Ken Borland

A wonderful Leopard sighting near Kubu Dam

Being in the bush and birding is always such a special time for me, real soul-food, and a time of replenishment before heading back into the hectic ‘real’ world. So I have a small obsession about what my last sighting is, always wanting to end on a high note, preferably with something exotic, something I don’t see every day in my garden.

It is also a source of motivation to stay sharp and keen-eyed at the end of what are normally long, hot days in the bushveld.

Pilanesberg National Park may be one of the most popular reserves in the country and is attached to a tourist hot-spot in Sun City, but it is Big Five country and genuine bushveld. It has a ruggedness about it with its hills lying at angles (after the massive volcanic eruptions that shaped the landscape), its rocky outcrops and the densely-wooded gorges where few people would have ventured.

It is normally also blisteringly hot in summer but this October day had been pleasant: a beautiful sunny day with barely a cloud in the sky and a lovely cooling breeze. The temperature did not get above 31 degrees.

I had concentrated my efforts on the southern half of the park, doing a half-circle from KwaMaritane to Bakubung, and I was 10 minutes from the exit gate when sighting number 53 appeared – a pair of Common Mynahs flying along!

These aliens are all over our towns, cities and neighbourhoods and are considered a scourge in our wild places, like game reserves. So you can imagine my dismay at the very real possibility now that this invasive would be my last sighting of the day … Oh, the horror!

But this was a happy day (it had included a Leopard sighting next to the road) and Mother Nature was kind to me.

Just when I thought the Mynahs would be my last bird, a magnificent pair of Violeteared Waxbills popped up in the bush next to me on the side of the road!

Now these waxbills are really exotic-looking with their incredible combination of violet, red, bright blue and chestnut colours. It is one of my favourites, not only because it is exquisite but also because it eluded me for many years before my first sighting. I even had to put up with my birding colleague Stidy seeing it as a passenger in my car while I dipped on it!

It would have been a dream last bird, but Mother Nature had another trick up her sleeve for me. At Bakubung Gate, amongst the buildings – which I guess make fairly authentic copies of the boulders found on the koppies that are normally their home -were a pair of Mocking Chat.

I had no problem with these cute, somewhat mischievous birds being my last sighting. They are real characters and I watched them a bit before finally departing the peaceful, but wild, hills and valleys of the Pilanesberg.

I was still buzzing though from my Leopard sighting, which had been in the vicinity of Kubu Dam, just before I turned west off the tar and on to the Kgama Drive that goes past Lengau Dam and then rejoins the tar just before the Bakubung Gate.

The Leopard was lying with typical insouciance under a shady bush, about 20 metres from the road, but quite hard to see due to the combination of dappled light and the rosettes on its body. What a gorgeous young specimen it was though.

The insouciant Leopard

While the Leopard was, typically, a loner, there were lovely family sightings of 10 African Elephant marching along the flanks of the Magare Hills, away in the distance as the Tsepe Drive turned to the north-west, having skirted along the south-eastern border of the park for nearly 10km from the KwaMaritane entrance.

It was also most pleasing to see three different family groups of Squarelipped Rhinoceros, numbering 10 in all of these critically endangered animals.

The group theme had started at the beginning as I entered KwaMaritane gate and was immediately bombarded by three Blackchested Prinia dashing around and calling loudly in some sort of furore.

Two Greater Kudu youngsters down by the Maritane River were much more peaceful, and some Little Swift were also swirling around merrily, without a care in the world.

Blackcollared Barbets are normally seen amongst the trees at the picnic sites, so it was nice to see one at the hills and plains of the Tshepe Drive. Further down the road, a Kalahari Robin was conspicuous as it posed on top of a bush, behaving more like a Chat. Which is not surprising because the Scrub Robins (Genus Cercotrichas) are in the same Subfamily – Saxicolinae – as things like the Familiar and Mocking Chats, both characteristic birds of the Pilanesberg.

Close by, a juvenile Blackshouldered Kite was also posing nicely on top of a tree,

Juvenile Blackshouldered Kite

while both Redfaced and Speckled Mousebirds were in close proximity to each other as the Tshepe Drive crossed the Mankwe River, where, as is often the case, a purposeful Cape Wagtail was doing a thorough inspection.

