Ken Borland

Left-arm paceman Rowan Richards discovered the control he was missing in the second half of last season, leading to a strong showing in the Sunfoil Series which he now plans to take into the limited-overs arena for the Titans.

Richards was the leading wicket-taker for the Titans in four-day cricket with 36, but he only played half of the games in their triumphant Momentum One-Day Cup campaign, taking six wickets and conceding a shade over a run-a-ball. His one appearance in the RamSlam T20 was a disaster, conceding 55 runs in his four overs, against the Cape Cobras during the triple-header at the Wanderers that began the competition.

“At the beginning of the season, it was a struggle, but it clicked heading into the four-day games. It was just a matter of improving my action with Mandla Mashimbyi and Rob Walter [Titans coaches], to get more consistency and be able to control the swing. My goal for next season is to carry that through to the limited-overs formats,” Richards told The Citizen.

Four-day cricket certainly tests a person’s patience and range of skills and the 30-year-old showed that he is one of those bowlers who can plug away while nothing much is happening, but will suddenly get on to a streak and be unplayable.

“l enjoyed the four-day campaign. You get slow periods, it’s just dead, but you have to believe something is going to happen, even when you’re not getting wickets. If I get one, then I believe I can get three or four and that then gives you a sniff.

“Last season I was swinging the ball both ways and I was dangerous with both the new and old ball, getting a bit of reverse. Anyone can go up to a higher level, I just need to focus on my processes, build on what I do well and be consistent,” Richards said.

Those who witnessed his hat-trick on the final afternoon to beat the Warriors in Benoni or his five for 38 against the Knights in Bloemfontein will know that Richards is a left-armer the national selectors should certainly be keeping their eyes on.

The Cell C Sharks produced the biggest 40 minutes of their season in the second half to beat the Toyota Cheetahs 26-10 at Growthpoint Kings Park on Saturday and stay ahead of the Bulls in the race for the Vodacom SuperRugby playoffs.

With the Bulls having secured a bonus-point win over the Sunwolves in the previous game, the Sharks were in desperate need of a victory to stay ahead in the race for the third South African qualification place.

The scrum was the biggest talking point of the game, with the Sharks taking an absolute hiding in that department in the first half.

The frustrations boiled over in the 16^th minute as the Sharks lost their captain, Tendai Mtawarira, for 10 minutes, as he was yellow-carded for slapping a Cheetahs player.

The Cheetahs then destroyed the Sharks in a series of scrums, Coenie Oosthuizen being the chief culprit at tighthead for the Sharks, and the visitors were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty try.

But the Cheetahs did, however, manage to get the opening try a few minutes later as wing Raymond Rhule, with space on the outside, stood up fullback Rhyno Smith and dotted down.

With flyhalf Fred Zeilinga’s conversion, the Cheetahs led 7-0, but Sharks flyhalf Garth April cut the deficit to 3-7 with a penalty for a high tackle just two minutes later.

With the Cheetahs scrum being so dominant, they would have expected more reward from that set-piece, but Sharks scrumhalf Michael Claassens is a canny campaigner and he delayed the put-ins as long as he could. He fooled referee Stuart Berry in the 35^th minute, with the Sharks being awarded a free kick for an early engage by the Cheetahs, and it was a pivotal moment as the home side turned a first-half onslaught that saw them barely hanging on into a halftime lead.

Eighthman Philip van der Walt took a quick tap and a long pass out wide from the ruck found JP Pietersen, who cut inside for a top-class power-finish, April’s conversion giving the Sharks a scarcely deserved 10-7 halftime lead.

The Sharks did not make a good start to the second half though as Van der Walt took the kickoff but then dropped the ball, starting a chain reaction that ended with hooker Franco Marais being caught on the wrong side of the ruck and Zeilinga kicking a penalty to level the scores.

But Lourens Adriaanse proved once again that he is like a potent chemical when it comes to scrum time, always causing a reaction, and his introduction as a replacement for Oosthuizen then totally turned around that set-piece.

His first two scrums led to a turnover in the feed and then a penalty, which April kicked. The young flyhalf is known for his dazzling attacking skills, but he was called on to make some vital kicks on Saturday and he was outstanding off the tee, succeeding with all five of his kicks at goal, including two penalties from scrums which put the Sharks 16-10 up.

The Cheetahs must have been surprised to be down at that stage, and they were even more bemused when referee Berry called advantage over on a penalty when, to be fair, the Cheetahs had taken the ball through numerous phases but had not made much ground, and Stefan Ungerer, brought on at scrumhalf just minutes earlier, pounced on an intercept try and couldn’t believe his luck when he went over for the try.

April succeeded with yet another kick to convert (23-10), and a multitude of handling errors by the Cheetahs then allowed the Sharks to seize control.

The Sharks, who have really turned their defence around since the arrival of specialist coach Omar Mouneimne, continued to harangue the Cheetahs and, after centre Andre Esterhuizen had put in a big tackle and stripped the ball off Rhule, followed by Pietersen kicking ahead, flank Keegan Daniel just had to gather the ball and dive over the line, but he knocked on.

