Ken Borland

Deon Fourie has been around South African rugby for a while, making his senior debut for Western Province in 2005, and he also played in France for seven years with Lyon and Grenoble, but the 35-year-old Stormers hero has always had a burning desire to be chosen for the Springboks.

Following his sensational displays in leading the Stormers to the United Rugby Championship title, he was selected to the Springbok squad for the first time, alongside seven other uncapped players.

On Thursday, the utility forward had completed his first week of training with the Springboks and his face, battered as it has been this season from all his tremendous efforts at the breakdown, was beaming.

“The intensity is way higher up than at provincial level, and, at the age of 35, it takes me longer to get up and running and I’m feeling it a bit,” Fourie smiled at their Pretoria hotel.

“Some guys have waited 22 years for their dream to come true, but for me it’s been 35 years. So it’s just great to be here and to realise my dream,” he said.

Fourie’s Stormers team-mate Evan Roos, also immense in the URC triumph, is 22 years old and perhaps who the elder statesman was referring to.

“This is a boyhood dream come true,” Roos said. “I watched most of these guys growing up, so it feels a bit surreal to be in the same squad as them now.

“But I’m excited about working hard on my game and making sure the important little things get better,” Roos said.

While new faces certainly bring an injection of energy and fresh ideas into a squad, it is a universal truth in rugby that experience is vital at international level.

And Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said that, coupled with a burning desire to restore their pride, will make Wales dangerous opponents in South Africa’s first three Tests of the year, starting on July 2 at Loftus Versfeld.

“We have an average of 26 caps per player, while Wales has 36 so they have experienced players who have been there before,” Nienaber said. “Their clubs also didn’t make the playoffs in the URC, so they have had a nice month to prepare.

“I’m not sure if they are pushing the restart button from the Six Nations, but I know from 2018 when we were desperate that you do desperate things. We changed our defensive system and the way we kick.

“They have had a lot of negative publicity, a desperate team is always dangerous and it is always a tough battle against Wales. Coach Wayne Pivac said their mission was to win a Test in South Africa for the first time.

“So we will prepare for what we think will come our way, but we will have to adapt on the field, do it on the run. We’re going to have to be unbelievably solutions-driven,” Nienaber said.

The 150th Open next month at St Andrew’s and the Masters and the U.S. Open next year are all now on the diary of South Africa’s 17-year-old sensation Aldrich Potgieter after he won amateur golf’s biggest prize – the 127th Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes – over the weekend.

Potgieter held off a strong comeback from Englishman Sam Bairstow to seal a 3 & 2 victory in the thrilling 36-hole final at the Lancashire links course. He became just the third South African to lift the prestigious title after Bobby Cole (Carnoustie, 1966) and Jovan Rebula (Royal Aberdeen, 2018), and the second-youngest winner of The Amateur since Matteo Manassero triumphed in 2009 at the age of 16.

“It’s really amazing,” Potgieter said. “I can’t really find the words; there’s no feeling like it and I haven’t felt this good before.

“It will take some time to sink in, because right now the words can’t even come out of my mind to describe how I feel,” the Mossel Bay golfer said.

And for now, all he can think about is teeing it up at one of the most famous venues in sport as the 150^th celebration of the Open goes to the home of golf, St Andrews, where massive crowds are expected from July 14-17.

“I’m really excited. I played the Old Course recently during the St Andrews Links Trophy and it was really amazing. I’m really looking forward to the experience and The Open has always been my favourite Major because of all the history it holds.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d be playing The Open at this age. It’s a dream come true and it’s going to be a tough few weeks, waiting out the return trip back to St Andrews,.” Potgieter said.

The staff at Pinnacle Point, where Potgieter plays his golf, were quick to celebrate his achievement on social media and it has been a meteoric rise for the big-hitter.

Potgieter and his family had been living in Australia for nine years before they returned to South Africa in December last year. Having been 6 000th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2019, by the time he returned home, he had risen to 2 800th and was West Australia’s No.1 junior and ranked sixth in Australia.

He announced himself in spectacular fashion on the GolfRSA circuit, winning the Nomads SA Boys U19 Strokeplay Championship and backing up that tournament record 20-shot victory at Royal Cape with an 8 & 7 win to lift the SA Boys Matchplay title — becoming only the fifth junior since 1963 to complete that rare double after Richard Sterne (1999), Dylan Frittelli (2008), Zander Gous (2013) and Jayden Schaper (2015).