The Lengau Dam was hosting a big flock of Sacred Ibis, and there were also Redbilled Teal, which I have only seen infrequently in the Pilanesberg.

Where is Pilanesberg National Park?

Sightings list

Blackchested Prinia

Greater Kudu

Little Swift

Blue Waxbill

Blackcollared Barbet

Neddicky

Kalahari Robin

African Elephant

Sabota Lark

Blackshouldered Kite

Rattling Cisticola

Grey Lourie

Redfaced Mousebird

Speckled Mousebird

Cape Wagtail

Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting

Glossy Starling

Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill

Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill

Blackeyed Bulbul

Impala

Marico Flycatcher

Blue Wildebeest

Helmeted Guineafowl

Giraffe

Redbilled Oxpecker

Natal Francolin

Capped Wheatear

Springbok

Pied Crow

Squarelipped Rhinoceros

Lesser Striped Swallow

Common Waxbill

Longtailed Shrike

Longtailed Shrike

Arrowmarked Babbler

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Reed Cormorant

Southern Masked Weaver

Blackbacked Puffback

Laughing Dove

Great White Egret

Browncrowned Tchagra

Warthog

A Warthog strolling along

Leopard

Familiar Chat

Plains Zebra

Waterbuck

Blacksmith Plover

Redbilled Teal

Dabchick

Sacred Ibis

Egyptian Goose

African Darter

Common Mynah

Violeteared Waxbill

Mocking Chat

The Springboks’ game against England at Twickenham on Saturday is something to look forward to, but it will be played in very different conditions to the World Cup in Japan in September.

Next year’s showpiece tournament will be played on super-fast, hard fields and the weather will be hot. In England at this time of year, the fields are very different and it’s cold, with the Springboks coming from temperatures of 30 degrees to just six or seven degrees.

There has been some consistency in coach Rassie Erasmus’s selection: There has to be 10 Tests into his tenure, that’s what you would expect. There are a few youngsters he is going to have a look at but there are also one or two surprises in his squad.

The selection of Schalk Brits as the third hooker is intriguing. He is a 37-year-old who has started just one of his 11 Tests. It’s ironic that Schalk is mentoring Malcolm Marx who has more Test caps than he has. Some people have drawn parallels to when Heyneke Meyer recalled Victor Matfield, but the lock had played 110 Tests when he was recalled in June 2014, and he had played a full season of SuperRugby.

Gio Aplon has also been recalled at the age of 36 and also from semi-retirement, playing in Japan’s top league, which is a mix of corporate workers and professional rugby players. Gio obviously has talent and good feet, but he’s going to find Test rugby a whole different pace and the intensity of the collisions will be far greater, everything will just happen much quicker.

Amongst the other players brought in, JD Schickerling is probably the next lock in, while Lood de Jager is fresh and a proven international performer. With the injuries to Lukhanyo Am and Lionel Mapoe, Ruhan Nel is also next in line for the number 13 jersey and the Springboks management called him into the squad earlier this year as well.

I am surprised none of the Du Preez brothers were chosen.

Jean-Luc is so physical and has such a big impact on the gain-line, while Daniel was selected earlier this year. Robert has now won successive Currie Cups with different teams and has proven game-management ability. The fact that Damian Willemse was not picked at flyhalf by Western Province for such a big game as the Currie Cup final tells you something about his game-management. But at least Robert gets to go to Sale now and it will be good for him to play with Faf de Klerk.

The Springboks’ contracted and Japan-based players should be fresh. They will all be ready to go, and it is a shame that the England game is outside the international window, so South Africa won’t be able to field their strongest side.

These Autumn internationals are going to sort England out after their six-match losing run earlier this year. They play the Springboks, Australia and New Zealand in the next few weeks and then we will really be able to see where they are heading into World Cup year.

The big thing for the Springboks is that they won’t have the safety net of playing on the Highveld, and John Mitchell, England’s new defence coach, knows the South African players well and would have been part of the coaching structures while he was with the Bulls. He and Jacques Nienaber would have had meetings about the blueprints for defence and the breakdown. He will intimately know the Bok defensive system.

