Ken Borland

Bryan, back in South Africa and giving back to the Nyanga community for Mandela Day, have you had time to reflect on the successes of the last few months?

It’s not ideal being outside of South Africa and I’m unbelievably proud to call myself South African. Until you leave these shores, you never know what you’re missing, but I’m very happy where I am in France. The language is tough and sometimes if they talk too fast then you lose it, but luckily there are a lot of internationals at Toulon. It’s taught me to become a lot more independent. Driving on the right-hand side of the road takes some getting used to and I’ve stalled a couple of times! But staying on the French Riviera is pretty positive and a happy player is an in-form player.

It was a pretty special end to the season in France after I was a bit frustrated at the beginning. I was injured after the Rugby Championship, four months out, and then I was injured again on the end-of-year tour for another two weeks. So to come back and play a part in the finals was very special.

It was fantastic playing alongside Jonny Wilkinson and seeing the way he bowed out, there was no better way to end his career.

Those successes must fill you with a lot of confidence for the season ahead?

We have a lot to build on but there’s been a change in format in the Heineken Cup plus the Top 14 is 28 games against tough opposition every week. I went over to France to win trophies and I didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it did. So the foundation has been laid, I have a couple of years left with Toulon and I hope to contribute to even more trophies.

Was it a tough challenge coming to France and playing in those finals in your first season over there?

Experience plays a big part. I’ve played 90-odd Tests, so you learn how to bring something else out on the big occasions. Plus I had 11 amazing seasons in South Africa, good and bad times, and winning trophies from the Vodacom Cup to Currie Cup, SuperRugby and the Tri-Nations.

So I was happy to experience something different in France, I didn’t want to get stuck in a rut, you want to learn how to deal with new environments and challenges.

What are your future ambitions in terms of South Africa?

I hope to play more than a hundred Tests for the Springboks, play international rugby for another year or two. There are those elusive couple of tries for the world record and I’d love to achieve 100 caps. To be part of the 2015 World Cup is the short-term goal. It has without a doubt been the proudest moments of my career to pull that jersey over my head, but a lot still has to happen for me to reach those landmarks. But I’m going to push myself harder and further.

What’s the mood like in the Springbok camp at the moment?

Heyneke Meyer and his team are working towards something special. There are very exciting youngsters in the team and old heads who know the ropes. I hope to contribute to that journey, there were those two losses to New Zealand last year and we hope to rectify that in the Rugby Championship.

This Springbok side is heading towards one of the best I’ve been involved with, the foundation has been laid and a great atmosphere has been created. This is one of the happiest teams I’ve been involved with, thanks to Heyneke Meyer, who has put the onus on the individual.

2009 was a phenomenal year and we’re growing ever closer to that with a mix of the older guys and the newer combinations. We’re definitely heading the right way, we can only get better because the competition for places is high. You’re not sure of getting your place back these days if you sit out.

Willie le Roux was sensational in the June Tests, what’s it like playing next to him?

Willie is very exciting. Three years ago we played against him at Western Province when he was playing for Boland and it’s fantastic how he has embraced his opportunity with the Cheetahs. Cornal Hendricks too, came from Sevens and has had a huge impact with the Cheetahs.

Willie is a fantastic playmaker, probably up there with the best one or two fullbacks in the world. Hopefully I can be at the end of a few more of his final passes!

What are your future goals with Toulon?

After 11 seasons in South Africa which were the best times of my life, I want to leave the Toulon jersey in a better shape than I found it. I want to give my most for Toulon and South Africa.

How is your relationship with Mourad Boudjellal?

Mourad must take a lot of the credit for our success. He has put a lot of money into Toulon, he’s a staunch Toulon rugby man and he backed players even though people thought they were at the end of their careers. He took Toulon up from the second division with players like Tana Umaga, Victor Matfield, George Gregan and Andrew Mehrtens and now he’s developed a side of world-beaters.

To be double champions is pretty special and he must take credit for that, without him it would not have happened.

Mourad does not speak that much English so we haven’t had many conversations, but he’s as passionate as you can get about rugby. He does the Pilou Pilou for us when things go well.

There was talk about you representing South Africa at the Commonwealth Games Sevens, what happened there?

I’m very disappointed I won’t be going to the Commonwealth Games, but I understand that I am contracted to Toulon and the Commonwealth Games are not in the Test window. But it would have been fantastic to be part of that.

I went to a couple of training sessions with the Springbok Sevens and I could see their passion and enthusiasm. I’m firmly behind them and they have more than enough talent to do very well.

The University of Pretoria cricket team left for the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals in London on Thursday evening determined to bring the varsity world cup back to South Africa.

Assupol Tuks are representing South Africa at the T20 event for the first time and will be joining the student champions from the United Kingdom, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies in the finals, with 106 universities taking part in the qualifying tournaments.

The eight finalists will be split into two round-robin groups of four, with the draw only being done on Sunday evening. The top two teams in each group will then contest the semi-finals next Saturday, with the final to follow later the same day.

