? I find it very difficult as coach to keep a united changeroom, all these silos just create more division. We are the people who implement the policy so we need to be consulted.

“We need a more collaborative and consultative approach because at the moment people are fighting each other in the changerooms. We want a united South Africa and the current policy does not reflect that. The coaches were never consulted and we have to implement it. We need 11 players of different skills, not just numbers like 6+3. The relevant people need to start being consulted,” Peterson said.

Like any good farmer who has planted his vegetables, cared for them carefully and patiently and then waits for a rich harvest, Hilton Moreeng believes the Proteas Women’s side is now ready to blossom as he begins another three-year stint in charge of the team.

Moreeng’s reappointment was confirmed on Wednesday, allowing the 42-year-old to continue the fine work he has done since 2012 in building a squad of talented youngsters into one of the best international teams. Under the former Free State wicketkeeper/batsman’s guidance, the Proteas have reached the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2014 and 2020 and the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017. And in those last two final-four appearances they have come perilously close to beating both England and Australia, the powerhouses of the women’s game.

“It’s a great privilege for me to be reappointed, it shows the confidence Cricket South Africa has in the work I’ve done. This team is coming of age and it’s time we started challenging for ICC silverware. I hope to improve the team further and as a coach I am learning every day and no two days are alike. We want to be a top-three team and we are making strides towards that.

“But we cannot be complacent because the international cricket environment changes every day and we have to keep working extremely hard. But the building blocks we have are very good and in terms of skills we are now one of the best teams. We’ve had to be very patient, we want to be number one in the world one day, that’s everyone’s ambition but it doesn’t happen overnight,” Moreeng said on Wednesday.

The Proteas Women’s first assignment once they return to action will hopefully be a triangular series in England with India in September, but the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand starting next February is their priority in the short-term.

“We knew our tour of New Zealand earlier this year would be crucial in our preparation and whitewashing them on home soil shows our skills and character. Now we are seven months from the World Cup and we will focus on that. But it will be a very important series in England because it might be our only chance for competitive cricket before the World Cup. We will be working hard on what we can improve as a team and CSA are making sure we have everything we need,” Moreeng said.

Part of that is investigating the feasibility of a professional domestic women’s league. But in the meantime CSA are focusing on beefing up the women’s high performance and academy programmes.

“We believe the Momentum Proteas can now challenge the top three regularly and the results in New Zealand and Australia earlier this year show the top leadership of Hilton and Dane van Niekerk [captain]. It’s very important to CSA that this team now moves forward over the next three years and I’m very confident we’ve made the right decision in reappointing Hilton.

“We need to grow and enhance the environment. Hilton has put in a lot of hard work to grow the team to where they are, and now he has the opportunity to take them even further. He can grow them to another level and having a proper women’s league is an area of focus for us. A lot more investment has been put into the women’s pipeline and we are looking to strengthen that,” director of cricket Graeme Smith said.