Mitchell will implement a very high press and rush line-speed in the English defence; it’s a very high-risk system and the Bulls struggled to master it. Their defensive record was 14^th in SuperRugby, after having a full Currie Cup as well to implement the system.

It’s ironic that Mitchell ended the SuperRugby campaign saying he was looking for a specialist defence coach because of this defensive record, and now he’s the defence coach of a top-four international team.

England gave the Springboks real problems out wide in June, because the South Africans were far too tight in defence. But what cost the English at the end of the day was staying on the coast, they were in that death zone in the last 10 minutes of the first half and the last 20 of the second half in the first two Tests in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein. Duane Vermeulen was very destructive at the breakdown at the back end of both halves because England couldn’t get their cleaners to the breakdown.

England coped very well in the wet at Cape Town in terms of fielding the Springbok high-ball, box-kick strategy, using Mike Brown as the principal catcher, who has now been dropped. It shows that four months is a very short time in international rugby.

I believe the Springboks will again launch, then pass to a second runner forward, and then choose to kick left or right and put the ball behind England, which makes it very difficult for the fullback to defend. It’s a conservative strategy but it puts pressure on the opposition and the tactic had success against New Zealand in the two games this year.

The Springboks will want to play two phases and then kick behind, this is a really good tactic against a high line and a press defence because there is always space at the back because the wings are up. It will be a test though for the two young scrumhalves on tour, can they execute this strategy?

Plus there’s no Willie le Roux for this weekend, which is maybe why Aplon is there, in fact that is the most probable explanation for his selection. Rassie will want to turn England and make them exit, bringing into play the massive Springbok lineout which will have four excellent jumpers. So he needs a right and left-footed combination at flyhalf and fullback and height to compete on the England lineout.

The key for the Springboks will be the box-kick, because they maul so much, and Erasmus learnt during his time with Munster how important a kicking game from scrumhalf is, and De Klerk has done really well this year in that regard. England will be preparing for a barrage of box-kicks after the maul.

The Northern Hemisphere tour is always exciting for the players because they get to play in those places up north only once a year. They also don’t train much because there’s no way you can improve their fitness at this late stage of the year, and the preparation is just about getting the organisation and strategy right, and making sure they are mentally fresh for Saturday.

John McFarland is the assistant coach at Stade Francais, having been the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. From 2001 to 2012 he won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. McFarland enjoyed three years with the Kubota Spears in Tokyo from 2016-18.

The Bulls did well to win so convincingly in Durban last weekend, their display was really something special, especially after the Sharks had put in good performances in New Zealand.

I really thought that the Sharks would put up more of a fight though, but it seemed like they just weren’t there. The Bulls exposed a few things in their side tactically, which wasn’t great. Warrick Gelant scored his three tries from kicks through so you have to ask ‘where was the sweeper?’, ‘where were the wings?’ and ‘where was Curwin Bosch?’

For Gelant’s first try, Bosch sprinted all the way from the left-hand side of the field to the right, but he never looked at the ball! He never clocked on to what Handre Pollard was doing. It was a middle ruck and Gelant was on the inside of the flyhalf, but the Sharks still had plenty of time to get to the kick. The Sharks were just not good enough in terms of covering kicks.

The Bulls also scored two tries from mauls, and that’s against a very strong, experienced pack of forwards including Springbok back-rowers. You would have expected them to stop the drive much better than they did and there are obviously issues with the Sharks pack. You know that if you are five metres from your line, the Bulls will maul, that is very predictable.

Gelant really took his opportunity on the day and he is an exciting talent. He’s been in the Bulls system since 2014, after being spotted by Heyneke Meyer at Outeniqua High School in George.

He has really great feet and it is very rare for a fullback to be able to kick with both feet as easily as he can. He has certainly nudged the Springbok selectors in the right direction and his tactical kicking was also good.

But it was Pollard who really directed the game and you have to credit him for seeing the space and executing so well. He has been a Springbok for four years, so even though he is just 24 he is experienced and one can see that he is definitely better in terms of his tactical appreciation of where the space is and how to find it. He was able to put the ball behind the Sharks back three quite easily.

