Ken Borland

A new Omoda C5 will set you back around half a million rand given the futuristic brilliance of this crossover vehicle, so it is a measure of the esteem in which the Hornbill Classic is held that this super-hybrid car was provided by the Mbombela branch of this Chinese automobile manufacturer as a hole-in-one prize.

Omoda Jaecoo Mbombela were the main sponsors of the two-day tournament at Kruger Park Lodge by Legacy Hotels and Resorts that was played for the 29^th time. The Omoda C5, full of new technological developments, was the prize for a hole-in-one on the long and challenging 194m par-three fifth hole, that has a threatening water hazard lurking on the left of the green.

While Team Wouter (Wouter du Toit, Piet Taljard, Paul Lombard & Zak Oosthuizen) claimed overall honours in the Hornbill Classic four-ball alliance, the hole-in-one prize was unfortunately not won. Oosthuizen came close to a hole-in-one, but on the par-three 16^th hole with its 150m carry over water on to a wide but shallow green.

Nico Grobler, the Omoda Jaecoo Nelspruit sales manager who also took part in the tournament, took the disappointment of not being able to give away the modern and sporty looking vehicle with good civillity.

“It would have been awesome if the car had been won, but it was nice to see all the people smiling at the hole and also chatting with us on the first, where we had a station too. Everyone heard about the prize and we’ve felt the support back already.

“There were so many brands involved in the Hornbill Classic, not just us. The tournament is about people, it’s about the community and we are part of that. It was about different communities working together and feeling at home.

“I was introduced to the Hornbill Classic by my dealer principal and it is one of the most up-and-coming events in the Lowveld. It is very nice to be part of something like this and the Omoda is a very good value-for-money vehicle, one of Chery’s upper range crossovers,” Grobler said.

Schalk Brits brought puppy dog enthusiasm, older brother guidance and wizardly decision-making to the Springbok team when coach Rassie Erasmus lured him out of retirement to play in the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and the former Saracens legend has great insight into the formative years of a South African team that has now won back-to-back World Cups and continues to set the pace in the global game.

Having retired from rugby in 2018 after more than 200 appearances and six major trophies for Saracens, Brits returned to the Springbok team later that year, three years after the last of his five previous Test caps. One of the most popular players produced by South Africa and with valuable wisdom gained from his many successful years in the northern hemisphere, Brits was tasked with leading the ‘dirt-trackers’ at the 2019 World Cup and ensuring the broader squad stayed unified.

It was a job he performed superbly, although Brits himself is humble about his role. But he is happy to pinpoint what the secret ingredient of the Springboks is, and why they continue to dominate international rugby six-and-a-half years after Erasmus took over the reins.

“I was only a very small speckle in the build-up to where the Springboks are now and it’s amazing the way Rassie has innovated and the number of players we now use,” Brits told SportsBoom.com in an exclusive interview at the Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational at Sun City, where the 43-year-old was playing golf to help raise funds for the Players’ pre-primary school for farmworkers’ children on their estate outside Johannesburg.

“There’ve been amazing Springbok sides before, but these players are playing for something much bigger than themselves, they’re playing for hope. There are many ills in South Africa, but the Springboks can transform the country through their diversity. If they can make it work, being made up of people from all walks of life, then we can make our country beautiful.

“Back in 2018, we had come off record losses against Ireland and the All Blacks and we were ranked seventh in the world. We would bitch and moan about a knock-on or a missed tackle, but Rassie said we had no right to moan because people in South Africa were being murdered or were starving. He told us we had to get off our arses and make the next tackle.

“Rassie said we could show South Africa that we could work together with our colour, religion or background being irrelevant, we could inspire the next Springbok from our community. We would probably lose a much higher percentage of those one-point games were it not for our ‘why’ being very well determined: It’s not about rugby for us, it’s about giving hope to 65 million people.

“Rassie said the best way to do that was not by posting stuff on social media but by going on the pitch and showing it there,” Brits said.

On the debate over whether the Springboks are currently the best team in the world, Brits said Erasmus’s focus has always been on the World Cup.

