Ken Borland

Lions hooker Malcolm Marx on the rampage once again. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

When the ACT Brumbies’ style of play dominated rugby in the early 2000s there were many pseudonyms for what they were doing – structured rugby, expansive rugby, multiphase play, all set up by skilful ball-carriers.

The Jaguares reminded me a bit of that multiphase play at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon as they valiantly held on to the ball for phase-after-phase. But the game has moved on since the glory days of Gregan, Larkham and Finegan and these days teams trust their defences to hold out for long periods, eventually forcing the error or a one-off runner that is vulnerable to the breakdown steal.

We saw it in the Crusaders’ victory over the Sharks in the other SuperRugby quarterfinal featuring a South African side earlier in the day, and the Lions’ defence was the biggest factor in their 40-23 win over the Jaguares.

As the Jaguares pushed and prodded with more determination, so the Lions just worked harder and with more physicality in defence, simply not allowing the Argentinians to get their game going. Hooker Malcolm Marx led the way with vital turnovers, but Marnus Schoeman also contributed valuably and Kwagga Smith was also a presence at the breakdown.

“Collectively it was a massive effort and you have to give credit for all the turnovers to the guy who makes the tackle as well because he provides the opportunity. A guy like Malcolm is then just impossible to shift, Kwagga made one or two steals as well and Marnus was excellent when he came on. At stages the Jaguares kept the ball for a long time, but we showed good patience on defence,” Lions captain Warren Whiteley said after his team had clinched their third successive SuperRugby semifinal at home.

Captain Warren Whiteley epitomises the Lions defence with this hit on Agustin Creevy. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

The Jaguares are certainly a force to be reckoned with going forward in SuperRugby, as they showed in the third quarter when they came from 9-24 down at the break to close to 23-27.

They were piling on the pressure, but Marx won three turnover penalties and those are the crucial interventions which win knockout games, with coach Swys de Bruin talking afterwards about “great defence at the right times”.

Jaguares coach Mario Ledesma spoke afterwards about how disappointing it was to concede three “soft” tries in the first half, but the Lions are a clever, innovative side on attack, able to try different things and generally pretty clinical.

All three of the tries came from different kicks: An Elton Jantjies crosskick found wing Ruan Combrinck with pinpoint precision for the first try; centre Harold Vorster followed lovely sleight of hand with a clever kick through that became even more effective thanks to the pace of Aphiwe Dyantyi getting there first to hack through and allow Vorster to score after the Jaguares made a mess of the clean-up operation; and a little dink over the top by flyhalf Jantjies was gathered by scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou, but his loose pass was immediately intercepted by Marx, who roared away from the 10m line for the try.

The Lions were cruising with a 24-9 halftime lead, but the admirable Jaguares were not done yet though as Bautista Delguy used his quick feet to score a fine try down the right wing two minutes after the break, and seven minutes later the visitors scored again as flank Pablo Matera crashed over. It was not the best grubber kick by the Lions that had given them broken-play possession.

Flank Cyle Brink, after a barnstorming first half, did not come out for the second half due to a shoulder ‘stinger’, but it was not a problem for the Lions as his replacement, Schoeman, played with tremendous industry. He showed terrific tenacity in the build-up to Andries Coetzee’s try as the fullback wriggled through a couple of tackles.

Lions flank Cyle Brink on another storming run. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

A typically combative Marnus Schoeman. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

Being a knockout game, coach De Bruin had deemed shots at goal acceptable and Jantjies, who produced a polished performance that included a seven-from-seven success rate from the tee, then slotted a sweetly-struck drop goal to take the Lions’ buffer to two converted tries (37-23).

The seventh successful kick at goal by Jantjies was the penalty that completed the scoring with five minutes remaining, confirming that they will host the Waratahs at 3pm next Saturday in the semifinals.

The other huge positive for the Lions was the tremendous dominance of their scrum. The number of set-pieces was relatively low, but whenever the home side needed it, their scrum won them penalties or gave them strong front-foot ball.

Temba Bavuma would love to open the batting alongside Brendon McCullum in the T20 Global League for the Joburg Giants, but as far as copying the Kiwi’s swashbuckling style goes, that’s not how South Africa’s gutsy middle-order Test batsman goes about his cricket.

Big-hitting marquee players like McCullum, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and David Miller will be amongst the star attractions when the league gets underway on November 3, but a team’s success is often decided by how well the batsmen around those stars set up the game for them. Bavuma is able to score boundaries with ‘normal’ cricket shots and is very good at rotating the strike.

“One must understand that there are 11 positions in a cricket team and not all cricketers play the same way, they all bring their own thing to the side. You get the batsmen with x-factor who can clear the boundaries, but then you have the other guys who create the foundation for those batsmen to come in and hit the ball.

“I think that’s the role I’ll play for the Joburg Giants, not trying to emulate Brendon but do what I do, which will allow him and Colin Ingram and Chris Jonker to bat effectively as well. In terms of T20 cricket, I’ve always seen myself as a middle-order batsman and I’ve been relatively successful at that, but I’ll probably play a role up front for the Giants, looking at who we’ve signed.

“I will embrace that and welcome the opportunity because as a batsman you want to be near the top in T20 so that you can bat for the bulk of the overs. I do feel I have the necessary skills to open the batting, but I won’t change my game, I’ll just do what has served me well in the domestic game,” Bavuma said at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

Bavuma is now a Cape Cobras player, but the Joburg Giants have signed him and another local darling in Kagiso Rabada to ensure the people of Johannesburg get behind their team.

“I was born in Cape Town, but everything in terms of cricket happened for me in Johannesburg, so it has a large part of my heart. It will be a massive pleasure to once again represent the people of Johannesburg,” Bavuma said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-africa-sport/sa-cricket-sport/1634361/temba-bavuma-will-stay-true-to-himself-in-t20-frenzy/

The Lions have produced some top-class running rugby this year and it is a style of play the Bulls are striving to replicate, which should have rugby fans licking their lips ahead of the big Gauteng SuperRugby derby at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.

But Bulls coach Nollis Marais believes his team need to focus more on their game-management skills than on trying to match the Lions at their own game and run them off their feet.

“Sometimes we’ve been playing too much rugby in our own 22, it’s attractive to run the ball, but you can’t do it from everywhere. If you make a mistake there in your own 22, you will be penalised. Playing in the wrong areas leads to putting yourselves under pressure,” Marais said.

“We’re still having the odd soft moments, but it’s much better than before. On Saturday against the Stormers there wasn’t a big dip in our performance. It’s all about game-management and the more experienced the players become, the better they will be at that. We learnt, although it wasn’t a nice experience, on tour against the Brumbies and Waratahs. We’ve battled with decision-making and game-management in the last few minutes of matches, but we did very well with that against the Stormers,” he added.

The Bulls know that, instead of trying too hard to play a free-flowing style of rugby, if they can dry up the Lions’ front-foot ball, as they did so effectively against the Stormers, then the South African pacesetters could find themselves struggling as they did against the Hurricanes four weeks ago.

But the Lions are a couple of years ahead of the Bulls when it comes to the sort of ball-in-hand, up-tempo play that is bringing renewal to South African rugby, so if they allow the visitors momentum on Saturday, it could lead to a major setback to their playoff hopes.