Since Adriaan Strauss has moved back to starting hooker, the Bulls have changed their lineout defence and their maul and their forwards just look much better. They even earned some scrum penalties against the Sharks, so it was a special performance by the pack.

There is now a mountain of pressure on Sharks coach Robert du Preez and their match against the Stormers this weekend in Durban is make-or-break for both teams, who have similar records. The Sharks have 14 points but have only won two of their eight games, with one draw, while the Stormers have won three out of eight matches but have 13 points.

They can still get up to the Lions on 25 points, but they need a good run of wins at home now. The Bulls will probably target away wins against the Sunwolves and Jaguares, which will be so important for them.

The key is how the Lions do on tour – and the three other South African challengers have all toured – and if their four away games don’t go well then it will really bring them back to the pack and make the conference exciting.

I foresee the Bulls getting a good win over the Rebels at Loftus Versfeld.

The Rebels have fallen away a bit with their loss to the Jaguares last weekend and a big defeat at the hands of the Hurricanes before that, so they are not quite where they were a few weeks ago.

They do have one real quality player though in Amanaki Mafi, who is also the Japan eighthman. He is the leading ball-carrier in both Japan and SuperRugby and is one heck of a player, named the Rebels Player of the Year last season. He’s exciting, very explosive and just loves playing rugby. He doesn’t seem to suffer from fatigue and plays 15 Top League games in Japan and then the whole of SuperRugby. I think Loftus will really enjoy him.

It’s been strange to hear the Stormers camp talk about last weekend’s result making the Sharks angry because they will be up against the same team. You would expect them to come out firing at home after a loss like that, but they could also be a little bit devoid of confidence.

The Stormers, meanwhile, have to improve their away record and to do that they have to improve their defence, which has been conceding too many tries – 37, second worst behind the Sunwolves’ 40, including eight against the Lions and five against the Bulls in their last two games.

It’s been interesting to see the differentiation of roles in the Stormers set-up with two defence coaches: Paul Treu doing first-phase attack and defence and Paul Feeney doing everything after that, in other words broken play. It’s definitely a first for me and the proof of how effective it is will be how they finish the season. I do wonder who’s where during training sessions though because normally the defence coach is always behind the defensive line. I’d love to see a video of the Stormers’ training because I reckon the two Pauls are racking up plenty of miles on their GPSs running backwards and forwards!

It’s been really good to see a South African coach do well overseas and Johann van Graan’s achievement in steering Munster into the European Champions Cup semi-final against Racing 92 in Bordeaux on Sunday is fantastic. Since taking over from Rassie Erasmus in November he has had a chance to put his own stamp on the team and it is exciting to see a young (38!) South African coach doing so well overseas, it is a real feather in Johann’s cap.

Munster have certainly put on more attacking displays recently and they have scored quite a lot of tries in the Pro14, with JP Ferreira also doing well as defence coach – another young South African coach doing well.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

It is really exciting to have rugby starting again in the Southern Hemisphere this weekend and what I’m really looking forward to is having a traditional South African Saturday afternoon braai here while watching the rugby, something I won’t be getting in freezing Japan when I return there.

SuperRugby is a ‘new’ competition this year with 18 teams having been cut to 15, supposedly to ensure more closer contests and greater competitiveness. But I do have my reservations because SuperRugby must be the only competition in the world where over 50% of the competing teams make the playoffs, apart from the Currie Cup of course!

Despite eight teams making it through to the quarterfinals, there are clearly only a few places up for grabs, and you can pretty much see already the teams that aren’t going to make it – the Melbourne Rebels, Queensland Reds, Sunwolves, Jaguares and one New Zealand side.

I would say the Kiwi team to miss out will probably be the Chiefs because they are under new management and have lost some massive names – Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Liam Messam, Michael Leitch and most importantly coach Dave Rennie.

And then there will be two South African sides that miss out. I’m pessimistic about our chances because of our SuperRugby record in New Zealand over the last six years, which is nothing to brag about. We can beat New Zealand teams in South Africa, but it is a whole different kettle of fish doing it away from home – and those are the points you have to get in order to succeed in SuperRugby.

