Ken Borland

It took no more than half-an-hour of their SuperFan Saturday game against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld for the Bulls to head off into the west and disappear into the sunset, such was their dominance in terms of power and pace on their way to a 49-28 victory.

In that opening half-hour, the Bulls were simply dazzling as they raced into a 35-0 lead with five wonderful tries. The Sharks struck back with a try after the halftime hooter, and went into the break 7-35 down. The Bulls replaced almost their entire 1^st XV after 52 minutes, and the visitors were able to make the scoreline less embarrassing.

But there was no doubting they had been blown off the park in the first half by the Bulls’ dazzling combination of immense forward power and extreme pace and elusiveness in the backline, with veteran flyhalf Morne Steyn running the show with aplomb and thoroughly enjoying all the front-foot ball he was given.

The Bulls opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a fairly typical driving maul try scored by hooker Schalk Erasmus, but thereafter it was the guys with the fast feet and rocket-pace at the back who stole the show. Coach Jake White had said during the week that we should watch out for the likes of Gio Aplon, Stedman Gans and Kurt-Lee Arendse and they did not disappoint, while former Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks shone as he moved into the inside centre position.

Outside centre Gans stepped brilliantly and raced away after the Sharks had failed to handle a bomb from Steyn, wing Arendse then scored the try of the game as he outpaced everyone from 80 metres out after the Sharks, hard on attack, had knocked on in the maul, and lovely work by Hendricks then sent Arendse over for his second try 10 minutes later. Gans also turned provider as he set up wing Travis Ismaiel for the fifth try.

As sparkling as the running of the backs was, it was obviously the tremendous graft of the pack that made it possible. The sheer physicality of prop Jacques van Rooyen, locks Ruan Nortje and Jason Jenkins, and loose forwards Duane Vermeulen and Arno Botha meant the Bulls won the battle of the gain-line, while Marco van Staden was the terror of the breakdowns.

There was no doubting the character of the Sharks though, and the defence of the Bulls was also given a good workout and generally stood up well.

The Sharks dominated the latter stages of the second half, scoring four tries in all. But the loss of momentum, both on the field on Saturday and in terms of where they left off in Super Rugby, will be of great concern for coach Sean Everitt.

Points scorers

Bulls – Tries: Schalk Erasmus, Stedman Gans, Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Travis Ismaiel, David Kriel (2). Conversions: Morne Steyn (5), Chris Smith (2).

Sharks – Tries: Grant Williams, Marius Louw, Daniel Jooste, Jaden Hendrickse. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2), Jordan Chait (2).

Greater Flamingo flying over the Chatty Saltpans

The Swartkops Estuary in Port Elizabeth is well-known as one of South Africa’s 112 Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) and while the river and mudflats have the greatest density of birds and hog the limelight as the most natural areas, my sunset visit on December 30 was to the salt pans and threw up a special that is often difficult to find elsewhere.

The Chatty River flows from the west into the Swartkops River and alongside it, next to the R367 main road, there are commercial saltpans which can provide quality foraging opportunities for many birds, especially when the salinity and water level are just right for a host of invertebrates to be crawling around in the benthos.

The elegant flamingos – both Greater and Lesser – immediately catch the eye and I was also drawn to the Pied Avocets, one of my favourite birds, sweeping and scything around in the water.

But dotted around the pan were smaller birds – the Blacknecked Grebe.

The Chatty Saltpans hold globally significant numbers of this uncommon nomad, which has the propensity to suddenly colonise a flooded area and start breeding. There are usually good numbers of this cute little diving bird at Swartkops though, and I did not notice any birds in breeding plumage, so perhaps they were moulting, with the widely-distributed Blacknecked Grebe known to utilise saline lakes overseas for this purpose.

Another special that can be picked up at the Swartkops Estuary is the Hartlaub’s Gull, which has a recently-established breeding colony in the area. It was previously considered a bird of the Western Cape, its distribution tied to that of Kelp, with only vagrant birds moving east of Cape Agulhas, and it interbreeds with Greyheaded Gulls in this river valley. Being omnivorous, it seems to have adapted to new foraging opportunities around human settlements.

