Ken Borland

Q: Having lost the first Test in a three-match series, is the pressure now not squarely on the Springboks heading into Saturday’s second Test?

RE – Well if we win this one then the Lions must win the last one. At the World Cup, we lost to the All Blacks and we had to win our next six matches. But we are definitely the team under pressure. We were very focused last week, trying to regain the positive vibe from the World Cup and we did not say too much. The Lions were a bit the opposite. I think this week has been a bit different, our backs are against the wall. Fortunately we only have the one big injury to Ox Nche. We were always going to be a bit underdone because the second Test against Georgia was cancelled. I think with another game behind us now and a 6/2 split on the bench, we will have the wind to go the full 80 minutes. We still have the bulk of the 30 players who won the World Cup available, but in saying that, the Lions have shown they have a really competitive squad, their pack has got grunt, their backs have vision and attacking skill, and there are good touches all over that team.

Q: How tough were your preparations for the first Test with all the Covid cases?

RE – It was important how we integrated the players coming back because they were returning one or two at a time as they were released from isolation; 70-80% of the players we were happy with, but 20-30% needed really good management. Plus we had our defence and attack coaches unavailable. Because the guys who were positive had to spend seven days in their hotel rooms we lost one week of training and one warm-up match. It was disruptive but many coaches have had to go through that in the last 18 months. Even though you don’t go totally to pieces and lose shape in a week, some players just slotted in but others needed more time to get their engines going. We definitely have to manage the mental wellbeing and welfare of our players. The Lions are the big thing for us this season, but from the next weekend after the series we have two Tests against Argentina and then eight weeks in Australasia, three weeks off and then the end-of-year tour to Europe.

Q: What did you make of the British and Irish Lions’ objection to South African Marius Jonker being the TMO?

RE – It’s a difficult one and I was a bit baffled when Marius was appointed, but it could not be helped due to Covid. We are close friends but I made a point of not phoning him before the match because being appointed so suddenly must have been a tough thing for him. But for the Lions to point out that he is South African did not sit well with me. When New Zealand and Australia played each other last year in the Rugby Championship, they had referees from the host country, that’s the way it is with Covid.

If Ben O’Keeffe does not give us a decision we want on Saturday, we would never say it’s because he’s a New Zealander and Warren Gatland also comes from New Zealand. I learnt when I was younger and said a bit too much about referees, it comes back to bite you.

Q: You have posted a few clips to social media of decisions you felt went against you, has the series now become a battle in the media almost as much as on the field?

RE – I’ve also learnt that if you talk in the media too much it also tends to backfire on you. But then Warren Gatland – who is a great guy – spoke a lot about Marius Jonker last week, which was weird going into a Test. We would never say Warren Gatland is a New Zealander and the referee is one as well. The referee has only got one pair of eyes, but if you are analysing things he is supposed to see then you are still upholding his integrity.

Q: On those social media tweets, are you Jaco Johan and why did you go public with the clips?

RE – I’m not Jaco Johan but I do follow him, he’s a big supporter of the Springboks and he feeds us good clips. He’s a really funny guy and I enjoy what he does, he’s often spot-on, like other guys I have followed and retweeted like SquidgeRugby. I just retweeted two or three of his really accurate tweets and sent two of my own tweets. The one was because our medical department and the BokSmart safety programme they run, tells us that the way Cheslin Kolbe was just picked up off the ground when he could have had a serious injury was very dangerous. We teach our primary school players that’s not how you treat players, you leave the guy on the ground. I wouldn’t want our Springboks to be picking up every Lions player that’s lying on the ground.

Q: If you were unhappy with the outcome of the Test, did you complain through the official channels?

RE – No, the Lions deserved to win. We tried to go through official channels on Sunday with some queries about decisions, we sent through clips, but we only got an answer from WorldRugby on Tuesday morning. So that’s disruptive when there are things you are trying to rectify and you want guidance on things you can fix. They said the officiating was the same as in the Six Nations. But we only had one training session left by the time they got back to us, we might still be able to incorporate a couple of things.

Q:This week former England and British and Irish Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward, in his column for the Daily Mail saidyoushould “butt out” because you are“taking over again” and the “confusion at the top and a lack of demarcation between the roles of director of rugby … and … national team coach … is killing the Springboks”. What do you think of those comments?

RE – “I’m not sure Clive Woodward is so important in South Africa, but Jacques Nienaber and I are great mates, we’ve worked a lot together since our days in the military back in 1990. I’m the water-carrier now, so he’s got a higher rank than me now, that makes him my boss at the moment. If we had scored that try in the 71^st minute then people would say the relationship is working perfectly. Jacques’ job is the coaching, my job is to get the structure right, make sure we are given a fair chance, get through the Covid protocols and make sure players are available. I also need to inform people what is going on. And I help with the coaching plan and I carry water. The important thing is that all the players are now back on the park and training every day this week.

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.

It was a messy, messy day for South Africa in the field on the second day of the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi on Wednesday as they not only dropped catches and misfielded too often to maintain pressure, but they also wasted their three reviews and lost their way with the second new ball.

