Ken Borland

Keeping an expanded squad keen with regular game-time and still ensuring success on the field is a balancing act Sean Everitt has mostly succeeded with during his tenure as Sharks coach and on Thursday he named another eight changes to his squad for Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match against the Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park.

It is the last fixture in what has been a long and daunting first foray into Europe, with injuries to wings Yaw Penxe and Thaakir Abrahams, and the return home of scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba due to a family bereavement, complicating matters. But a strong starting line-up has still been named, and the likes of prop Wiehahn Herbst, lock Reniel Hugo and scrumhalf Tian Meyer will get some opportunity off the bench.

“On a four-week tour it’s important to give as many guys as possible an opportunity,” Everitt said on Thursday. “We’ve used 33 out of the 34 players with us here without weakening the team. But it’s important to get the balance right.

“You need to be strategic in mixing it up, for example when Boeta Chamberlain started at flyhalf we paired him with Ruan Pienaar, so he had experience around him.

“It has certainly kept the players motivated and I am quite comfortable that they can all cope at this level. So there are a couple of rotational changes this week with captain Phepsi Buthelezi having rested lasted week.

“There are also a couple of injuries and unfortunately Thaakir has a significant injury. He has gone to have scans at home and will have to see a surgeon,” Everitt said.

Centre Rynhardt Jonker is the unfortunate lone player who has not seen any action on tour, but at 21-years-old, just travelling and training with the team would have been a great experience and his time will come.

Having secured the morale-boosting win last weekend over the Ospreys, Everitt is confident that there will be no sliding of standards in their last game in the United Kingdom before flying home.

“The win definitely did us good from a psychological point of view and the guys are in a really good space and excited for the Cardiff game.

“The win has certainly lifted morale and the team is really motivated to win two out of four games, although it has been a long tour. We never set a goal for the tour, but the coaches spoke about getting 8-12 points.

“If we can get two wins then that would be a good tour. That was normally the benchmark on Super Rugby tours that were four weeks long. The third week on tour was always challenging, but we got the win last weekend,” Everitt said.

Sharks team – Curwin Bosch, Marnus Potgieter, Jeremy Ward, Murray Koster, Anthony Volmink, Boeta Chamberlain, Ruan Pienaar, Phepsi Buthelezi (Capt), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit (v/c), Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench: Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona, Wiehahn Herbst, Reniel Hugo, Gerbrandt Grobler, James Venter, Tian Meyer, Werner Kok.

Tabraiz Shamsi has exploded on to international T20 cricket a bit like a stealth bomb over the last couple of years but he says there is no big secret to his success – just more regular playing time.

Shamsi produced yet another outstanding display on Monday evening in Dublin, taking four for 27 in his four overs to help South Africa to a 33-run win over Ireland. He was the No.1 bowler in the ICC T20 Rankings before the match, with a lead of 102 points over the much-lauded Rashid Khan of Afghanistan, so that gap is only going to grow after the 31-year-old yet again produced the goods.

Since the start of 2019, Shamsi has played 29 T20 Internationals and taken 36 wickets at an average of 20.05 and with an economy rate of 6.44. They are phenomenal figures and they reflect how crafty the left-arm wrist-spinner has become in being able to both take wickets and stem the run-flow.

“Playing regularly, I am gaining so much more experience. I have learnt that there are more ways to skin the cat, there are two ways for me to win games for the Proteas: I can take wickets or I can keep the batsmen quiet. As I’ve got older, I’ve realised that taking wickets is not everything, I’ve become more flexible. But it’s also the first time I’m getting regular game time and that’s why you see the consistency.

“For obvious reasons, I didn’t get that before and I’m not disputing selection at all [Imran Tahir stood in his way]. But playing regularly, you get to learn quickly from your mistakes and you can implement the good things more. And when things don’t go well, you stay positive through those patches and try and contribute to the team in other ways,” Shamsi said.

The inspirational man of the moment has always got as excited as a puppy whenever he takes a wicket, but he has also added a steelier edge now, working on intimidating batsmen. Shamsi admitted that it is a case of being a fast bowler trapped in a spinner’s body.

“From a young age I was a seam bowler, but I was told I was not fast enough so I switched to spin. But my early heroes were guys like Andre Nel, Dale Steyn and Allan Donald. That sort of aggression can disrupt the batsmen and I’m one of the guys in charge of making sure we have a presence on the field and that we never back down.

“It always helps me if the fast bowlers have taken wickets up front, my job is a lot more difficult when they don’t, and whenever I’ve done well, you often see the other bowlers have too, and George Linde too. I just try to bowl in the areas I want to and wickets are not guaranteed because it depends on how the batsman plays the ball,” Shamsi said.

