Ken Borland

As much as success breeds further success, it also leads to jealousy and negative attention, and Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick has likened the recent criticism of the South African team to dogs barking in the street.

It is not surprising that Stick should bristle over all the barbs aimed at the Springboks’ style of play, given that he is the attack coach and his team is hardly struggling to score tries or get their exciting back three into the game.

“We’re not going to lose focus on what we want to achieve, we’re not going to listen to the voices outside. We are the world champions and No.1 in the world so people will always be talking about us, it’s the nature of the position. When you’re winning, you expect that and we have made peace with that. It does not worry us and we won’t be influenced by the white noise.

“A dog only barks at a car when it is moving; it pees on the car that is parked. I’m still confused about all the criticism. Look at our wings, they are scoring a lot of brilliant tries, Lukhanyo Am is playing great rugby and Willie le Roux at the back is one of the best at seeing space. We’re scoring more points than the opposition, that’s why we’re winning,” Stick pointed out.

The backline coach was confident that talismanic eighthman Duane Vermeulen and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk will be available for this weekend’s clash with Australia at the Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.

“Duane is doing really well at training and hopefully he’ll be ready for the first game against Australia. Faf is also coming back and the only guy who’s really still struggling with injury is Rynhardt Elstadt. We still have a lot of room for improvement, but we are on the right track. We will focus on what we do best and they [the critics] must play touch rugby or champagne rugby.

“Everyone knows what to expect from Australia and we know that they enjoy having ball-in-hand and they stretch you in terms of your fitness levels. They have a lot of x-factor, skilful players, they play very expansive and entertaining rugby, that’s in their DNA. We’re still getting closer to where we want to be, but it’s going to be a nice game,” Stick said.

Five years ago a young Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg made the brave choice to leave his mom and dad behind in Pretoria and move to France. Now he is back in South Africa and poised to make his Springbok debut off the bench in the second Rugby Championship Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

In three years at the Bulls between 2014 and 2016, he had only played five Super Rugby matches. It was Jake White, ever the sharp eye for talent, who made contact as he was then coaching Montpellier.

Janse van Rensburg’s leap of faith has certainly paid off and White this week fondly remembered the kid who arrived at Montpellier and how much he has now grown.

“I’m very proud and happy for him, he’s gone a different route. He hadn’t really put his hand up here yet, in his age-group there were so many unbelievable locks, so he decided to go away from South Africa and he has really grown up. He made some massive sacrifices along the way, leaving his parents behind, and he first of all just joined the Montpellier Academy as a 21-year-old prospect. He still had to qualify to play senior rugby.

“I still remember when he arrived at Montpellier, this little blond-haired boy from Affies, very quiet and reserved. Now he’s married with a kid. Having been through all that, he did not coast to where he is now, he’s tougher and wiser and I have no doubt he will cope at international level,” White, ironically now coaching the Bulls, said.

Both White and veteran Springbok lock Lood de Jager, who will play his 50^th Test on Saturday and is likely to partner Janse van Rensburg in the second row in the second half, pointed to the two-metre tall, 115kg, 27-year-old’s ability to organise the lineout as being a key strength.

“His point of difference is that he can play lock and No.7, and he calls the lineouts. He’s a hard worker, he’s been playing in a tough league, with and against some of the best players in the world,” White pointed out.

“Nicolaas has been in France for a few years and is now one of Montpellier’s key players, he runs the lineout there. He works hard in training and off the field he does a lot of analysis on the opposition’s lineouts as well,” De Jager, who would have crossed swords with Janse van Rensburg when the Sale Sharks met the French club in European competition, said.

There are numerous South African golfers competing and excelling overseas, especially in Europe, these days.

And while the winning performances of the likes of Garrick Higgo and Dean Burmester on the European Tour, and Branden Grace, Higgo and Erik van Rooyen on the U.S. PGA Tour understandably hog the limelight, there are many other golfers just trying to make a living on those big tours. South Africa have seven full-time golfers on the main tour in the United States, four of which also regularly play in Europe, alongside 16 other South Africans.

Less well-known is the fact that there are six South African women’s golfers in the top 100 on the Ladies European Tour. And when one compares the prizemoney they win to their compatriots on the men’s tours, the massive pay disparities when it comes to gender become apparent.

Darren Fichardt is 99^th on the European Tour order of merit and has won more than 170 000 euro n seven tournaments this year; Stacy Bregman is 100^th on the Ladies European Tor standings and has won just over 52 500 euro in 11 events.

Even at the top end of the rankings, the story is the same. Justin Harding is 20^th in the Race to Dubai and has earned more than 610 000 euro in 19 starts; Ashleigh Buhai is 21^st on the LET and has won just 93 254 euro.

