Ken Borland

PRETORIA, Gauteng – Albert Venter led by four strokes after the first round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Time Square Casino at the Wingate Park Country Club and the 26-year-old ensured he kept the door closed on his rivals in Thursday’s second round as he posted a solid three-under-par 69 to stretch that advantage to five strokes.

Venter will head into the final round on 12-under-par for the tournament, having shot a brilliant 63 in the first round.

There was a blustery wind in Pretoria on Thursday, just the sort of conditions in which a golfer could blow a lead on the hard and fast greens of Wingate Park, and Venter began his round cautiously, being level-par, with a birdie and a bogey, through his first eight holes.

But he was then able to tear around the turn with three birdies in the next four holes. Six straight pars coming in on the front nine completed a round which could only be considered a success.

“The wind picked up a lot today so my first few holes were not too bad. It was definitely trickier today to figure out which way it was blowing. Because the course is tree-lined, it swirls around a bit,” Venter said.

“There were quite difficult decisions to make over which irons to play. But we predicted the wind would pick up and the plan was to get my score as low as possible to build a bit of a cushion.

“Thankfully I kept my head in the game and managed to get a decent score. I can’t control what the other golfers do, but I am in a really good position,” Venter said.

On a hard day to shoot a really low score, Estiaan Conradie (69) and Jean Hugo (68) have done really well to position themselves as Venter’s closest challengers, on seven-under-par.

Luke Brown produced the round of the day, a 66 that included seven birdies to join Ruan Korb (70) on six-under for the tournament.

Venter won the Zimbabwe Open in May for his maiden Sunshine Tour title and will be able to learn from that experience in Friday’s final round.

“The big thing about winning is trying to get into those positions more and more, trying to get used to the atmosphere and nerves you face on the final day,” the Silver Lakes golfer said.

“I’ve been in quite a few situations like that in the last few years, although I wouldn’t say I’m experienced. But I’ve been in the situation before and I know how to deal with the nerves and the adrenaline.

“I can’t get ahead of myself, I have to stay patient and stick to my guns,” Venter said.

For the first couple of years of Jake White’s tenure at Loftus Versfeld, the Bulls were always first or second on the log as they dominated their domestic rivals, but the United Rugby Championship has posed a much sterner challenge for them, and their director of rugby is delighted with the character they have shown in climbing from the basement of the log into sixth place now, with a quarterfinal spot confirmed.

Their hard-fought 29-17 bonus point victory over Glasgow Warriors in Pretoria at the weekend means the Bulls, with 53 points, now cannot be bumped out of the top eight by either Scarlets (44pts) or Ospreys, who have two games in hand but only have 39 points.

“In all our other tournaments we were generally first or second on the log from the start, but we’ve now had to play catch-up and get bonus points and I’m obviously very happy that we’ve shown lots of character,” White said.

“We were second-last with just 14 points after six rounds, so it’s first prize really to be in the playoffs. We’re not worried where we play them, we’re just happy to get in.

“We didn’t play well overall, but we played really well at times. We didn’t really play with a lot of rhythm or tempo because it was a game of stop/start and it looked like the waterboys were on all the time.

“That broke our momentum and the tempo looked terrible. There was also a bit of naivety in terms of game-management, we let the opposition back in the game again,” White said.

Glasgow coach Danny Wilson spoke about how having massive lumps of beefy Bulls flesh constantly battering them had “taught us a lesson about another level of physicality” and White said the home side only really picked up momentum when they started “wrestling” the visitors.

“Not many teams run a side like Glasgow to pieces so today’s challenge was to wrestle them. It suited us to play that way and it was a great learning experience for the team,” White said.

“Against a side that does not give you much space, time or opportunity, that’s what was needed in this game. There were certain things we did poorly in terms of execution, but we found a way to win.

“We wrestled them when we had to, but having wrestled and wrestled them, we then suddenly went to a different style and that can come back and bite you,” White said.

The sum of their situation though is that it is almost impossible for the Bulls to finish any higher than third, even if they beat Ospreys with a bonus point on May 20 in Swansea.

Munster are currently second on 56 points and will be underdogs when they visit defending champions Leinster in the final round, but the Sharks (56pts) visit Ulster (55pts), with the Bulls needing a draw in that match and for the Scarlets to beat the Stormers (56pts).

South Africa and Australia have always been great World Cup rivals but they meet for just the second time in the T20 showpiece on Saturday in what has been a massively contrasting year for the two teams.