The other thing about the rule that eight out of 15 teams qualify for the knockout rounds is that it makes bonus points very necessary for teams to pick up, so it has been pleasing to see the stated attacking intent of our franchises. But because you only get a bonus point by finishing three clear tries ahead of your opponents, that means teams have to defend as well.

In terms of the South African teams, there have been many changes in coaching set-up.

The Bulls have a fresh coaching team and I know they have been working hard and it will be interesting to see how they go. Having been to training at Loftus Versfeld, they certainly look in good shape, for which you have to credit the conditioning staff and John Mitchell.

The Bulls do have certain strengths, especially at hooker and their lock pairings, and the spine of their team is quite strong – hooker, the locks, eighthman, scrumhalf, flyhalf and fullback all look good. I suppose we can be not entirely sure about scrumhalf because Ivan van Zyl and Embrose Papier have got just two SuperRugby appearances between them. How those two cope with the step up to SuperRugby will be crucial; they are both certainly talented and this is now their chance and their time. These days scrumhalf is a young man’s position because it’s all about energy and work-rate.

The Bulls have a very tough start to the competition and how they get through that will be key. They play three New Zealand teams and the Lions in their first five games and if they can come through that with a positive ledger then they will really be contenders.

The Stormers have obviously lost a lot of quality centres and the injuries around their locks is also a concern. It’s interesting to see the changing roles of their coaching staff  and how that works out.

The Stormers were certainly a real handful in Cape Town last year with their offloading game and the way they scored tries. They will now have even more danger on the wings with the players they’ve added, but the big question mark will be how they defend away from home.

They obviously have problems at flyhalf after losing their lynchpin from last year in Robert du Preez, who really made a difference in the Currie Cup final with his control and ability to dictate field position, as well as his immaculate goal-kicking.

Unfortunately the Stormers have a real draw from hell after being in relatively easy Super 18 pools, but if they get a good start then they obviously can be playoff contenders.

The Sharks have also made changes to their coaching set-up. Dick Muir has come back to Durban and they are obviously not going to die wondering in terms of attack.

They have also made some astute signings like Du Preez and Makazole Mapimpi, and with Japanese players like Philip van der Walt and Andre Esterhuizen coming back, they should certainly be a handful. It’s also going to be interesting to watch Thomas du Toit’s move to tighthead after the Sharks scrum was demolished by Western Province in the Currie Cup final.

The Sharks do have a quality, big forward pack and if they keep them all fit and start well (they have a couple of nice games at home early on), that should bear them in good stead.

The Lions have also undergone a change in coaching staff, making appointments from within the franchise and giving guys their first chance at SuperRugby level, although Swys de Bruin has been there through all their recent success. It will be interesting to see how he steps up to being head coach and how well the Lions ride the loss of the Ackermanns, father and son.

The Lions’ strength is in their centres, with Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster and Rohan Janse van Rensburg certainly a quality trio. How the Lions accommodate all three of them through the season will be interesting.

The key for the Lions is that the spine of their team are now all seasoned Test players – Andries Coetzee, Elton Jantjies, Ross Cronje, Warren Whiteley and Malcolm Marx – so their core is still very strong.

It’s vital that they make a good start and they have always had strong set-pieces, so it will also be interesting to see how that evolves under new forwards coach Phillip Lemmer because the Lions have always scored a lot of tries through driving mauls and lineout special plays. Will that strength still be there?

The Sunwolves will be in action next week and they will certainly be stronger this year, they have a whole host of foreign players and the rest are basically the Japan national squad working towards the next World Cup. They are also under the former Highlanders pairing of Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown, who are very experienced SuperRugby coaches.

Once again the Kiwi franchises are the ones to beat, but obviously the British Lions’ success in New Zealand in June gave a little blueprint to teams in terms of how to succeed over there. You need a strong pack of forwards, good set-pieces to put them under pressure, a rush-defence to deny their playmakers time on the ball and extremely accurate box-kicking from scrumhalf because that is the hardest kick to counter-attack from because of the chase.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

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