“Winning against Scotland, England and Wales on the recent tour is important, but for Rassie there’s a bigger plan. So he will keep rotating, which puts the players under pressure and gives the team depth.

“People don’t remember who the number one team is in the world every year, but everyone remembers who wins the World Cup. I would definitely rather win the World Cup. It must be terrible to be Ireland – they’ve been ranked number one but they could not even get a semi!” Brits said with his trademark broad grin.

The man who many discerning judges believe could have played in the backline thanks to his silky ball skills, was also impressed by the attacking verve shown by the Springboks in the United Kingdom last month.

“Against Scotland, it was a very open game and we were able to run the ball. England tried to match us with Marcus Smith and Wales have a new bunch of guys and they are rebuilding. So it was exciting to see the way we went unbeaten through an end-of-year tour for the first time since 2013,” Brits said.

In the final analysis it all came down to two record partnerships in the SA20 match between the Pretoria Capitals and the Paarl Royals at SuperSport Park on Sunday night: the one unbeaten and the other crucially ended with the loss of both set batsmen in the space of three deliveries.

After the seasoned David Miller (75 not out off 42 balls) and the highly-talented Mitchell van Buuren (72 not out off 40 balls) had added an unbeaten 141 for the fourth wicket to steer Paarl Royals to a strong 210 for three after they had been sent in to bat, Will Jacks (58 off 34) and Rilee Rossouw (82 off 45) put on 147 for the third wicket for Pretoria to put them well on target in the run-chase.

But Rossouw then top-edged a slog-sweep at Lungi Ngidi and Jason Roy took one of those brilliant boundary catches when the fielder tosses the ball back infield, steps over the boundary and then comes back to complete the catch. The left-handed Rossouw had moved beautifully through the gears, collecting 10 fours and four sixes with great skill and timing, as he came to the crease after the Capitals had made a terrible start, losing two wickets in the opening over.

The first ball of the next over saw Jacks bowled by left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, the delivery being too full to be played off the back foot. Englishman Jacks had struck six fours and three sixes and had done a great job up front in ensuring Pretoria did not stagnate after Ngidi had removed Phil Salt (0) and Theunis de Bruyn (4) in the opening over.

With the two set batsmen out, the Capitals needed 58 off 35 balls to win and coach Graham Ford admitted afterwards that he was still hopeful they would have enough batting left to see them home.

Captain Jimmy Neesham scored a promising 20 off 9 balls but once Fabian Allen held on to a steepling catch running in from cow-corner to dismiss him off Andile Phehlukwayo, the other batsmen were all at sea on a pitch which did see the odd delivery ‘stick’ in the surface.

In the end, Paarl Royals won by 10 runs, Obed McCoy showing great guts and composure as he conceded just three runs in the final over, despite suffering from severe cramps that saw him hobbling about after every delivery.

In conditions that were still good for batting, coach Ford also admitted that the home side would have settled for a target of just below 200. But Miller and Van Buuren put them to the sword at the death, plundering 51 runs off the last three overs.

“The odd one did stick a bit, but if you’re going to mix up your pace then you still have to get your length right,” Ford said. “I think everybody in the changeroom would say that we could have limited them to 15 or so runs less.

“It was a fairly high-scoring game, another great T20 pitch here, but we probably could have controlled things a bit better at the end, when you trust the bowlers to back their best disciplines.

“Then again, if Rilee had batted for another three overs then we probably would have won. I can’t say enough of how well he and Will played and we saw how tough it was for the lower-order. But I was hopeful that we would have had some extra batting to see us over the line,” Ford said.

Miller and Van Buuren came together after Paarl Royals had lost two wickets in three overs to slip to 69 for three, and they were quick to settle at the crease, needing just 31 balls to raise their 50 partnership. Their next fifty runs together came in 30 deliveries, and in the end their partnership of 141 came off just 72 balls, with 13 fours and six sixes.

Jacks and Rossouw sent 16 balls to the boundary and seven over it as their stand of 147 came off 82 deliveries.

