Ken Borland

Thriston Lawrence must be tired of all his recent misfortune on the European tour and, even though he was in fine form on six-under-par on Thursday, even his great first round of the Joburg Open was then halted by an untimely thunderstorm at Randpark Golf Club.

Lawrence was in a share of the lead with Spain’s Angel Hidalgo on the ninth hole, his last, when play was suspended due to lightning at 5.05pm. Little more than half-an-hour later, the first round of the co-sanctioned event was officially called off for the day.

While frustrated that he couldn’t quite complete a morale-boosting round, the 24-year-old will be delighted with his consistent play after a nasty run of three successive missed cuts and a DQ in his last four European tour events.

Lawrence started on the 10^th at Firethorn and began birdie-bogey, but finished his opening round strongly with an eagle on the 14^th and a birdie on the par-three 17^th. The Mpumalanga product then birdied the par-five fourth hole, before the highlight of his round, holing his second for eagle on the sixth hole.

Hidalgo, playing on the main European tour for the first time, also started on the 10^th and a brilliant run of birdie-birdie-eagle from the 12^th saw him race to four-under-par after five holes. He dropped a shot on 15, but two more birdies on 16 and 18 undid the damage before the turn. Although the 23-year-old bogeyed the first, further birdies on the sixth and ninth holes gave him an excellent 65.

Englishman Ashley Chesters is alone in third on five-under-par 66 and seven golfers, including South African stars Dylan Frittelli and Zander Lombard, are on 67.

Frittelli is the obvious main threat to the leaders and the favourite of the bookmakers after the first round. He looked set for the lead when he raced to five-under-par with four holes to play, but the trickery of the par-three 17^th hole then tripped him up, a bogey-four dropping him back to four-under-par.

The likes of leading international competitors Shaun Norris (68), Ross Fisher (68) and Justin Harding (69) also enjoyed the opening day of the new DP World Tour season, but Wilco Nienaber and Brandon Stone battled to master the vagaries of the wind and shot level-par 71s.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi manned up to the recent problems his team have been having on the field with an heroic individual effort against the All Blacks on Saturday, so it was little surprise that he was very much in touch with his emotions after a match in which he gave so much but still ended on the losing side, thanks to a late New Zealand penalty.

The flanker dashed around the field with focused intensity on Saturday and was particularly useful at the breakdowns, doing a lot of the dirty work as he and Kwagga Smith formed a great partnership. But as much as he led from the front, Kolisi was not able to drag his team across the line as they went down 17-19.

“It definitely hurts. We prepared as well as we could, we were focused on the right now. I felt on the field that we were in there with a good chance, our set-pieces dominated. So it is really hard to lose a game like that, but we know that if we stick to our processes then the results will come.

“We wanted to stand up and fight today. We knew as a team what we are capable of and it was about making sure we played properly. New Zealand brought high speed and physicality, but I can’t fault my team – our plan worked, our structures were really good. So I don’t really know what went wrong,” Kolisi said after the match.

Many critics have pointed to the Springboks’ decision, after they had taken a 17-16 lead into the last 10 minutes, to kick front-foot ball away, including two up-and-unders from the All Blacks’ 22, as the reason for their defeat. Kolisi said this was the choice of the players and he stood by the tactic.

“The players made that call, we decided to stick to the game-plan. That’s how we know how to play and we will never change from that. And it had been working all day,” Kolisi said.

The Sharks avenged their recent home loss to Griquas when they beat them 28-24 in their Currie Cup semi-final at Kings Park on Saturday, but it was hardly sweet revenge because it was a poor performance by the hosts.

The Sharks have therefore booked a place in next weekend’s final against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, but that will be a daunting prospect if they perform like they did on Saturday evening. Apart from their rolling maul, and staunch defence close to their tryline, there was little else that consistently worked well in the Sharks’ arsenal.

They led 17-9 at halftime but that scoreline flattered them as Griquas had what would have been the try of the match disallowed due to an earlier knock-on, and the Sharks scored a soft try just before halftime when centre Marius Louw burst straight through two tacklers to score under the posts.

The Sharks’ other try came via hooker Kerron van Vuuren at the back of a lineout drive.

Griquas collected three penalties through flyhalf George Whitehead and gained rich reward for swarming all over the breakdowns. The Sharks allowed much of the disruption there because their cleaners were too slow to do their jobs.

By the 50^th minute, the Sharks only enjoyed a small three-point lead after outstanding lock Adre Smith scored from close range for Griquas. Brilliant wing Eduan Keyter sparked the attack and showed great hands to send flank Hanru Sirgel charging to just short of the line.

The Sharks had some short-lived relief four minutes later when Van Vuuren scored his second try from the maul, but for the rest of the second half it was their own errors that forced them into grim defence.

Despite Louw receiving a yellow card in the 70^th minute, and Griquas pounding on the tryline, the Sharks defence showed great determination to keep them out. Fullback Curwin Bosch, who had earlier had a penalty disallowed because he took too long, slotted a crucial long-range penalty in the 73^rd minute to stretch that lead to 28-17.

Griquas eventually got a maul rumbling over the line in the 79^th minute, replacement lock Johan Momsen scoring a try that gave them a small glimmer of hope.

But Griquas could not exit from the restart and the Sharks were able to triumph, but the celebrations will be muted.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Kerron van Vuuren (2), Marius Louw. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2). Penalties: Bosch (3).

Griquas – Tries: Adre Smith, Johan Momsen. Conversion: George Whitehead. Penalties: Whitehead (4).

As much as success breeds further success, it also leads to jealousy and negative attention, and Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick has likened the recent criticism of the South African team to dogs barking in the street.

It is not surprising that Stick should bristle over all the barbs aimed at the Springboks’ style of play, given that he is the attack coach and his team is hardly struggling to score tries or get their exciting back three into the game.

“We’re not going to lose focus on what we want to achieve, we’re not going to listen to the voices outside. We are the world champions and No.1 in the world so people will always be talking about us, it’s the nature of the position. When you’re winning, you expect that and we have made peace with that. It does not worry us and we won’t be influenced by the white noise.

“A dog only barks at a car when it is moving; it pees on the car that is parked. I’m still confused about all the criticism. Look at our wings, they are scoring a lot of brilliant tries, Lukhanyo Am is playing great rugby and Willie le Roux at the back is one of the best at seeing space. We’re scoring more points than the opposition, that’s why we’re winning,” Stick pointed out.

The backline coach was confident that talismanic eighthman Duane Vermeulen and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk will be available for this weekend’s clash with Australia at the Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.

“Duane is doing really well at training and hopefully he’ll be ready for the first game against Australia. Faf is also coming back and the only guy who’s really still struggling with injury is Rynhardt Elstadt. We still have a lot of room for improvement, but we are on the right track. We will focus on what we do best and they [the critics] must play touch rugby or champagne rugby.

“Everyone knows what to expect from Australia and we know that they enjoy having ball-in-hand and they stretch you in terms of your fitness levels. They have a lot of x-factor, skilful players, they play very expansive and entertaining rugby, that’s in their DNA. We’re still getting closer to where we want to be, but it’s going to be a nice game,” Stick said.