While the Proteas have won nine of their last 10 matches and were impressive in winning their warm-up games against Afghanistan and Pakistan, Australia have lost eight of their previous 10 games and are on a losing streak in their last four series. Their warm-up displays were also mixed, with a narrow win over New Zealand followed by a thrashing at the hands of India.

But Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said on Friday that he expects the toughest of tests for his side in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

“Australia are a very competitive side and I’m sure they won’t be deterred by their past results,” Bavuma said. “They will take learnings from them and they have good resources in terms of players.

“Obviously their bowling is strong and they’ll look to strike up front and get into our middle-order. We’ll have to play the powerplay well and not allow their slow bowlers into our middle-order.

“Their batting is quite top-heavy with Warner, Finch and Smith. So we’ll want to put their middle-order under pressure and the earlier we get them in, the more we can do that.

“But both teams are under pressure. We have come under heavy attack from our fans and media the last while and we understand how unforgiving the demand for excellence is from us,” Bavuma said.

While South Africa have clearly thrown off their old reliance on pace bowlers, Bavuma said they were still deciding whether to play all three frontline spinners in Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin, or just two.

Against a strong bowling side like Australia and pacemen who have terrorised the Proteas before in Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, it would be risky to go in with just six batsmen.

“We are considering both options of going in with three spinners or a longer batting line-up,” Bavuma confirmed. “If we do go the slower bowlers route then we do have the guys at our disposal, and the same if we go the extra batsman route.”

Australia are the old foe and they walloped the Proteas by eight wickets with 14 balls to spare in their previous T20 World Cup meeting, in 2012 in Colombo. They also won their last series, triumphing 2-1 in 2020 in South Africa as they twice bowled them out for less than a hundred.

“There’s no bigger motivation than playing against Australia, games against them are always full of fire and we don’t expect anything less this time,” Bavuma said.

“It’s obviously a big game and we want to start well, get some momentum going. It’s always important to throw the first punch early on and then ride that momentum.

“There isn’t really time in this tournament to be behind the eight-ball, so we really want to hit the ground running and play our best cricket tomorrow [Saturday].”

Apart from blood, guts and glory, and enormous set-piece prowess, the Springboks could not bring enough to the table with ball in hand, leading to a gripping 19-17 defeat at the hands of the All Blacks in an epic 100^th Test between the two great rivals at Townsville on Saturday.

The Springboks were superb in playing their trademark pressure game. The scrum was dominant and their lineout was majestic, reducing the All Blacks jumpers to just standing and watching. When New Zealand had the ball, they were harried and bashed by a feisty defence, with the Springboks also causing the Rugby Championship winners big problems at the breakdown as well.

But pressure is meant to create opportunities to score and, apart from four penalties by Handre Pollard and a gifted try to Sbu Nkosi after a dropped kick, South Africa did no show enough intent with ball-in-hand. In fact, on a couple of occasions they had front-foot ball, in control of the game, on the New Zealand 22, and they chose to turn possession into a 50/50 contest by launching bizarre up-and-unders.

The strategy of kicking everything away cost them in the end as, after Pollard had given them a 17-16 lead going into the last 10 minutes, a frazzled All Blacks side began to get desperate and coughed up more ball. Which the Springboks kicked straight back to them.

Eventually it was a brilliant angled, long-range penalty by fullback Jordie Barrett that snatched the spoils for New Zealand with just two minutes remaining.

The All Blacks started the match in chilling fashion as, with not much on for them in their own half, hooker Codie Taylor stepped superbly and burst clear and one pass later wing Will Jordan was racing over for the try.

But as much as they tried to up the tempo, speed the game up and stretch the defence, the Springboks managed to drag them back into slow-mo rugby through sheer bloodymindedness. Siya Kolisi was immense as a harrying presence and Kwagga Smith was tremendous at the breakdown.

The kicking game tested the wits of the All Blacks three and, apart from Barrett, they did not look secure. But the Springboks were not smart enough to then capitalise on the turnover balls presented.

Their supporters were left praising an incredibly brave, stout effort, but also mourning what should have been if they had just backed themselves with the ball-in-hand a little more.

Scorers

New Zealand – Try: Will Jordan. Conversion: Jordie Barrett. Penalties: Barrett (4).

South Africa – Try: Sbu Nkosi. Penalties: Handre Pollard (4).