Tuks have been the national club champions for the last three years, enjoying an 18-match unbeaten run in the process, they are the South African Students Sports Union champions and in the last week they have beaten SA A twice in warm-up games.

“We’ve put a lot of work in for the last 12 weeks and I’m really chuffed with our preparation. It was great for the guys to play against SA A and measure themselves, and we managed to ruffle a few feathers as well.

“So everyone’s looking confident and very excited. We’re expecting a very high standard at the tournament, but we’re going there to win. The trophy looks like the real World Cup and we want it here,” coach Pierre de Bruyn said before the team’s departure on Thursday evening.

Tuks will arrive in England on Friday confident of their chances of winning the title in South Africa’s debut appearance at the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals.

The strength of the Tuks team would seem to lie in their batting. Opener Aiden Markram was not only the inspirational captain of the SA U19 side that won the Junior World Cup earlier this year but was also named the Player of the Tournament for the runs he scored at the top of the order. He has shown no signs of easing up since then and is joined in a powerful Tuks batting line-up by Theunis de Bruyn, one of the brightest batting talents in the Titans franchise, and strokeplayers such as Heinrich Klaasen, Sean Dickson and Johan Wessels, all of whom have been in fine form lately.

Left-armer Vincent Moore and Corbin Bosch, another SA U19 star who was man of the match in the Junior World Cup final, spearhead the bowling. Both have immaculate skills in the death overs, while seamers De Bruyn, Tian Koekemoer and Wessels, and off-spinners Markram and the lanky Ruben Claasen, slow left-armer David Mogotlane and leg-spinner GC Pretorius provide a wealth of options in all conditions.

The success of the Tuks side in the last three years also means they have mastered the knack of winning under pressure and coach De Bruyn, one of the most tenacious players of his era, takes pride in the ability of his team to get the job done.

“Some people don’t like pressure, but we want it, we thrive on it. We don’t pretend it’s not around and we’ve coached the players to deal with it. They make sure they find a way to perform under pressure and that plays a massive role, they have belief when they’re under the pump because they’ve overcome most pressure situations in the last three years,” De Bruyn said.

“I don’t think we could be better prepared, we’ve done the hard work and now we just need to express our skills with confidence. We’re a tight unit, we’ve been tested under pressure and we’ve won matches which we shouldn’t have won. I’m very confident in the batting and we have all the bases covered in our bowling,” Theunis de Bruyn, the captain, said.

The tournament starts on Monday at the Wormsley Cricket Club, while Saturday’s semi-finals and final will be held at the famous Oval.

Participating teams: Leeds Bradford MCC (United Kingdom); University of New South Wales (Australia); University of Liberal Arts (Bangladesh); Rizvi College (India); Karachi University (Pakistan); University of Pretoria (South Africa);International College of Business and Technology (Sri Lanka); Jamaica University (West Indies).

Tuks squad: Theunis de Bruyn, Heinrich Klaasen, Sean Dickson, Gerry Pike, Aiden Markram, Corbin Bosch, David Mogotlane, Tian Koekemoer, Vincent Moore, Nsovo Baloyi, GC Pretorius, Ruben Claassen, Johan Wessels.

http://www.redbull.com/za/en/stories/1331665381247/assupol-tuks-ready-for-campus-cricket-world-finals

University of Pretoria cricket coach Pierre de Bruyn is understandably a confident fellow as his Tuks team leave today for the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals in London, the student and three-time national club champions being worthy representatives of South Africa.

Such is the talent and efficiency of this Assupol Tuks team that they beat the Australia-bound South Africa A side in two warm-up games in the last week, and they must be one of the favourites to win what amounts to a T20 Varsity World Cup.

The student champions from eight different countries will be competing in the Campus Cricket Finals, which start on Monday, concluding with the final on Saturday evening.

“I’m really chuffed with our preparation, it was great for the guys to play against SA A and measure themselves. And we managed to ruffle a few feathers as well!

“SA A retired a couple of batsmen in the T20 game, but at the end of the day we took five wickets in the last four overs to win that match, and in the 50-over game, we were very convincing winners with seven overs to spare.

“We had our last net this [Wednesday] morning and everyone’s looking confident and very excited. We’re expecting a very high standard at the tournament, but we’re going there to win,” De Bruyn told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The fact that Tuks managed to beat the second tier of South Africa’s best cricketers suggests the opposition could be mourners by the end of the week in London. The draw for the three other teams in Tuks’s pool will only be made on Sunday, but the other competing teams are Leeds Bradford MCC (UK), University of New South Wales (Australia), University of Liberal Arts (Bangladesh), defending champions Rizvi College (India), Karachi University (Pakistan), International College of Business and Technology (Sri Lanka) and Jamaica University (West Indies).

As SA A discovered, coming up against pace bowlers Vincent Moore and Corbin Bosch, and hard-hitting batsmen like Theunis de Bruyn, Sean Dickson, Johan Wessels, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram is a daunting task.

