Ken Borland

WorldRugby this week confirmed the hosts of their World Cup tournaments for men and women through to 2033 and proved again that, as the governing body for the sport, they are mainly concerned with making as much money as possible and not necessarily the good of the game or sporting principles like fairness and equity.

Of the nine men’s World Cup tournaments held, six have been won by New Zealand and South Africa, and yet they are the countries most unlikely to ever host rugby’s showpiece tournament again, purely for economic reasons.

New Zealand’s small population and time zone issues mean the 2011 tournament they won is likely to be the last one they ever host, while South Africa are mainly prejudiced by their weak economy. Although the exchange rate does make hosting the tournament cheaper, WorldRugby still demand a guarantee of about R2 billion from whoever stages a World Cup.

That sort of money can only really be stumped up by northern hemisphere nations and Australia.

But having put on some of the greatest sporting events ever held – Madiba’s 1995 Rugby World Cup at the dawn of democracy, the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 Football World Cup – there is no denying South African rugby fans feel tremendously hurt at being snubbed by WorldRugby.

That hurt is only made greater by the skullduggery that saw France snatching the hosting rights for next year’s World Cup, after WorldRugby’s own evaluation committee had recommended South Africa.

But when it came to the WorldRugby council voting on the issue, the powerful European bloc backed France. The worse betrayal of all came from Rugby Africa, the continental body which has its offices in Cape Town, paid for by SA Rugby, and who also voted for France.

Much like in African football, there is a growing sense of north African teams seizing power and aligning themselves with the old colonial power of France.

In a decision WorldRugby chairman Bill Beaumont, the former England captain, said would “accelerate the growth and impact of rugby globally”, Australia were awarded the 2027 World Cup and the USA the 2031 edition. The next three Women’s World Cups (2025, 2029 & 2033) will be hosted by England, Australia and the USA.

Apart from an obvious trend towards favouring the Anglosphere, the USA are hardly a rugby power. Their women may be ranked seventh in the world, but the men’s game is still taking baby steps.

Major League Rugby has been on the go in America since 2017 and the sport is growing in the world’s biggest commercial market. But the USA would be the weakest team to ever host the World Cup and they still only attract around 20 000 people to their home matches.

Sevens rugby is their most popular format, with nine million TV viewers for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco in 2018.

One can argue giving Australia a World Cup is also helping the development of the game because Rugby Union is perpetually fighting a battle for prominence in a country that prefers Aussie Rules and Rugby League. Especially with the Wallabies slowly drifting away from rock-bottom and their union admitting that hosting the World Cup will basically save them from going bankrupt.

Having been kind enough to help Australia out of their financial hole, one hopes WorldRugby will show the same generosity and offer the same opportunities to New Zealand and South Africa, historically the most important rugby nations.

But it will be at least 40 years between World Cups for South Africa, and New Zealand are lagging in the sporting arms race when it comes to the capacity of their stadiums, the size of their population and technological advancement.

Oh, and don’t forget that both these great nations cannot pour enough of that all-important cash into WorldRugby’s greedy coffers.

Cheslin Kolbe’s sidestep has become one of South Africa’s most beloved sporting memes but the ace winger has praised the Springboks’ kicking game and their defence for allowing him to pull off his trademark move once again in setting up Lukhanyo Am’s dazzling try in the SA A team’s win over the British and Irish Lions in midweek.

Kolbe fielded a kick just inside his own half and five metres in from touch 32 minutes into the first half, jogged a bit and then exploded, wonderful footwork taking him through a small gap, and his super offload to Am then leading to a try. But the build-up to the try had seen the Springboks constantly driving the Lions back into their 22 with kicks, a tremendous defence then getting up quickly to force the tourists into kicking the ball back.

“A lot of teams try to use the kicking game to launch attacks and it’s about showing the patience for the perfect time to counter-attack. We did well to capitalise on our opportunities. For us, kicking is always about going forward, we want to make sure our backs are always going forward. You need to sum up what the defence are doing and try to bring some x-factor.

“We managed to do that quite a lot, but credit must also go to the forwards. They defend, defend all the time and that gets you energy and excitement and then you can’t wait to attack again. We expected the Lions to use long kicks on to the back three, but their kicks were mostly quite short. Fortunately Jasper Wiese was able to get up and take most of those,” Kolbe said.

While the try gave the Springboks a 17-3 lead, it took the mother of all defensive efforts for them to hold on to that lead until halftime, especially with scrumhalf Faf de Klerk and flank marco van Staden yellow-carded in quick succession. That superb defensive effort continued in the second half as the SA A side won 17-13.

“I was super-proud of the character everyone showed without a lot of preparation. We just had to hang in there, man up and try and stay in the fight. The defence delivered, especially when they defended a number of phases on our line. That showed our fight and we got energy from that,” Kolbe said.

Not making use of the facilities at your disposal is one of the serious crimes of the sporting world, and Proteas captain Heinrich Klaasen said his team wasting a handful of their 20 overs cost them the match in the first T20 against Pakistan and is what they have to put right in the games on Saturday and Sunday in Lahore if they are to win the series.

South Africa fell three runs short in the first T20 in a gutsy effort, but they would have expected to chase down 170 on a good pitch for batting. But having been 51 without loss after the six powerplay overs, the Proteas then lost their way, but the next six overs saw them slip to 83 for three, leaving them to score 87 runs off 48 balls. Which was too steep a task.

“I thought that Pakistan were 10 runs short and I was very happy with our effort in the field and to be chasing 170. But it was just four or five overs in the middle where we made life very difficult for ourselves. Usman Qadir bowled two overs and had two for four in that middle phase and that put us on the back foot in the middle overs.

“Hopefully we can lift our intensity in that middle phase and then we’ll get over the line. Our standards are high, we don’t like losing although we played a good game of cricket. One or two bowling things didn’t go to plan, we need to reassess one or two overs, but I was generally very pleased with how the bowling went, and I was quite pleased with the fielding, but not the two dropped catches at the end,” Klaasen said after his first match as Proteas captain.

Among the positives in the batting was that Janneman Malan and Reeza Hendricks came off as an opening pair. Malan blazed his way to 44 off 29 balls before becoming Qadir’s first victim as he was made to look silly by a superb delivery, while Hendricks batted as the anchor and made it through to the 18^th over, scoring 54 off 42 balls. Some critics have described Hendricks’ innings as being too slow, but with wickets tumbling at the other end he obviously saw his role as being to bat for as long as possible until someone could form another partnership with him.

“I was very happy with the start and Reeza only faced 12 balls in the first seven overs, so Janneman was always going to score more quickly. Unfortunately Janneman got out when we could have completely taken the powerplay away from them, then we lost the game between overs seven and 10. We didn’t do too badly tonight, but we just slipped up in the crucial moments.

“But that’s part of the learning process and the key this weekend is to be patient and take control of those moments. Hopefully the new guys will use the opportunity to showcase their skills, we need to be adaptable and we will chop and change a few things,” Klaasen said.

Barring the sporting equivalent of a miracle or the intervention of the weather, the Imperial Lions are well on their way to a second successive victory in their 4-Day Domestic Series match against the Warriors in Port Elizabeth.

The Lions took their first innings score to 389 all out on the second morning on Tuesday and then a fine all-round bowling display saw the Warriors skittled for just 118.

Tladi Bokako set the tone up front with brilliant figures of 13-5-14-2, but he had excellent support from Delano Potgieter (2-22) and Malusi Siboto (2-40) and Sisanda Magala wrapped up the innings with three for 37.

Leading by 271 runs, the Lions then reached 125 for three by stumps, with Wesley Marshall following up his superb 145 in the first innings with a fluent 48 off 60 balls, with 10 fours. Ryan Rickelton (32*) and Wiaan Mulder (23*) then added 40 before close of play.

Already 396 runs ahead, the Lions will be contemplating a declaration sometime on Wednesday that will give them almost a day-and-a-half in which to bowl out the Warriors a second time.

Aiden Markram has already shown that his game has all the equipment needed to succeed at Test level and the 26-year-old definitely also has the confidence and form to ensure he will soon be opening the batting again for the Proteas as he led a decent Titans batting effort on the second day of their match against the Cape Cobras at Centurion.

Markram followed up his century in each innings last week against the Warriors with a classy 80 not out that led the Titans to 136 for one when lighting and rain ended play just before 4pm. He collected 13 fours and was particularly authoritative on the drive.

He received strong support from Neil Brand (38*) as the pair added 104 for the second wicket after Corbin Bosch had produced a brute of a delivery that brushed the glove of Dean Elgar to have him caught in the slips for 9.

The Cobras began the day on 351 for five and took their score to 411 all out, with all-rounder Calvin Savage scoring a useful 40 and Bosch adding 28.

Thando Ntini finished with three for 66 and there were two wickets apiece for Lizaad Williams and Okuhle Cele.

In Durban, the Knights have erased the Dolphins’ considerable first-innings lead of 137 with just two wickets down as they reached stumps at the halfway stage of their game on 150 for two.

Opener Matthew Kleinveldt is doing a great job for the Knights on 67 not out, but the Dolphins have picked up a key wicket with Raynard van Tonder being caught at silly mid-off off left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy for 46 shortly before bad light stopped play.

The Dolphins had earlier reached 253 all out in their first innings thanks to Grant Roelofsen’s tenacious 73 and Prenelan Subrayen’s hard-fought 44, a crucial contribution considering the Dolphins were 169 for seven when he came to the crease. Fast bowler Daryn Dupavillon backed up his seven wickets with a useful innings of 19 as he and Subrayen added 40 for the ninth wicket.

Paceman Gerald Coetzee and off-spinner Patrick Botha took three wickets apiece.