Having been bowled out for a disappointing 220 on the first day, the Proteas reduced Pakistan to 33 for four overnight and there were high hopes they would be able to bowl the home side out on Wednesday and get a handy lead.

Instead Pakistan, led by a superbly tenacious century by Fawad Alam, scored 275 runs in the day and lost just four wickets to reach 308 for eight at stumps, already leading by 88 – a sizeable lead.

The bowling effort, once again led by an unfortunate Kagiso Rabada, could not be faulted for much of the day, but they were not backed up by their fielders. Fawad, who was eventually dismissed for 109, was dropped on 37 at slip by Dean Elgar off Keshav Maharaj, a sharp chance that hit his boot because he could not get his hands down in time. Faheem Ashraf, who belted a belligerent 64 off 84 and shared the match-defining partnership thus far of 102 for the seventh wicket with Fawad, was dropped on 21 by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock off Rabada. It was a tough, low chance diving to his left, but South Africa’s captain has taken those more often than not.

Another anomaly occurred late in the day when Hasan Ali, on 6, skied Maharaj over mid-on and Faf du Plessis, running back, could not get a hand on it. The hard-hitting Hasan has the ability to hurt South Africa further on the third day as he is 11 not out at stumps.

Skipper De Kock was also not at his best when using South Africa’s reviews, gambling and losing all three of them.

While South Africa have lost many great cricketers in recent years in both the batting and bowling departments, they also seem to have lost much of the fielding prowess that used to make them the benchmark. There were several intense spells by the bowlers, but too often the pressure was released by a fielding error which allowed the strike to be rotated.

South Africa were still eyeing a lead when Pakistan were 176 for six, and they took the second new ball three overs late when Fawad and Faheem had already lifted the score to 214 for six. Maharaj surprisingly kept bowling, even part-time offie Aiden Markram had a go, and within 10 overs the home side had raced to 259 for six.

Nevertheless, Maharaj, who also bowled Hasan late in the day but had delivered a no-ball, said it was still within South Africa’s capability to win the game.

“The pitch still looks pretty good, there are some footmarks but it’s just the usual wear and tear, and we will just try and bat for as long as possible. I don’t know how much the pitch will deteriorate by the end of the third day, but Fawad showed that if you apply yourself you can get runs. There was not as much turn today as you might have expected seeing Yasir Shah on the first day, but he is a wrist-spinner.

“So it was a decent day for us, we controlled the run-rate really well, we did not let it get out of hand and it’s still less than three. So the bowling unit really did a good job and I thought we fielded pretty well. Yes, there were some slumps, and some catches were dropped, but that’s expected, there are always going to be a few half-chances,” Maharaj said.

Proteas batsman Temba Bavuma said on Friday that the pressure was on the South African batsmen in the first Test against Sri Lanka and the fact that they were able to deliver means they will go into the second Test starting at the Wanderers on Sunday with spirits high.

After a poor bowling display on the first day by the Proteas, Sri Lanka were able to post 396 in their first innings, their highest ever total in South Africa. Batting second on a tricky pitch on which the bounce was only getting more inconsistent, the home side replied with a brilliant total of 621. Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram set the tone with their opening stand of 141 and the middle-order then batted superbly, led by Faf du Plessis’ epic 199, to recover from a wobble that saw them lose three wickets for 20 runs. Bavuma stroked an impressive 71 as he shared a record fifth-wicket stand of 179 with Du Plessis, the key partnership of the match.

“It was a good all-round performance by the team, we were able to bring the game back through strong performances, led by the batting. There hasn’t been a lot of consistency or confidence in our batting so the pressure was on, especially on the senior guys to step up. There was pressure on us because we are quite an inexperienced side and the batting has the Test caps, so the team looks to us to perform, which adds an extra element of pressure.

“Fortunately they were able to step up and Dean and Aiden set us up, before Faf’s career-best knock which was more than magnificent. I was able to set up a partnership with him that led to a winning position and it was nice for myself to get some runs under the belt, to get the confidence flowing. I was happy with the way I went about my business although the opportunity was there to score so much more. Walking prematurely before the umpire’s decision was not my cleverest moment, but it was spur of the moment,” Bavuma said on Friday.

With both Migael Pretorius and Glenton Stuurman released from the squad due to muscle strains, and coach Mark Boucher having expressed his reluctance to not field a spinner, the return of Kagiso Rabada is the sole likely change to the team that won by an innings at Centurion.

“The first-innings bowling was not our best effort but the second innings was much better in terms of discipline, intensity and ruthlessness. Our bowling attack is quite inexperienced but they have a lot of skill, there’s no compromise on that. They are eager and keen to learn. The Wanderers will be quite similar to Centurion, with pace, bounce and lateral movement.

“Our bowlers relish those conditions and the batsmen are used to quick and more bouncy pitches. We are quite courageous mentally in those conditions. Our familiarity with the conditions makes it easier for us,” Bavuma said.