While there is obviously enormous talent in the Tuks side, it is the ability of those around the stars – lesser-known players such as Tian Koekemoer, Ruben Claasen and GC Pretorius – to perform under pressure that makes them a formidable outfit. Tuks have been unbeaten for the last three years at the National Club Championships, a remarkable streak of 18 games that proves they know how to win.

“Some people don’t like pressure, but we want it, we thrive on it. We don’t pretend it’s not around and we’ve coached the players to deal with it. They make sure they find a way to perform under pressure and that plays a massive role, they have belief when they’re under the pump because they’ve overcome most pressure situations in the last three years,” De Bruyn, one of the most tenacious cricketers of his era, said.

Wormsley Cricket Club, one of the most beautiful grounds in England, will witness this formidable Tuks side in the group stages, with Saturday’s semi-final and final being held at the Oval, a famous venue fit for youngsters that are bound to make their names in South African cricket.

“How we start is going to be crucial, there’s no room for us to start slowly, there’s no room to try and find our feet or get into an innings or a bowling spell. We have to be on the button from the first ball on Monday,” De Bruyn said.

Tuks squad: Theunis de Bruyn, Heinrich Klaasen, Sean Dickson, Gerry Pike, Aiden Markram, Corbin Bosch, David Mogotlane, Tian Koekemoer, Vincent Moore, Nsovo Baloyi, GC Pretorius, Ruben Claassen, Johan Wessels.

While the Proteas are in Sri Lanka, South Africa’s next tier of internationals – the SA A side – will be heading off to Australia soon and coach Vincent Barnes says one of his most important tasks will be to mentally prepare the up-and-coming players for a country in which character assassination seems as much of a goal as taking wickets or scoring runs.

The SA A squad play their first match in a triangular series with the Australian and Indian A sides on July 20 and are busy preparing for a tough tour at the CSA Centre of Excellence in Pretoria. Barnes will be able to take fully-fledged internationals such as captain Justin Ontong, Marchant de Lange, Beuran Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Farhaan Behardien, Aaron Phangiso and Vaughn van Jaarsveld in his party, but there are numerous younger players, several of whom have never been to Australia before.

“The tour is designed to give our fringe players top-quality opposition and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play in Australia even though it’s winter. There are four recent Proteas [Hendricks, Phangiso, Kleinveldt & Behardien], but it’s a nice blend with a lot of senior players and quite a few young debutants.

“I’m doing a lot of mental work with them because I want us to go across there with presence, our body language is important. The biggest challenge in Australia is mentally and quite a few of the guys are on their first tour there. They’re going to have to deal with those mental pressures and learn how to overcome them,” Barnes told The Pretoria News on Wednesday.

Warriors opening batsman David White and Highveld Lions pace bowler Kagiso Rabada are two of the rookies in the squad, but they are both excited by the learning opportunities they will have in Australia.

“It’s a great honour to be chosen for the A side, I feel very privileged and I’m very excited. I want to learn as much as I can so I can build on my game for the Warriors, after I put in some nice performances for them in four-day cricket last season. Obviously the goal is to play Test cricket for the Proteas, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

“I have huge respect for the guys I’m playing with, there are some great cricketers and I’m going to learn as much as possible from them. Especially Justin Ontong, because he’s been around the block and has a lot of information to share,” White said.

Rabada was shining for the SA U19 Junior World Cup-winning side at the start of the year and his selection in both the four-day and limited-overs squads completes a whirlwind six months for the St Stithians product.

“Everything has happened so quickly, I went straight into the franchise team from the U19s and now I’m playing for SA A. I hope to learn from it and become a better cricketer. If I just play my best then the other things will take care of themselves, but my main goal is to play for the Proteas and long-term to be one of the best fast bowlers in the world,” Rabada said.

Five members of last season’s SA A squad – Kyle Abbott, Stiaan van Zyl, Dean Elgar, Hendricks and Phangiso will be involved in the Proteas’ tour of Sri Lanka and Barnes is excited by the possibilities that lie ahead for this year’s intake.

“Having so many young players has been refreshing and they’ve brought a lot of freshness and energy to the squad,” Barnes said.

And let’s not forget that next year’s World Cup will be held in Australia and history suggests a player or two from this A squad could well be involved with the full national team by then. While the wintry conditions in the sub-tropical far north will be different to those experienced at the height of the 2014/15 summer, it will do them the world of good to acclimatise to the abrasive Australian way of playing the game and all the other off-field quirks over there.

SA A squads

Four-day squad: Justin Ontong, Temba Bavuma, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Eddie Leie, Mangaliso Mosehle, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Hardus Viljoen, David White, Khaya Zondo.

Limited-overs squad: Justin Ontong, Farhaan Behardien, Cody Chetty, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Mangaliso Mosehle, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

Itinerary: July 20 v Australia National Performance Squad (Northline); July 22 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 24 v Australia A (Northline); July 26 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 29 v Australia A (Marrara); July 31 v Australia National Performance Squad (Gardens Oval); August 2 1v2, 3v4 (Northern Territory); August 7-10 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium); August 14-17 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium).