Ken Borland

The SuperRugby Conference system is bad for South African rugby as a whole, Bulls director of rugby Jake White believes, because it does not encourage the local franchises to work together.

SuperRugby is now a competition within a competition, with playoff spots depending on where teams finish in their respective conference, which means matches between South African teams are of increased importance. White, a former Springbok coach who battled with provincialism during his tenure from 2004 to 2007, believes this is unhealthy.

“The one thing that has changed since I was last involved in SuperRugby with the Sharks in 2013-14 is the Conference system. I’m not a fan of it, I believe you should play everybody else and the top teams from wherever get into the playoffs. We know the current tournament is not having the same impact as the old SuperRugby. Sometimes less is more and with more and more teams and games being added, it has led to teams not playing everyone.

“It also means that you don’t want the other South African sides to do well, whereas in the old days you would want the South African teams to knock over the opposition on tour and there might even have been some information shared on that. I don’t think it’s good for our rugby as a whole. But at least the six-team domestic competition they are working towards will give us some sort of rugby,” White told Saturday Citizen.

While the new Bulls boss hasn’t even had one session with his players yet, he warned that he is going to use all the knowledge he has gained coaching in Australia, France and Japan to the team’s advantage.

“I’ve picked up things in all the countries I’ve worked in and that could have a massive advantage for the Bulls. I’ve always been known as a pragmatic coach but you have to be. The reality is that a certain formula works and I believe if someone calls you a pragmatic coach, whatever the sport, then you are on the right track. You look at coaches like Jose Mourinho, by nature he likes to be ordered and structured and he’s had exceptional success,” White said.

The irony of landing up at Loftus Versfeld is not lost on White, who was often at loggerheads with the union and their players while he was Springbok coach.

“It was not my favourite place for no other reason than we had our differences at that stage, when I was just a young guy trying to do my best for the Springboks. But I’ve never underestimated the passion and loyalty of their supporters and the Bulls have always been a top provincial side,” White said.

The well-travelled 56-year-old has set about transforming the struggling Bulls, with signings such as Springboks Marcel van der Merwe and Gio Aplon confirmed this week, while former coach Pote Human has been let go.

White is not done yet, though, and on Friday the return of former Springbok flank Arno Botha was announced.

“Arno is a proud son of Loftus, and there is no doubt that the fans will be ecstatic to see him back. He started his rugby journey here and played all of his junior rugby in blue. There were big things expected from him from a young age, and he has now grown into a complete and well-balanced loosie. It’s no secret that we are in the process of building something very special at Loftus, and Arno is going to be a huge part of that,” White said.

Keshav Maharaj is not satisfied to be merely South Africa’s number one spinner in Test cricket; the 30-year-old said on Thursday that he wants to play in all three formats. And he even dreams of captaining the Proteas to World Cup glory one day.

While Maharaj is pretty much unchallenged for his place in the Test team, having taken 110 wickets in 30 matches, he has only played seven ODIs and is yet to be picked for a T20 International. Three of those appearances came in the whitewash of Australia earlier this year though and the left-arm spinner performed tidily enough to cement himself in the national selectors’ plans, being chosen for the abandoned limited-overs tour of India. It was Maharaj’s form for the Dolphins as they won the Momentum One-Day Cup that forced his return to the Green and Gold as he ended as the fourth-highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets, despite only playing seven out of the 10 games, and had the best average in the competition – 14.68.

“Since making my ODI debut in England in 2017, I had to work on my plan for limited-overs cricket and I went back to franchise cricket and worked as hard as I could. So it was a really good experience to be drafted back into the ODI side. Being boxed as a red-ball cricketer has been extremely frustrating for me because I was branded as a white-ball bowler early in my career!

“To be handed another opportunity for the Proteas was like making my debut again. I want to play for South Africa in all three formats, but for T20 I need to bide my time in the ODI side first. I want South Africa to be number one in all formats and if that happens then I must be doing my job. Then I just want to do better the next season,” Maharaj said on Thursday.

And if one enquires about the Durban-born star’s long-term goals then the drive and ambition of a champion competitor becomes clear.

“When I asked what I had to do to get back in the ODI side, I was told that apart from my bowling I had to work on my batting as well. I was fortunate to have extra responsibility as the Dolphins captain, it made me want to be able to bail the team out of any situation or put them in a winning position, and I managed to get some scores last season. I know I have a lot more ability with the bat than the numbers suggest.

“In India last year I tasted what it was like to get an international fifty. The biggest problem was getting the first one and hopefully now I can move to being a bowling all-rounder or even a fully-fledged all-rounder, able to contribute evenly with ball and bat. And I really enjoy captaincy, I really want to lead the Proteas, that’s my dream. Raising the World Cup trophy was a childhood dream of mine,” Maharaj said.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.

Monique Smit may not play the most magnificent attacking golf or have been lavished with the most talent when it comes to the South African women’s game, but what she does have in generous quantities is mental strength and that priceless commodity known as BMT.

