Ken Borland

They say it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters but the size of the fight in the dog, but the Currie Cup final was like Alsatians versus Poodles as the Bulls simply bullied and battered the Sharks into submission, winning 44-10, the biggest winning margin in the history of South Africa’s premier domestic final.

The Bulls only really bared their teeth in the second half, but their snarling, immense defence was the stand-out feature of the first half. Despite the Sharks dominating territory and possession, the Bulls scored tries on three of their four visits to the visitors’ 22, to enjoy a handsome 19-3 lead at halftime.

The tone was set for the first half from the outset as the Bulls received the kickoff and then had to defend for 12 phases before winning a turnover penalty. From the lineout, centre Harold Vorster burst straight through the midfield and dashed over for a try from 40 metres out.

The contrast in defences couldn’t have been more stark: The Bulls barely conceded an inch on the gainline, while the Sharks were ripped asunder from first phase with ease.

The Bulls’ second visit to the Sharks’ 22 came in the 23^rd minute and this time Vorster was the provider with a lovely little pop-pass for his outside centre Lionel Mapoe to go slicing through for a try, again straight from a lineout.

The Sharks were eventually on the board after half-an-hour through a Curwin Bosch penalty, but it took 10 phases of attack that made very little headway, to get it. The Bulls quickly struck back with a try for captain Marcell Coetzee, bulldozing over from close range with fellow flank Arno Botha at his back.

The Bulls called their kicking game more into service in the second half and it brought good rewards for them as fullback David Kriel and wing Madosh Tambwe were outstanding in the air.

Lock Janko Swanepoel had ruled the lineouts with Ruan Nortje and he deservedly crashed over for a try, followed by a nifty snipe-and-score by scrumhalf Zak Burger.

By now the Sharks were creaking in all facets – their scrum was being dominated, their lineout was not working and it really seemed like men against boys.

Prop Thomas du Tot was gifted a try from a Bulls lineout that went astray, but the home side rightly had the final say and there was no more popular try-scorer than wing Cornal Hendricks. He kicked through after wing Thaakir Abrahams grubbered into Mapoe, regathering brilliantly and diving over for the sixth and final try.

The 34-point winning margin beat the previous record of 30 points set by their Northern Transvaal predecessors when they beat Western Province 39-9 at Loftus Versfeld in 1980.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Harold Vorster, Lionel Mapoe, Marcell Coetzee, Janko Swanepoel, Zak Burger, Cornal Hendricks. Conversions: Chris Smith (4). Penalties: Smith (2).

Sharks – Try: Thomas du Toit. Conversion: Curwin Bosch. Penalty: Bosch.

The Proteas will want to continue to lay down the law as they have been doing recently in T20 cricket as their final dress rehearsal before the World Cup starts in Sri Lanka on Friday, with South Africa having won six of their last seven matches in the format.

The figures for the year overall are slightly less impressive, with eight wins from 15 matches, but it was in the West Indies in June when their fortunes began to turn around, largely due to some continuity in selection as the commitment was made to start choosing the best XI with October’s World Cup in mind.

Spin-bowling all-rounder George Linde might want to call his lawyer over his omission on Thursday from that 15-man World Cup squad, having played an integral role in the recent run of success, but it probably makes sense for the Proteas to now leave him out and play the two orthodox left-armers they have earmarked for the UAE – Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin.

It was confirmed on Thursday that Maharaj, who will be making his T20 International debut, will also continue captaining the side in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who was injured in the first ODI. Although Maharaj has no experience in this format at this level, judging by his form in the ODIs, one can bet their house that he will be as reliable as ever with the ball.

The third ODI showed just how tough playing Sri Lanka at home can be, which will be great preparation for the tough conditions expected in the T20 World Cup.

“It’s never easy coming here. The pitches in the UAE won’t be as slow as here at first, but they will deteriorate with all the IPL and World Cup games being played on them. So there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on playing spin, we’ve been working on different ideas and options. There’s no substitute for winning and winning the series is our primary objective,” senior batsman David Miller, who is back from injury, said on Thursday.

“We want more of the same as we come off good performances in T20 cricket in Ireland and the West Indies. We want to build on that momentum and confidence, and role-definition is going to be quite crucial. Spinners ad all-rounders is what we will rely heavily on and we need to assess and adjust to conditions. Our strength is playing as a team, being as smart as we can and combinations are key,” Bavuma said from Johannesburg on Thursday.

