Ken Borland

Staying calm under pressure is probably the most necessary attribute needed to succeed at the highest level of sport and Marais Erasmus always gave the impression when he was umpiring out in the middle that he was in full possession of his faculties and emotions.

Getting 94% of your decisions correct – the general benchmark for being on the International Cricket Council’s Elite Panel of umpires – requires great composure and equanimity, as well as the ability to maintain credibility and authority in the highly-charged arena of the game at its pinnacle.

They are the qualities that Erasmus was most known for during his 16-and-a-half years as an international umpire. As renowned Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle says in the Foreword to the biography Telford Vice has written on the South African umpire – Marais Erasmus: The Rock ‘n Roll Years – “Apart from everything else, umpires, like doctors, must radiate confidence and a sense of calm. Marais Erasmus had that. When he walked out on to the field, you felt secure. You knew you were in safe hands.”

While the former Boland bowling all-rounder’s ‘bedside manner’ was imperturbable, Erasmus himself says it is a bit of an illusion.

“I didn’t set out to have a straight face all the time, and I did struggle sometimes not to show my emotions. But I couldn’t give away to the players that I was shitting myself, they do pick up that sort of thing.

“I just tried to apply the laws, even though sometimes a law is controversial. There are some grey areas in cricket, although less so than in rugby. I think it helps immensely to have been a former player, although it’s not a given that if you played good cricket you will become a good umpire – there are lots of other skills involved.

“Simon Taufel was one of the best umpires ever and he didn’t play first-class cricket, so potential umpires shouldn’t be discouraged if they didn’t play to a high level. But at the Elite level, on average 10 of the 12 on the ICC panel will have played first-class cricket, a lot of them have played international cricket. In South Africa, about 40% of our umpires are former first-class players. It means you’ve been in pressure situations before, the players will accept you more and that gives you confidence,” the former Boland flyhalf/fullback says.

The cricket world changed dramatically while Erasmus was progressing from a player who retired in 1996/97 to making his international debut as an umpire in 2006, standing in his first Test in 2010. In that time, the television umpire has become crucial, and the IPL arrived, making India the global superpower of the game. But, unfortunately, India have also not been shy to exert a “Might Is Right” philosophy on cricket and they are used to getting what they want. Which included not using DRS for their games until the absence of it had burned them too often.

Hostile crowds are matched by over-stimulated players like Virat Kohli, who occasionally lose their impulse control. One of India’s greatest captains infamously shouted into the stump-mics at Newlands in January 2022, accusing broadcasters SuperSport and the umpires of bias. Erasmus was standing in that match alongside compatriot Adrian Holdstock due to the Covid pandemic and the difficulties it caused in terms of international travel.

Erasmus had to give Sachin Tendulkar out lbw in his debut Test, thankfully not in India, where international cricket’s leading run-scorer is literally considered to be a god. These are also the days of social media allowing millions of people to dissect and criticise every decision. The officials can be crucified in the court of public opinion should they get the wrong decision wrong at the wrong time. Just think of how we South Africans curse referee Bryce Lawrence to this day for giving David Pocock free rein in the breakdowns during the 2011 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal.

So Erasmus experienced pressure right from the outset and his ability to handle it saw him appointed to the middle for seven World Cup finals across the formats, including the greatest of them all, the 2019 finale’ at Lord’s when England and New Zealand tied and England won the super over.

“Virat was like some of the kids when I was teaching. You give him Ritalin in the morning and you’ll have a good day. But sometimes by second break it’s gone … But we had a good relationship. David Warner is a dangerous man because he doesn’t understand when he’s being stupid and Ricky Ponting always wanted to fight with umpires,” Erasmus says.

Nathan Lyon is someone Erasmus singles out as a favourite, the Australian off-spinner saying on a live television interview that “Marais is a great man and an even better umpire,” when former captain Mark Taylor asked pointed questions about decisions that did not go their way.

Ben Stokes is another who Erasmus found to be likeable and the recently-retired England captain was, of course, pivotal in that 2019 World Cup final.