The ability to play the percentages to perfection has seen the 29-year-old from George reigning at number one on the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s order of merit and she was also all set to compete in Europe before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The way she qualified for Europe is the story that exemplifies her BMT best. At the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School, won by Amy Boulden of Wales, at La Manga in Spain back in January, Smit won the 20^th and final card in a four-way playoff. The fact that she managed to do it so soon after her mother, Rejeanne, who had been her caddy for six years, passed away from cancer in November, made it even more remarkable.

“That was just a surreal day from start to finish. There were so many mixed emotions. The first time I played in Europe was eight years ago and my Mom was with me, those were such beautiful memories. But then not being able to tell her I had won my card made it bittersweet. To come through nine such competitive rounds and make the final cut was unbelievable to achieve,” Smit told Compleat Golfer.

“I spoke to my Dad before the final round and it was almost like my Mom’s hands were around mine for that final birdie putt on the 18th. I wasn’t nervous and I had no doubt that I could do it, even though it was crazy to be in a four-way playoff.

“I smashed my Driver on the first playoff hole, it was a good one and I knew I could get on in two on the par-five. It was 190 metres and I hit a three-wood into the middle of the green, I could just see myself hitting that shot. I then made a two-putt birdie and the Frenchwoman [Manon Gidali] made a 20-footer for birdie, the rest all made pars.

“I hit a good drive again on our second go down 18, but this time there was a bit more wind coming in and I didn’t feel as comfortable going for the green in two. So I left myself a nice full wedge coming in instead, and I hit it about 10 feet left of the flag. I wasn’t sure of the line so I asked Clara [Pietri, the Swiss pro who was caddying for her] and she said half-a-ball left and in it went. Manon’s putt wasn’t so good.

“So it was amazing to do something I had been planning for since April last year, but it was empty in some ways because I could not share it with my Mom. And then it was straight back home and into the Sunshine Ladies Tour … ” Smit said.

Smit, who is an only child and took up the game as a youngster when her father told her to join him on a course in George, certainly showed her maturity back home as she beat compatriots Stacy Bregman and Lejan Lewthwaite to the order of merit title.

Although Smit missed out on winning the SA Women’s Open at Westlake in mid-March, and qualification for the British Women’s Open that went with first place (English rookie Alice Hewson claimed those prizes), she still managed to finish second, which was enough to give her the order of merit title and a R100 000 bonus.

Once again it came down to a putt – a 30-footer for par on the last hole.

“It was absolutely amazing finishing off that way. Going into the SA Open, Lejan hadn’t had the best of tournaments at Glendower and had slipped to second, while Stacy had catapulted her way into first by finishing second in the Jabra Ladies Classic and I was third. There was about a 500 points difference between me and Stacy so I knew there was an outside chance.

“So you go through the constant calculations of points all the time, wondering who’s lying where? You just can’t control it because so many things need to happen correctly, but going into the last day I knew I still had a chance. But I had so many birdie opportunities but just absolutely nothing would drop. I had 11 straight pars and not one birdie, so, standing on the 18^th green, I said, ‘you know what Mom, nothing has happened today, so this one is for you’. Then about a foot before the hole I knew that putt was going to be in,” Smit said.

Even being seven shots behind going into the final round does not bleach Smit’s resolve, as she showed in winning the Joburg Ladies Open at Soweto Country Club at the end of February.

So where does this BMT come from?

“I don’t think I was born with it, but I’ve managed to learn how to obtain it in the last eight years. When I was first on tour, I couldn’t make a cut to save my life. When I went from amateur golf to being a pro, I thought I had to make a complete overhaul of my game. It was only in the last three or four years, since I did my PGA qualification, that I’ve learnt that the essence is to stick to basics, just your basics, make them as strong as possible,” Smit explained.

She has also had to endure much hardship in her career, which has undoubtedly hardened her mentally.

First she suffered a serious knee injury in early 2018, which forced her to undergo surgery.

“I’ve been through a lot of heartache. I used to do extreme running and explosive exercises and then one day my knee pad went into my meniscus, so I needed emergency surgery. Dr Spike Erasmus said I must take it seriously but if I did my rehab right then I should get there. Plus in Sandra Winter [a multiple amateur champion] I had one of the best physios, especially with her knowledge of golf. I practically grew up in front of her in George.

“So I took it one day at a time, but I realised how much I missed competitive golf. I thought maybe I’m not finished my playing career yet. It’s been a roller-coaster but there have been so many joys and small personal victories,” four-time Sunshine Ladies Tour winner Smit said.

She was back by November 2018 but then a year later, tragedy struck when her mother passed away.

“It was on the final day of the Soweto tournament last year that I got the phone call that confirmed that my Mom had pancreatic cancer and my life changed. I still went over to Europe and played on the LET Access Tour and made a couple of cuts.

“But she was always the first one to phone me. Now I have a new reality. But I still play as if she is caddying for me, you have to find a way of dealing with it. She was always my caddy and travelled with me, those were such beautiful memories. I’m still coming to terms with it,” Smit admitted.

But with her game in great shape and the confidence of being No.1 in South Africa this year, Smit can now look forward to really making her mark in Europe. “I definitely feel that I’m now at my peak, although I need to keep working on my consistency over three rounds. I don’t want to have one good round and then a poor round that makes me lose ground on the leaderboard. But it was fantastic for me to win the order of merit, it proves that what I’m doing is on the right track,” Smit said.