Both partnerships were the best ever for their respective wickets in SA20 history. The previous third-wicket record was held by Jacks and De Bruyn, who put on 111 against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Centurion last season; the previous fourth-wicket record was 75 shared by Matthew Breetzke and Heinrich Klaasen of Durban Super Giants, and Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs of the Sunrisers.

It was not a particularly good day to be a bowler, but leg-spinner Adil Rashid was the pick of the Capitals attack with one for 31 in his four overs, while new-ball bowlers Ngidi (4-0-39-4) and McCoy (4-0-30-1) led the way for Paarl Royals, who now go to second place on the log after their back-to-back wins over last season’s losing finalists.

With Louis Oosthuizen shooting his best ever round at Leopard Creek and Charl Schwartzel feeling physically back to something approaching his best, the stage is set for a classic showdown between the two great friends and Major champions as they go into the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship tied for the lead.

Sunday’s closing round will take the tournament back a decade and more as Schwartzel and Oosthuizen re-enact a rivalry that was a dominant feature of the tournament back then. Schwartzel had the better of the exchanges, winning the title a record four times, in 2012, 2013 and 2015, in addition to his 2004 triumph at Houghton Golf Club.

Oosthuizen has never won the Alfred Dunhill Championship, finishing runner-up in 2005 and 2014. The famous prowling leopard trophy is one he dearly wants to raise, and he put himself into prime position with a tremendous, nine-under-par, course record equalling 63 on Saturday to go to 15-under-par after three rounds.

“That was good,” Oosthuizen grinned after his faultless round with seven birdies and an eagle on the par-four, 284m sixth when he drove the green. “I played really solid and did not make a lot of mistakes, and then rolled it nicely on the greens.

“But it was hot! I was close to getting a beer from someone on the side of the course! I just tried to walk in the shade as much as I could, because it was brutal out there. And this is such a tough course, there are certain holes you need to take on and you have to play good shots. This course can really bite you and I’ve been on the bad side of it.

“But this is one tournament I really want on my CV, I’ve come close to winning before and I’ve messed it up before too. So tomorrow I’m just going to stay calm and do the same thing as today,” Oosthuizen said.

Schwartzel has endured an injury-plagued year and is just delighted that the physios have managed to patch him back together so well that he feels like his old self again. That old self has been the dominant figure at Leopard Creek through the years, and the 39-year-old turned back the clock on Saturday as he produced a stellar back nine featuring four birdies and an eagle on the par-five 15^th, posting a 65 that saw him reach 15-under shortly after Oosthuizen.

“I loved it, that was really nice. It’s so much fun to be healthy again after having constant niggles for the whole year. You don’t realise how much an injury hampers you because you are always working around it. It was just free-flowing again and I can hit all my shots again. The clubface is stable and I’m striking the ball so well. It makes me really happy.

“This heat is comfortable for me, it’s how I know Leopard Creek. The first two days it felt like a new course I was learning how to play, with the ball not going so far in the cool weather, making it very difficult to go for the par-fives in two.

“Louis had a great round and we’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve come a long way together and we will both just try our best in the final round and see what the outcome is. The one who makes the least mistakes will win,” Schwartzel said.

Heavy prices were paid lower down the leaderboard for errant tee-shots or impure iron shots, and for poor course-management, which combined to give Oosthuizen and Schwartzel a five-shot lead.

Two quality golfers, well-versed in winning in South Africa, are tied in third place on 10-under-par: Christiaan Bezuidenhout dropped a couple of shots on the front nine, but reeled off four birdies in a row after the turn to post a 68; Andy Sullivan had a double-bogey on the par-three seventh and dropped another shot on 17, but finished superbly with an eagle at the last to sign for a 69.

Overnight leader Casey Jarvis notched four birdies but made too many mistakes, four bogeys and a double-drop on the par-five 15^th took him down the leaderboard with a 74 to finish on eight-under-par.

Marco Penge got himself to 12-under-par after 13 holes, but three bogeys in his next four holes saw him slip back to nine-under and in a tie for fifth with Ashun Wu (69).