Ken Borland

‘Matching the opposition’s physicality’ is a recurring riff in rugby these days, and Sharks coach Sean Everitt spoke of little else when assessing the strengths of the Dragons team they come up against in their United Rugby Championship match in Newport on Saturday.

The Sharks themselves do not own the most physically intimidating side, putting greater value on mobility, tempo and expansiveness, but they have produced the grunt at times.

The Dragons, meanwhile, are under new management with Dai Flanagan moving from Scarlets in June to take over as head coach. It is believed director of rugby Dean Ryan is being moved on, after he gave the players a public earful following their lacklustre 44-6 loss to Edinburgh on the opening weekend of URC action.

The squad responded with a 23-17 win over Munster, a major upset, the first time they have beaten the Irish giants since 2015, and their first win at home at Rodney Parade in 18 months.

“The Dragons have a new head coach and they are a very different kettle of fish at home,” Everitt said. “Last week they dominated Munster physically, in the mauls, collisions and set-pieces, they were vastly improved in those areas.

“So obviously we will need to be dominant from a physicality point of view. The Dragons are a different team from when we beat them 51-3 in April. We were fortunate to be at home then.

“It was difficult for them in Durban at that time of year and it’s going to be a different challenge for us in Newport. They pride themselves on their physicality and the collisions.

“They are physical by nature and we are going to have to be up for it physically,” Everitt reiterated.

But whenever the Dragons have come up against South African opposition – probably the measure for physicality in the URC – it has been a chronicle of disappointment for the Welshmen.

They lost all four matches they played against South African teams last season, and, notwithstanding their brilliant result against Munster, which ended a six-game losing run, they have not won successive URC games since April 2021.

Kick-off: 8.35pm.

PENNINGTON, KwaZulu-Natal – First-round leader Brooklin Bailey spoke about feeling comfortable on the Bermuda Grass of the Selborne Park Golf Club and feeling right at home was also the author of Jaco van Zyl’s success on Friday as he claimed the lead after the second round of the Gary & Vivienne Player Challenge.

Van Zyl fired a tremendous seven-under-par 65 on Friday to go into the final round on 11-under-par, one stroke ahead of another multiple Sunshine Tour winner in Hennie Otto.

The 43-year-old Van Zyl has played the short, but challenging Selborne course many times, having previously lived further down the South Coast in Port Shepstone.

“I lived in Port Shepstone for five years after school and I won provincial tournaments here, so I have good memories. It’s a great golf course and it suits me down to the ground.

“You don’t need to bomb the ball 350 metres here, you just keep it in position and manage your way around,” Van Zyl said.

The Pretoria-born golfer, who shot 68 in the first round to trail Bailey by four strokes, made the ideal start to his second round as he birdied the first three holes. He parred his way to the turn and then went right back on to script with three birdies in four holes from the 10^th. A three-putt on the sloping par-three 15^th green cost him a bogey, but Van Zyl finished strong by birdieing the 16^th and 18^th holes.

“You need to capitalise on the first few holes here, fortunately I did that and then I knew that there was a low score out there.

“On 15 there was just a very tough flag right on the slope, and even though I hit the ball pin-high and made what I thought was a good putt, the ball still went six feet down the hill and I missed that one coming back,” Van Zyl said.

The Benoni resident made a bungle of his last two Sunshine Tour events, missing the cut at the SunBet Challenge Time Square and the Vodacom Origins of Golf Highland Gate, but he made a strong start to the season with three top-20 finishes before that.

Van Zyl has been through a tough time over the last couple of years, but he felt that Friday’s 65 was the first time in a while that his score has reflected how well he has been hitting the ball.

“I’ve been struggling for the last couple of years with injuries and some personal issues, but now it all seems to be falling into place. My game has been there, but my scores just haven’t reflected it.

“But that’s what makes this game so challenging: You think you’re heading in the right direction but then you find yourself on a dirt road for a couple of weeks.

“So it was nice to be back on the tar today, and hopefully that will become a double-lane road and then a four-lane highway soon,” Van Zyl chuckled.

Otto started his round on the 10^th, and an eagle-two on the par-four 18^th hole saw him go out in 32, but the veteran dropped three shots on the front nine to finish with a 68. But he is right in the mix on 10-under-par, as are Pieter Moolman (69) and the in-form Albert Venter (70) on nine-under.

Bailey also started on the 10^th and birdied the par-three 11^th hole, before back-to-back bogeys on 12 and 13 set him back. The American would go on to drop five more shots, including a double-bogey on the par-four eighth, but he also collected six more birdies to finish with a 72 and share fifth place on eight-under, just three strokes back, with Sean Bradley (71).

DULLSTROOM, Mpumalanga – When Tandi McCallum tore through the front nine at Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate on her way to a seven-point victory in the Sunshine Ladies Tour section of the Vodacom Origins of Golf ProAm, one could not help but cast one’s mind back to the evening before the first round and her comments as she spoke about how sports performance coach and mental wellness therapist Joanne Mountford has helped her regain peak form.