Since making his debut last November, George Linde has played in 14 of South Africa’s 18 T20 Internationals and done rather well, so his omission on Thursday from the Proteas’ squad for the T20 World Cup starting in October in the United Arab Emirates came as a shock.

Linde has taken 15 wickets in those games, at an average of 22.66 and a very tidy economy rate of 7.08 runs-per-over. Although he has not yet been able to really do justice to his talent with the bat, he has a strike-rate of 130.

The two left-arm spinners named in the squad are Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin.

Maharaj has yet to make his T20 International debut, although his performances in ODIs suggest this is overdue. Over the same period since Linde’s debut, Fortuin has played just six T20s.

Convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang on Thursday struggled to explain the selection tangle, which makes it look like the wrong horse has been backed for the last 10 months.

“George is one of our all-rounders, he has done well with the ball but we have decided to go with our senior all-rounders [23-year-old Wiaan Mulder and 32-year-old Dwaine Pretorius, both seamers] and in terms of a left-arm spinner, Bjorn. And the selection panel felt Keshav would bowl really well in those conditions. In terms of role-clarity, George has done really well on the bowling side, but Bjorn can also bowl up front and that swung it,” Mpitsang said.

Linde is the only White player amongst those three left-arm spinners, so questions were immediately asked about quotas in the make-up of the squad. Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said no policy was given to the selection panel, and Mpitsang said “there just happens to be” seven players of colour in the 15-man squad, as there have been in every Proteas world cup squad for at least the last decade.

Linde was named as one of the three travelling reserves, along with seam bowling all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo and paceman Lizaad Williams. The rest of the T20 squad are all in Sri Lanka for a three-match series that starts on Friday, apart from captain Temba Bavuma, who is back home having had surgery on a fractured thumb. He said he expects to have recovered in about four weeks.

None of South Africa’s T20 free agents – Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers – have been included.

It seems Morris has officially signed the divorce papers from Cricket South Africa, with Smith saying “he has made himself unavailable for international cricket”, while agreement could not be reached with Du Plessis. Tahir has a ready-made replacement in Tabraiz Shamsi and De Villiers stated in May that his international retirement was final.

“With the free agents, you have to find a balance that works for both the team and the player and unfortunately, with Faf in particular, we struggled to find a solution that would work for both parties. Imran has had a great run and been very successful, but we are very confident in our current crop of spinners and they deserve their chance,” Smith said.

Proteas T20 World Cup squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi. Travelling reserves – George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams.

Rassie Erasmus may not be in Queensland with the Springboks, but it is business as usual for coach Jacques Nienaber and his unusual relationship with his director of rugby when it comes to coaching the South African rugby team.

Erasmus is back in South Africa still waiting for a date to be set for his misconduct hearing after WorldRugby took exception to the 62-minute long video that he made pointing out all the refereeing mistakes made in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions. The former Springbok loose forward has had a far more hands-on relationship with the team than other directors of rugby around the world, who tend to be paper-pushers in plush offices.

“We had a conversation 10-15 minutes ago, so life goes on as per normal,” Nienaber said on Wednesday when asked at the team announcement whether he was missing Erasmus. “We operate a bit differently to the usual director of rugby/coach relationship because we are not confined by job titles. We don’t work like that. We know we have certain responsibilities, the team understands how that works, and even with the assistant coaches, we all have input in each other’s responsibilities.

“The one positive of Covid is that technology has made the world very small – you can be in someone else’s living room in 10 minutes. Rassie has flipped his day and night around to fit in with our schedule and sometimes he’s in our team meetings, he’s a part of us whenever he can join in. So it’s business as usual. He was also not with us for the first Test against Argentina.”

The last time the Springboks were in Australia was in Septmber 2018 when they lost 23-18 to the Wallabies in nearby Brisbane. They made many dumb mistakes that day, looked one-dimensional and sorely lacking in confidence. In the week after that stuttering display, Erasmus said he did not expect to keep his job if things then went badly against the All Blacks in Wellington the following week. But South Africa won in New Zealand for the first time since 2009, to the astonishment of everybody.

But back then they were still emerging from their years in the wilderness and have gone from strength-to-strength since.

“Last time we were in Australia, it was our sixth game working together with Rassie. From then a lot of things have been implemented. We installed a new defensive system in 2018 which the players were still getting used to, and they were finding their feet in terms of playing style.

“We’re now a lot more settled, we’ve been together for quite a few Tests now. We’ve only lost a handful of players since then, so our continuity has been good. We’re a lot more aligned – that’s the good difference between us then and now,” Nienaber said.