Ken Borland

A 3-0 series victory over Malawi was as good a debut in charge as new Proteas netball coach Jenny van Dyk could ask for, but she said there is still plenty of room for improvement as she looks to grow the depth of the South Africa squad.

The Proteas won the three Tests, played at the Ellis Park Arena last weekend, 68-31, 69-38 and 69-24, a record winning margin against Malawi, a side who have always provided tough competition and are currently ranked seventh in the world to South Africa’s fifth.

“I’m really happy, it’s the way we wanted to start and I’m really proud of the girls,” Van Dyk said. “The team reacted well and they stuck to the game-plan, they played with a lot of passion, they played hard and they did us proud. As a first series, it was certainly good enough, we’ve got the goals we wanted. I challenged them to get certain scores and they have shown themselves to be coachable and they have a great mindset.

“Scoreline-wise, I am very pleased. To win 3-0 in your first run out is great and we also managed to test a lot of combinations. At times our second combination was under pressure and there are more proper tests to come. This series was an opportunity to pair the right combinations together and they gave it a good shot.

“We could just revert back to the old combinations, but I want 15 strong players. I understand it’s a tall order, but we’ve seen those cycles when we have seven strong players, but then you have one or two injuries and the whole campaign is destroyed. So we need to create depth and I will also be having a good look at the U21 World Cup next year, that gives good exposure to the young talent,” Van Dyk said.

The team will now have a short break before gathering in early December for a camp that will take place at the same time as the Spar National Championships in Johannesburg, and the next week the Proteas head off to Namibia for the Africa Cup in Swakopmund from December 9.

Four of the Proteas squad are, however, involved in the Fast 5 World Series in New Zealand, including Kamogelo Maseko, the creative mainstay of the team, and exciting new goal shooter Rolene Streutker.

Veteran Karla Pretorius is still an absolute pillar in defence for the Proteas, and she emphasised the learning curve that the national netball team are on at the moment.

“This series was an opportunity to push different combinations, it was not just about getting good wins but also testing combinations and putting players in different situations. We wanted tough games, to be in those tricky situations, out of their safety zones. To put out different combinations and still win 3-0 is the positive.

“We’re happy with what we got out of the series, we never panicked and we always felt fully in control. We just need to adapt quicker, not let the opposition get momentum. We need to get into the game defensively a bit quicker,” Pretorius said.

Defence was also the one area that Van Dyk highlighted as needing attention.

“We weren’t as pleased with the defending as we wanted to be, we weren’t quite in the positions we wanted to be and we allowed Malawi too much space. Especially our attackers, they need to be tighter on their opposite numbers. That is something we need to work on,” Van Dyk said.

He may be confined to his room in a bio-secure bubble in Abu Dhabi, but Proteas all-rounder Wiaan Mulder says he is filled with gratitude just to be sitting just where he is, because a year ago his entire career was at risk.

The 23-year-old has played just five T20 internationals but made the cut for his first senior World Cup thanks to his batting ability and the way he has contributed vital overs in the attack, showing an air of confidence despite his inexperience in the format. The highly-rated Mulder has struggled through injuries over the last few years and at one stage was told to give up bowling.

“It’s incredible, a dream come true. Three months ago I didn’t think I would be sitting here,” Mulder said on Friday.

“A year ago I was told I would probably never bowl again and after surgery I didn’t think I would be back in the Proteas set-up for a couple of years. So to be here after all the injuries I’ve had to face is amazing.

“I kept getting back injuries and no-one could diagnose exactly what was wrong. Even during Covid, my body had six months to heal but my back just wouldn’t settle.

“So eventually I went for scans and they showed I have cam impingements in both hips. It means the ball of my femur is too big for the socket cavity and it gets stuck.

“Surgery would have put me out for eight months, but where would it leave my cricket? I was told my career could be over. But physio Craig Govender and Doc Ash [Hashendra Ramjee] have conditioned and looked after me well, and if I manage it I shouldn’t have any issues,” Mulder revealed.

The last World Cup South Africa played in was the 50-over competition in England in 2019, and their performance was abysmal. Their poor record in World Cups in general is well-known, but Mulder said this new-look side has to embrace the pressures.

“We can’t dwell on the anxiety and the negative stuff, we can change people’s lives if we win this World Cup and that’s what motivates us.

“Playing in the U19 World Cup, we did not have the best time and it was the first time I had been exposed to those pressures. But this will be on a level of its own. But we can only embrace it.

“I think T20 is the best format for this Proteas team at the moment, we have such a diverse team and it’s important to just be ourselves, that will be vital in terms of performance.

“We have a nicely balanced side and we beat the world champions in the West Indies and Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, those were two really tough trips. We’re not favourites, but we have a really good chance, which is a good place to be,” Mulder said.

Tabraiz Shamsi is the sort of cheerful fellow who is usually lighting up a room and the champion spinner has been a particularly bright ray of sunshine since rejoining the Proteas squad for their flight to Sri Lanka, where they are now preparing for their ODI series that starts on Thursday.