Ranked 140^th in the world before the dream week at Royal Lytham, Potgieter has cemented his spot alongside fellow GolfRSA National Squad members Casey Jarvis and Yurav Premlall in the International Team for the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup in North Carolina in September.

The mother of all monsoon storms hit Bengaluru on Sunday night, washing out the fifth and final T20 between India and South Africa, and forcing the two teams to share the series at 2-2.

South Africa had once again won the toss and elected to bowl, with stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj (Temba Bavuma having not recovered from his elbow injury) being belted for two sixes in the first over by Ishan Kishan.

But Lungi Ngidi then produced two excellent slower balls to remove the two Indian openers, Kishan (15) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (10), to leave the home side struggling on 28 for two midway through the fourth over.

With the Proteas having taken an early hold on the game, but with India enjoying the momentum of winning the previous two matches, it was difficult to know who felt more relieved by the intervention of the rain.

South Africa had made three changes to their team, modifying the balance of their side to bolster the batting, but leaving themselves with just five frontline bowlers. Reeza Hendricks was going to replace Bavuma at the top of the order, while Tristan Stubbs came in for Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada returned from a groin niggle to replace Tabraiz Shamsi, leaving Maharaj as the sole spinner.

Spare a thought for Stubbs, who has now earned two T20 International caps but did not get to bat in either of the matches.

Ngidi first fooled Kishan with a wonderful, dipping slower yorker, bowling him with the last delivery of the second over.

Gaikwad fell to the penultimate delivery of the match, trying to hit Ngidi down the ground but the lack of pace meant he only made contact with the bottom of the bat, spooning a catch to Dwaine Pretorius at deep mid-on.

Ngidi finished with fine figures of two for six in 1.3 overs.

With the T20 World Cup set to start in Australia in October, at the moment the Proteas only have five more T20s scheduled before then – a trio of matches in England in July and then two games versus Ireland in August.

If Jake White is the professor of rugby here in South Africa then Duane Vermeulen is surely the dean when it comes to wise counsel for the players. And the duo teamed up on Friday to plot the downfall of the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship final in Cape Town on Saturday.

Not only is Vermeulen, who played for White at the Bulls in 2020 and 2021, one of the most respected wise old heads in South African rugby, but he also has all the knowledge from last weekend’s semi-final when his Ulster team only just went down to the Stormers via a conversion after the hooter.

“Duane is coming to eat with me just now and then he will come to captain’s practice with me this afternoon,” White revealed on Friday. “I will show him our lineouts and he can explain how Ulster felt they stopped the Stormers maul so well last weekend.

“It’s going to be incredible input to have to help us close down their maul as the lineout drives are going to play a big part in the final.”

The fact that Vermeulen is also a Stormers legend and is now in the enemy camp is not going to sit well with the Cape Town faithful. But change is the one constant in life and how the Stormers adapt to the shifting strategic needs during the final will perhaps be the deciding factor in who becomes the first URC champions.

White, who named an unchanged team on Friday, is confident that the Bulls have the game-management skills to fit their tactics to the situation and the expected bad weather.

“This team has found a way to win in different ways, they are clever enough to work out how to win while they’re on the field,” White said.

“They have continually learnt lessons. Last time we were here against the Stormers we didn’t play well, our heads were in another place and the players admitted that. But finals rugby is different.

“We faced unbelievable conditions last week against Leinster, but we found a way to play. Against Connacht we experienced playing against the wind in the first half and in the second half.

“The coaches have done enough work, the scenario planning has all been done. What the players have learnt has given them confidence for the final,” White said.

The World Cup winning coach also said the much-vaunted Stormers scrum, which he admitted was one of the home team’s key strengths, would not be the advantage it should be because of the unstable turf of the Cape Town Stadium.

The canny coach made a plea to the referee, Andrew Brace, to not let the result be decided by a penalty for a collapsed scrum.

Bulls: Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (captain), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements – Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Robert Hunt, Janko Swanepoel, WJ Steenkamp; Embrose Papier, Morne Steyn, David Kriel.