The majority of South African golfers overseas are not winning titles, they are just trying to accumulate enough money week-by-week to keep playing over there and hopefully get the breakthrough win that secures their card. That challenge is especially hard for the women: On the men’s European Tour this year there is not a single tournament that has a prize pool of less than a million euro; only nine out of 26 LET events reach that benchmark.

The two women’s majors played in Europe – the second of which, the AIG Women’s Open, is being held this weekend at Carnoustie – have a prize fund of 3.8 million euro, which would rank 12^th highest on the men’s tour.

“Playing golf overseas is an expensive sport, especially doing it week-to-week, there are huge overheads if you don’t have help. If it weren’t for my sponsor Investec, I would definitely not be able to represent the country in Europe and maybe inspire the younger generation that it is possible. And you have to go overseas to play better golf, playing against the best in the world can only improve your game.

“In the future, hopefully more youngsters from South Africa can make a good living from golf. It’s a tough sport and a lot of girls are intimidated to play it. We want to make it a sport for everyone and to show that we definitely need to get more women watching us play. But to do that we need more media exposure, it has to be in your face for people to notice,” Bregman told The Citizen.

Of course, the argument that the men enjoy such large paydays because they attract greater viewership and more sponsorship will be made. But part of the reason for their bigger viewership figures is that the men’s game enjoys greater promotion, while not as much effort is made to explain just how skilful women’s golfers are, not relying so much on power games.

For instance, research has shown that women golfers are more accurate from 120 yards in, but those are the sort of in-depth stats that coverage of their sport does not employ to the same extent as the men.

“Our only hope of seeing the gap in prizemoney close is for people to see how good our product is. We should actually be paid the same because we are playing the same courses. We might not have the same power, and somehow that does not seem to have the same pull when it comes to viewership, but we just don’t play golf the same way the top men do.

“It’s about creating awareness for potential sponsors and I definitely think the skill factor should be highlighted. The average golfer plays a totally different game to the men’s pros, but I think the better men’s amateur golfers can relate more to the women’s game. I think our game does have more skill and the more men that watch us play will hopefully lead to things changing,” Bregman says.

But analyses suggest that even if women are at the forefront of public attention and viewership figures, they still end up learning less. According to the Wall Street Journal, in the three years after winning the 2015 World Cup, the U.S. women’s soccer team generated more revenue than the men’s team. But their earnings did not rise, leading to a landmark lawsuit that tackled the gender pay gap. A judge ruled, however, that because the women’s team had previously negotiated a pay deal that was weighted more towards fixed income than perfomrance bonuses, they could only sue for equal working conditions and they came to a settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Locally, Investec have been at the forefront of efforts to create more transparency around prizemoney in golf and have been pushing for sponsors to support women’s golf so that the sport can follow tennis and athletics in ensuring that there is no major gap in earnings between the top male and female stars.

The fact that South Africa are currently enjoying a surfeit of top-class depth is a particular boon in these times of Covid restrictions because for a player to join the Springbok squad in Australia at a later stage for the Rugby Championship requires them to jump through a series of almost impenetrable hoops.

Which is why the Springboks will be leaving for Australia on Sunday, the day after their second Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, with a squad of 42 players and 10 others on standby who are also following strict Covid protocols.

“We are all in a very specific testing regime, so it is tough to get people from outside into the squad. All the players need to pass blood tests, PCRs and antigen tests on specific days, even our standby players, if they are to be allowed to get on the plane to Australia. A player coming in to the squad once we are there has got to follow a well-prescribed testing regime in South Africa and then isolate for 14 days in Australia.

“It’s why the whole squad of 42 will travel on Sunday because it’s almost impossible to add players later on. Argentina and us will be travelling together from Port Elizabeth on Sunday in a plane to Cape Town that will be our own bubble and then we fly together to Australia. If we lose a player to injury in the first Test then his replacement would probably only be available to play on the Tuesday before the last Test against New Zealand on October 2,” Nienaber explained on Tuesday.

The Springbok coach was forced to call into service many of his back-up players in last weekend’s first Test against Argentina and they did a superb job, notching a 32-12 bonus point win. For this Saturday’s repeat fixture, the first-choice, World Cup winning, backline, save for Cobus Reinach coming in for the injured Faf de Klerk at scrumhalf, is back in tow.

The pack is more mix-and-match with regulars Trevor Nyakane, Malcolm Marx, Lood de Jager, Siya Kolisi and Franco Mostert all starting, while tighthead Thomas du Toit will play his first Test since coming on against Namibia in the 2019 World Cup, lock Marvin Orie is in the run-on XV for the first time and fellow second-rower Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg is in line for his debut off the bench.

“It’s a punishing Test schedule we have with the Lions series on three successive weekends and then six matches in eight weeks in the Rugby Championship, so we are forced to make changes to look after the players’ welfare. I said last week how good Argentina are and we are not taking them lightly at all. But our selection speaks volumes for the depth we have,” Nienaber said.