Shamsi was not with the team when they held a training camp in Potchefstroom earlier this week, because he was playing in The Hundred in England. That was an enjoyable experience for him and he has also received the great news that he will be playing in the remainder of this year’s IPL, when it resumes next month in the United Arab Emirates, for the Rajasthan Royals. It is no less than the world’s No.1-ranked T20 bowler deserves and it is inexplicable that his only previous IPL contract was in 2016 with Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Apart from all those happy developments though, Shamsi says he is always just delighted to get back into the Proteas environment, whatever some people have said about its culture at present.

“The Hundred was good, it’s like a much faster version of T20 and I’ve picked up how to save time in T20 just by showing more urgency in the field. And I enjoy bowling a lot, I don’t like long breaks, so it was good to be playing. And now to be signed by the Royals is special, I’m very excited because I’ve never played in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It will be nice to get some inside info on those pitches before the T20 World Cup.

“But the excitement of playing for South Africa again is something different, just the thought of it made me smile even in between all the turbulence on the flight that had me sweating and holding on to my chair!  These are my people, I have my boys, the guys I grew up playing with and against, and that’s what makes it special playing for the Proteas,” Shamsi said on Friday.

While Shamsi’s outstanding bowling in the West Indies and Ireland has stolen the limelight for himself, the 31-year-old is adamant that he has a very good Proteas attack around him.

“Our confidence levels are obviously high and I honestly believe we have one of the best bowling attacks in the world. The talent is there, we’re just a little inexperienced at international level. But the skill is there, have no doubt. The more we play together the better we will get.

“Personally, with the year I’ve had, it’s like living your dream. But I’m never completely happy with the way I’m bowling, even after the West Indies and Ireland tours. I’m constantly working behind the scenes and I’m also hoping to contribute something with the bat. I spent a month on the sidelines during the Test series in the West Indies and I spent it in the nets … so much so that I got a batting niggle!” Shamsi said.

Probably only the most ardent of South African rugby fans will know the name Dugald Macdonald, but he is Springbok number 470 having first slipped the famous Green and Gold jersey over his head in a third-floor room of the President Hotel in Sea Point, on 7 June 1974, while a typical Cape Town cold front splattered rain on to the balcony outside.

Macdonald would wear the jersey that had captured his imagination only once in a Test match, and that was actually a fortnight later when he played in the second Test against the British Lions at Loftus Versfeld. That’s because he was a reserve for the first Test at Newlands, and in those days the replacements sat in the stadium because the ‘bench’ was hardly ever used.

In a disastrous 3-0 series loss for the Springboks, he was destined to become one of the unfortunate one-Test wonders as the national selectors panicked and chose 36 different players for the four Tests, the final match in Johannesburg being drawn. According to veteran rugby writer John Bishop, who covered the entire tour, “Dugald should have been there from start to finish, he was one hell of a player. One of those guys who were simply forgotten about in the chaos of the 1974 tour, a powerful number eight with excellent ball skills. He should have been a Bok great”.

Macdonald has just released a book about the whole experience – the series being one of the most traumatic in South African rugby – called Ja-Nee. It is an engrossing look into the past, a study in how the mentality of Springbok rugby was built and how those attitudes still influence it today, but as with all great writing, it also brings applications and warnings for the future.

And it’s not just about rugby either. It provides a fascinating snapshot of White South African life in the 1970s. It is evocative, humorous and thought-provoking all at the same time.

The sun was shining brightly on that midwinter’s day in Pretoria, but Macdonald makes a decent argument for the Springboks not so much being panicky as arrogant. They were convinced that the Lions could not possibly be better than them and a few changes would sort out their scrum and allow them to dominate possession.

It’s a recurring story in our rugby: Back in 1992 when we returned from isolation and expected to still be better than Australia and New Zealand because “the Currie Cup is the strongest competition in the world” and instead lost both Tests comfortably. And then just last week the Bulls travelled from Pretoria to Italy, everyone back home confident that they would be returning from their jaunt with the Rainbow Cup, only to be played off the park by Benetton Treviso.

When South African rugby retreats into the laager mentality, we tend to become dangerously insular whenever we have been cut off from international trends.

Macdonald was not your typical Springbok of the 1970s, he was a city boy, schooled in Cape Town, he was an Oxford Blue and also played for Parma in Italy and Toulouse in France. Some might say paranoid 1970s South Africa was never likely to give him many more than one Test cap.

This broader world view has allowed him to identify an over-reliance on physicality as being a possible albatross around the necks of the current world champions, who have not played since outmuscling England in the World Cup final in Japan in November 2019. While the Springboks have been inactive, the rest of the world has been plotting.

“If we understood the roots of South African rugby then we’ll know why physicality has actually been responsible for many of our defeats. I fear we are winding up for another one because physicality is all the Lions are talking about. But if we don’t have technique and lucidity, physicality can only get you so far.

“Whenever we have just played inklim rugby it has been the beginning of the end, it’s been a problem down the years, and the same thing is growing again. Physicality is great at the right time and in the right place, but so much thought needs to go into it otherwise it’s helluva easy to get carried away. Fortunately we have really good leaders in the game now,” Macdonald told me.

*Ja-Nee is published by Flyleaf Publishing and is widely available in bookstores and online.