But the Sharks regained possession at the lineout, rumbled the driving maul forward and earned another penalty by April to complete the scoring.

And so the final round of fixtures next weekend, with the Sharks hosting the Sunwolves and the Bulls travelling to the Cheetahs, will decide who the third South African franchise in the playoffs will be.

Scorers

Cell C Sharks – Tries: JP Pietersen, Stefan Ungerer. Conversions: Garth April (2). Penalties: April (4).

Toyota Cheetahs – Try: Raymond Rhule. Conversion: Fred Zeilinga. Penalty: Zeilinga.

http://citizen.co.za/1197651/sharks-make-it-count-against-cheetahs/

Pieter-Steph du Toit

Q: How did it feel for the Springboks to be booed off the field at halftime?

PSdT: Well the first half was quite a shocker and being booed, well we fully deserved it. But we were 100% better in the second half and we showed what we can do. It’s difficult to describe the feeling when you get booed like that, but it made me a bit angry, I wanted to show that we are not that bad. If you play good rugby, then the crowd gets behind you.

Q: What went wrong in the first half?

PSdT: Us players were all on the field, but we just weren’t playing, we had no energy, we all just seemed a bit tired. I do not know why that happened in the first half, I have no explanation at the moment, except that our game plan was to work around the corner and we didn’t do that as the forwards.

Q: How did the Springboks manage to pull off such an amazing comeback?

PSdT: Eben Etzebeth and I spoke about it and we never doubted that we could win, and if you believe it then you can do it. There was a mindshift – we knew we had to win, so we had to lift our game to a different level and the changes helped too, a guy like Ruan Combrinck was man of the match after playing just 40 minutes, so that’s quite an effort. We stuck to the game plan more, the forwards came into the game and we cut out the mistakes. We made a lot of errors in the first half, we didn’t keep the ball, and Allister Coetzee and Adriaan Strauss spoke to us about that and said if this was our last Test for South Africa, how would we play? Of course they were upset.

Warren Whiteley

Q: How satisfying was that second-half comeback and how did you pull it off?

WW: We’re delighted with the win and the character we showed. We definitely felt the momentum swing early in the second half and that gave us a chance. We got quick ball and we were hitting the advantage line and so creating space out wide. We managed to keep that width, make holes in the middle and earn the right to go wide. It means a lot because we were extremely disappointed after the first half, but we showed our character in the second half, which is definitely going to be a massive confidence boost.

Q: Did you feel extra pressure coming on straight after halftime in front of your home crowd with the Springboks in a hole, and do you think you’ve secured a starting place now?

WW: Every time I step on to the field it’s a privilege and I try to make sure I use every opportunity. I didn’t feel any extra pressure, but I was highly motivated to make a difference. No, I don’t think I can talk about starting places because there are a lot of very talented loose forwards in the squad – Jaco Kriel hasn’t even played a game yet and there’s a guy like Sikhumbuzo Notshe also waiting in the wings.

Q: There’s been plenty of talk already about the win being down to all the members of the Lions team you captain who were on the field in the second half … is that why the Springboks won the game?

WW: There’s no way it was the Lions team who won the game, collectively we worked together on the game plan and the style of rugby we wanted to play. The first week together was tough, we did lots of work but lost, and this week was tough too. But slowly and surely we’re getting into our rhythm, we’re still reading and learning about each other. This was only my fifth Test, I’ve never had to link with Damian de Allende before, I’ve never scrummed behind Pieter-Steph du Toit before, so I’m still learning how to play with them.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said the entry of South Africa’s big weapons in the second half had delivered an onslaught that the tourists were unable to handle as the Springboks turned a 19-3 halftime deficit into a thrilling 32-26 victory in the second Test at Ellis Park at the weekend.

“We said at halftime that we can’t sit on the lead with the weaponry South Africa have, and that was in full evidence in the second half. They delivered an onslaught that we couldn’t match up to, the result was earned by the Springbok ball-carriers.

“The way the Springboks came back was relatively irrepressible – Damian de Allende is a devastating carrier, Ruan Combrinck is unbelievably tough to put down, once he got the ball in his hands he was a real handful, and Warren Whiteley scored a really well-taken try,” Schmidt said after the game.

Ireland captain Rory Best said his team still believed they could go to Port Elizabeth and win the series in the third Test next weekend.

“Obviously this defeat is very hard to take, for large parts of the first two-thirds of the game we did all the things we talked about – we were physical, we got off the line quickly and we held on to the ball. But we couldn’t defend that lead because once the Springboks started to come around the corner we began to slip tackles. If you don’t compete around the fringes against the Springboks then you’re going to lose.

“But we’ll take this loss on the chin and come out stronger on the other side. We still have a chance to win the Test series and we have to make sure that if we’re in this position again, we don’t make the same errors. We must improve on the last quarter,” hooker Best said.