“Ben is one of my favourites. When you go to a team’s practice, some of the players ignore you but others come up to you. Ben would always ask how the last few months have been, how’s your family? He’s a good human being, although he has got himself in trouble and been through some fires on occasion.”

The details of the drama of the overthrows off Stokes’s arm and the full explanation as to why England were credited with an extra run they shouldn’t have been, are all in the book. Typically, Erasmus does not shy away from accountability.

“The overthrow incident was just a mistake. Kumar Dharmasena and I looked at each other and said ‘Six? Yeah’. Rod Tucker, the TV umpire, asked over the comms whether it was six and Peter Manuel, who was our umpires coach, was trying to explain that where the ball was released was crucial. But that was impossible for me to see.

“Part of the romance of our sport is that the umpires are not without blemish. The only way to survive as an umpire is not to dwell on your wrong decisions. Our coaches used to tell us to park them; my one New Zealand colleague then said ‘but my parking lot is full’.”

In Marais Erasmus: The Rock ‘n Roll Years, the subject brings that same voice of reason and gentle humour to corruption in cricket, the rise of technology and the many memorable Ashes clashes he was involved with.

The Sharks stumbled through the first half of their United Rugby Championship match against the Dragons in Newport as if in a trance, turning over possession and making basic handling errors, so coach Sean Everitt was delighted that they showed the character to still snatch victory in the end.

The Sharks were 12-6 down at halftime and then conceded the opening try to go 19-6 down seven minutes into the second half, but they roused themselves in the final quarter to snatch a fortuitous 20-19 win.

“I’m very happy with the result and very proud of the character the team showed. The discipline in the second half, when we were under pressure, was really good and I thought we thoroughly deserved the win in the end,” Everitt said.

“The first half was disappointing and we just couldn’t get our attack flowing because the Dragons put us under a lot of pressure at the breakdown. Their international loose trio really hurt us and forced us into errors.

“But after a chat at halftime, the guys came out firing and stuck to their task very well,” Everitt said.

The Sharks coach credited scrumhalf Grant Williams’ 62^nd-minute intercept try with giving the team the belief to come back, and also praised the bench for taking their play to another level.

“Grant’s intercept try midway through the second half was a game-changer because it gave us belief,” Everitt said.

“And I must also credit the subs for changing the game, particularly Sikhumbuzo Notshe, who set up the try for us to go ahead.”

Replacement flank Notshe made the line-break that allowed backline substitute Marnus Potgieter to send wing Thaakir Abrahams speeding over for the try that lifted the Sharks into a 20-19 lead after flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain managed to slot an excellent conversion, his fourth consecutive successful kick.

The Sharks now travel to Dublin to take on log-leaders Leinster on Saturday, very happy and relieved to have come away from Newport with a win, but they are clearly going to have to be much more accurate against the Irish powerhouses, who are looking for revenge after a shock silverware-less 2021/22 season.

First-half frustrations

The Springboks put on a wretched first-half display as they returned to playing in front of a capacity crowd at home. And they only grew more frustrated as the Wales pack, splendidly cohesive and determined, stymied their rolling mauls and stood up in the collisions. The home side barely fired a shot despite enjoying enough territory and possession. The maul – largely nullified by Wales – and speculative kicks seemed to be their only attacking weapons.

Elton Jantjies had a particularly poor time. His kicks out of hand were often miscued, including one penalty that went touch-in-goal. He also missed a couple of shots at goal and spilled the ball that led to Rees-Zammit’s second try.

Wales, on the other hand, were clinical in punishing whatever mistakes the Springboks made in their own half, with rampant wing Louis Rees-Zammit scoring twice.

Back from the dead, impetus from the bench

Trailing 3-18 at halftime and wondering where their next points would come from, the Springboks certainly came out with fire in their bellies, no doubt after a roasting from coach Jacques Nienaber.

Their maul was revitalised thanks to greater purpose, but especially because they introduced some variation with peels off the side to split the Welsh defence.