He may be heading off to Kimberley this weekend instead of being in Treviso, Italy, but just having the joy of regular playing opportunity is giving Phepsi Buthelezi a broad grin these days and bringing out the best in the Sharks eighthman.

The unfortunate knee injury suffered by Sikhumbuzo Notshe has allowed Buthelezi to step up and the 22-year-old has been one of the Sharks’ star players in recent weeks, particularly with ball in hand. His form was not enough, though, to elevate the Sharks above the Bulls, and instead of playing in the Rainbow Cup final against Benetton Treviso this weekend, the Durbanites will be travelling to Kimberley to open their Currie Cup campaign against Griquas on Saturday.

“We would all loved to have been in Italy, it’s very disappointing that we didn’t make it. But we put ourselves in this position and now we have to make the most of it and make sure we put in a great performance in Kimberley. Although I grew up watching guys like Ardie Savea and Kieran Read play, and Sikhumbuzo and Duane Vermeulen are leading the pack here, I just want to show what I can bring to the table.

“I don’t want to be like someone else and we all bring something different and they are all very special players and unique in their own way. It was very unfortunate for Sikhumbuzo to go down the way he did and he’s a very important part of our squad. But it has given me more opportunity and I’ve been able to grow as a player, for which I’m really grateful,” Buthelezi said on Wednesday.

Amid all the disappointment of once again falling short behind the Bulls, Buthelezi says there is still a great vibe in the Sharks camp.

“The coaches always give us a lot of backing and the management behind the scenes too. We haven’t got the results we wanted in some of the games, but I think our performances are getting better. Personally, with more opportunity, I am learning and growing and I always go back and look at games to see how I can play better. I feel very fortunate to play for the Sharks and the environment allows me to be myself.

“We’ll have a very fresh squad this weekend, with a lot of different guys getting an opportunity, but everyone is hungry to play. It’s always a tough trip to Kimberley and Griquas have been on a very good run in the Currie Cup lately. We know they will be physical and confrontational, they will want to bully us up front. But it will be very refreshing to play them after just playing the other three franchises for so long,” Buthelezi said.

It’s not exactly been a glorious week to be South African with disgraceful xenophobic attacks adding to the regular shame brought on the nation by corrupt leaders and authorities, and Eskom. But on the sporting front, Cricket South Africa (CSA) are facing humiliation as the threads start to come apart about what really happened in yet another World Cup disaster.

Mike Horn, the world-renowned adventurer, who became the first person to circumnavigate the equator under his own steam in 2000, and motivational coach, has no reason to lie about what happened in the changeroom ahead of the semi-final against New Zealand and his allegations of interference in selection have merely confirmed what just about everyone believes happened.

Remember, not one of the players has stood up and supported the “official” version provided by CSA and their staff, and neither has the Players’ Association.

The only possible reason for CSA to lie so blatantly about interference in selection is that they are ashamed of their own transformation model, because all right-minded people surely support the broader objectives of the policy?

And CSA are right to feel ashamed because they have shown little desire for ensuring that the goals of transformation are met, rather than merely fulfilling a quota and jumping into action when some heat is applied to them by politicians wanting a quick-fix rather than actually making the effort required to change our society.

Their utter disregard for the spirit of transformation was shown by Aaron Phangiso not getting a single game at the World Cup, a damning indictment of how shallow the whole #ProteaFire campaign was. If South Africa really were strong contenders to win the tournament, as their leadership constantly assured everyone, then it had to be utter nonsense that playing Phangiso against Ireland and/or the UAE would jeopardise their log position.

Half of the games the Proteas played in the World Cup were with only three players of colour, so why, if three was fine for the quarterfinal against Sri Lanka and the matches against West Indies, Ireland and Pakistan, did there need to be an intervention on the eve of the semi-final? Why didn’t the same interferer intervene for Phangiso?

The CSA board have shown before that they are as self-serving as any odium of politicians and there are members of that untrustworthy body who have previously severely undermined the Proteas and the players with cheap points-scoring efforts designed to further their own ambitions rather than the good of South African cricket.

With Horn having pulled the first thread out, the truth will eventually come out and then instead of having #ProteaFire, CSA will have been exposed as just one big #ProteaLiar.

But the CSA board are ruthless bullies and whoever breaks ranks can expect their privileged position in South African cricket to come to a quick end. Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat is the man sitting with the most egg on his face at the moment, but as an employee of the board, he will certainly lose his job if he reveals the truth.

It’s little wonder then that someone like Fanie de Villiers, whose out-of-touch views of South African cricket have led to him being persona non grata with the team, is sadly able to entice one of our brightest talents, Hardus Viljoen, into emigrating to New Zealand.

The basic truth, as it always has been, is that until Cricket South Africa have a board whose priority is the good of the game in this country and not their own ambitions and fiefdoms, real transformation will not be achieved.