Nicely built-up embankments between the pans allow one to approach the vulnerable Flamingos and their friends reasonably closely as they continue their search for invertebrates, and other birds that have adapted well to man-made wetlands were also busy foraging for their dinner in the gathering gloom – Blackwinged Stilt, African Spoonbill, Cape Cormorant, Kelp Gull, Egyptian Goose, Blacksmith Plover, Cape Wagtail and Sacred Ibis.

Where are the Chatty Saltpans?

Sightings list

Greater Flamingo

Kelp Gull

Pied Avocet

Blacknecked Grebe

Blackwinged Stilt

Lesser Flamingo

Egyptian Goose

Cape Cormorant

Blacksmith Plover

Hartlaub’s Gull

Cape Wagtail

Sacred Ibis

African Spoonbill

–

Now that the sun has finally set on the glorious Test career of Jacques Kallis, South Africa will spend the rest of the summer trying to ascertain the best way of replacing a genuine, almost unique three-in-one cricketer.

And that is going to take time. Whoever steps into the great man’s shoes today, whether that be another all-rounder like Ryan McLaren or Wayne Parnell, or an extra bowler in Rory Kleinveldt, or even an extra batsman in Dean Elgar, it should not be taken as a guarantee that that will be the way forward in the future for South Africa.

“Whether we choose the extra batsman, an all-rounder or the extra bowler depends on which one of those options is right for the conditions and for this stage of the series,” captain Graeme Smith said yesterday on the eve of the Test.

Kallis has been a key factor in South Africa reaching number one in the Test rankings, but he has retired before the Proteas can honestly say they have built a dynasty like that of the West Indies in the late 1970s-1980s or the Australians from the late 1990s-2000s.

And one of the chief stars of that great West Indian outfit, fast bowler Michael Holding, had some advice for the South African team: “Don’t look for another Jacques Kallis!”

Holding pointed to England’s experience in trying to replace Ian Botham, the great Somerset all-rounder.

West Indian great Michael Holding

“England tormented themselves for many years trying to find the new Ian Botham, choosing players like Derek Pringle and David Capel. But you cannot replace a player like that every day, you’re going to hang around and wait a long time, and the same applies to Kallis.

“If South Africa want four fast bowlers then they must just pick them. If you want four fast bowlers, then you have six batsmen and a wicketkeeper. We did it because we had enough depth in our batting with Jeffrey Dujon scoring hundreds at number seven and only one of our fast bowlers not scoring a 50 in Tests,” Holding said yesterday at a SuperSport breakfast.

The problem with South Africa just playing four frontline seamers is that they will then not have a specialist spinner in their line-up. Coach Russell Domingo has already said he does not feel JP Duminy is ready yet to bowl 20 overs in a Test, and the same surely applies to Elgar, and Smith is reluctant not to have a specialist spinner in the team.

“The forecast is for pretty warm weather and if it’s hot, you generally have a good batting surface. Then we’re certainly reluctant not to play a specialist spinner, we feel his role is crucial and I would be surprised if we don’t play one,” Smith said.

South Africa’s tactics revolve around creating pressure through strangulation and their efforts to stringently police the run-rate can be nullified by a team attacking the spinner and hitting him out of the attack, something Australian batsmen have always been most adept at doing.

Which is where the fourth seamer, performing a holding role, becomes a crucial part of the attack.

The presence of McLaren, who has a first-class batting average of 30.63, added to the usefulness of Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander and even Dale Steyn down the order, would also give South Africa plenty of batting depth if conditions are in favour of the bowlers.

While South Africa should be eternally grateful for the 13 289 runs, 292 wickets and 200 catches Kallis provided from 1995, it is time to move on and choose the best balanced XI to win Tests, not try to find someone to mimic the same role as a top-order batsman and bowler.

Notwithstanding the effort to find a solution to the Kallis conundrum, Holding fancies South Africa to have the edge over Australia in the three-Test series.

“South Africa are a very, very good side, even without Jacques Kallis, who leaves a big hole. They have more depth than this Australian team, which is not as good as previous ones.

“I think it will be a very tight series, Australia have a fair amount of confidence but South Africa are a better team and should end up in front. The better batting team will win,” Holding said.

The man known as “Whispering Death” because of his near-silent approach to the crease and the destruction he wrought at the other end, encouraged South Africa to seize the initiative.

“Michael Clarke knows in his mind that they are underdogs, he’s not just saying it. South Africa should recognise that they are the better team, but never ever be complacent.”