Willie le Roux had replaced Elton Jantjies from the start of the second half and brought some direction to the backline. But the real difference came up front where the bomb squad forwards came on and smashed. The lift in intensity was palpable and debutant Elrigh Louw made a storming run into the shadow of the poles to help set up Cheslin Kolbe’s crucial try.

Dependable Damian, desperate Dan

With Jantjies off, South Africa did not really have an ace goalkicker on the field for the second half, but Damian Willemse stepped up admirably. Solid in general play at fullback and then rotating well with Le Roux at flyhalf, as well as providing some slick attacking touches, Willemse kicked two conversions, including one from the touchline, which was crucial in a tight game.

Never mind his moment of glory, stepping up to take the angled penalty after the final hooter that won the game and spared the Springboks’ blushes after they conceded a maul try to a pack that had two forwards in the sin-bin.

This year has seen the talented Willemse blossom as a highly dependable performer.

Wales captain Dan Biggar, by comparison, had an evening that rivalled Jantjies’ for awfulness. He seemed to be having a running battle through the match with the Springboks and the referee, was yellow-carded in the second half, and then it was his deliberate knock-on which gave South Africa their matchwinning penalty.

Wiese: Prim and powerful

Eighthman Jasper Wiese was a deserved man of the match. One of the few Springboks to shine in their disjointed first half, he was a phenomenal ball-carrier, averaging four metres per carry, and made some crunching tackles. It was also most pleasing that all his ferocity did not come at the cost of his discipline. Wiese has conceded several penalties in the past, but on Saturday night he was prim and proper and kept his nose clean.

Having staged a stirring comeback to level the scores at 27-27, the Sharks were meant to keep possession and force a penalty in the final stages of their nailbiting United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, coach Sean Everitt said.

They were also meant to avoid giving the Bulls the ball in their own 22. Sadly for the Sharks, they failed to do both things and the Bulls snatched victory with an 84^th-minute drop goal.

“The team is hurting and extremely disappointed,” a gutted Everitt said. “But I am proud of their effort and character. There were just a couple of soft moments, which were disappointing.

“At the end the result could have gone either way and we could have had a bit more fortune in the last five minutes. The plan was to hold on to the ball, put them under pressure and try to earn a penalty.

“We believed we could win, we showed tremendous character and never gave up. But our execution just needed to be a bit better. Things like that last pass just not going to hand.

“And we spoke about discipline and not giving the Bulls the ball in our 22, which is exactly what we did. They are clinical there and they have the best completion rate inside the 22 in the competition,” Everitt said.

The coach said he believes that if he mends a couple of things before next season, the Sharks can go all the way in 2022/23.

“If you look at where we have improved, the set-piece has come on a lot. But our balance on the field has improved too – now we can use our set-piece and we can score tries.

“We put ourselves in position to score tries today and there is no question about the character, culture or team environment because they showed their pride today.

“We just need to fix the rugby side and we especially need to work on the attacking breakdown. We gave the Bulls field position from there, it was a problem against Ulster and in our two previous games against the Bulls,” Everitt said.

By scoring twice in the final quarter to come back from 13-27 down, the Sharks showed their attack is plenty dangerous when it clicks. Phepsi Buthelezi is developing into a top-class ball-in-hand eighthman to provide the link to a backline in which wing Makazole Mapimpi was a threat throughout.

People should not run pell-mell to the conclusion that this is a poorly-coached Sharks team.

“I suppose if you look at Springboks and World Cup winners then we do have a lot of them and they can be proud of their effort. We played some really good rugby.

“I actually enjoyed watching the game even though my blood pressure was probably through the roof. We got the ball through the hands on a couple of occasions and looked really dangerous.

“Under-performance is a broad topic and rugby has a lot of variables. At times we’ve not played as well as we would have liked, and there are certain aspects of our game that need to be worked on.

“Obviously there are things to improve, and they are all fixable. The team has done exceptionally well and they want to play for the jersey,” Everitt said.