Mountford, who has been working with the South African women’s hockey team for their World Cup and Commonwealth Games campaigns, is also the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s coach and therapist for the player wellness programme sponsored by BetWay. Because Vodacom firmly believe that Health is Wealth, Mountford was invited as the keynote speaker for the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series ProAm at Highland Gate.

McCallum was on hand to back up Mountford’s methods, and her ProAm victory in the Dullstroom mountains was her third in a row, testament to the success of the player wellness programme.

“It’s crucial to understand what makes you tick, and Jo’s programme makes it very apparent what functions best in your game. If you’re always working on what you’re not good at, then you kind of end up chasing your tail,” McCallum said.

“It’s about consistency and how I manage myself and what I’m good at. It’s about keeping on track and staying in the flow with myself. She has given me techniques I can tap into that lead to better results.

“It had been a while since I had won and I felt like a bridesmaid for three years, getting into contention several times but then just not pushing through. You always find that there are one or two shots down the stretch that make the difference.

“As golfers, we know the value of each and every shot, but you also don’t want to put yourself under pressure. So when your thoughts start running away with you, that’s when I use Jo’s breathing techniques,” McCallum said.

As all golfers know, it can be the most frustrating of hobbies for those who play it socially, but imagine the pressures when it is your livelihood.

“It’s actually very difficult to just play one shot at a time, you can’t help but think about how winning might change your life, extend your playing privileges, get you into certain tournaments etc,” McCallum said.

“So it’s about staying in control of your thoughts and emotions for 18 holes. When I won again, I was leading by three and I was thinking ‘it’s great to be here’, but I was very nervous.

“You need reassurance that what you are doing is working and something as simple as controlling your breathing can get you over the line,” McCallum said before putting it all into practice and sweeping to another victory.

“I try and give the golfers actionable goals so they can stay focused in the moment,” Mountford explained. “I try and help them get rid of anything that hinders, like even perfectionism, which can be great, especially in a golf swing, but there can be a point where you need to let go, otherwise the mind can be very destructive.

“Pressure leads to anxiety, which feeds your sympathetic nervous system which activates fight or flight. So I work with their breathing so they activate their parasympathetic nervous system, which brings their heart and breathing rates down,” Mountford said.

It was in December 2013 ahead of a Test against India at the Wanderers that former Proteas coach Russell Domingo spoke about the DNA of South African and Indian teams and how pace bowling was the strength of the home side and the weakness of the subcontinent team.

“They have always had issues playing pace in South Africa and that is what history shows. It is a South African strength. It is the way that we were brought up playing cricket,” Domingo said.

“Subcontinent sides will always turn to spin and South Africans will turn to pace because that is in our DNA. Having a four-pronged pace attack is important for us against a country like India in our conditions.”

An epic Test match followed in which India dominated the South African bowling, Virat Kohli scoring 119 and 96 and Cheteshwar Pujara confirming his pedigree as a special player with 153, his first century overseas. An incredible final innings saw the Proteas flirt with chasing down 458, before settling for a noble draw on 450/7.

Although South Africa then won in Durban to win the two-match series, India had shown they were on the brink of rustling up a pace attack fit to compare with any in the world. When they returned to the Wanderers in 2018, they beat the Proteas by 63 runs with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami both getting five-wicket hauls.

Now the tourists are back at a venue where South Africa have not been able to beat them in five attempts, India actually winning at the Bullring in 2006 and 2018. And India showed in the first Test at Centurion just how wonderful their current pace attack is, and it is the Proteas batsmen who have the issues trying to handle the heat.

Out-bowled as well as out-batted at SuperSport Park, South Africa may well consider playing an all-pace attack at the Wanderers; with Quinton de Kock already having to be replaced, Duanne Olivier coming in for spinner Keshav Maharaj as the only change would be the least disruptive selection.

But Maharaj, even though he is not a broad-chested alpha-male in the mould of a Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis, is an important leader in the team and captain Dean Elgar has spoken of his reluctance not to have him in his XI.

As much as Marco Jansen has shown he can deliver useful runs as a batsman, No.7 is surely too high for him at this fledgling stage of his career. So South Africa will have to choose between having four frontline seamers and an all-rounder (Wiaan Mulder) at 7, three specialist pacemen, a spinner and an all-rounder, or just four bowlers, including Maharaj, and an extra specialist batsman.

Needing to deliver a win at the Wanderers to maintain their hopes of winning the series, the Proteas should perhaps put the responsibility of bowling much better than they did on the first day of the first Test, and getting 20 wickets, on four bowlers and thereby strengthening the fragile batting with someone like Ryan Rickelton coming in at No.7.

Kyle Verreynne is likely to replace De Kock at No.6 and the uncapped Rickelton, who is a top-order batsman for the Central Gauteng Lions, has scored centuries in his previous two innings at the Wanderers.