Ken Borland

SUN CITY, North-West (15 October) – The third round of the Blue Label Challenge at Gary Player Country Club once again showed golf’s wonderful ability to surprise us as qualifier Dylan Mostert soared to the top of the leaderboard with a four-under-par round of 68.

Mostert will go into Saturday’s final round with a one-point lead in the modified Stableford scoring system over the experienced Lyle Rowe, with first-round leader Ockie Strydom another point back.

Mostert began the penultimate round in seventh place, five points off Ruan Korb’s lead. Making the cut was an achievement alone for the 23-year-old because he has not managed that in his three previous Sunshine Tour events this year.

Hence his need to prequalify for this R1.5 million tournament.

The State Mines golfer birdied the par-three third hole, but his real charge up the leaderboard came around the turn when he picked up three birdies in four holes.

Two more birdies on the 14^th and 15^th holes sealed a marvellous round for Mostert.

Rowe was on fire on the back nine, where he collected six of his eight points and he is on track to contend for his first title since the Zimbabwe Open in 2016.

Strydom continued to be on a rollercoaster ride around one of South Africa’s most prestigious courses. His only points on the front nine were a minus-one for a bogey on the fourth, and on the back nine he mixed three birdies with two dropped shots.

Rhys Enoch and Jaco Ahlers both collected five points on Friday and finished on 21 points overall, in a tie for fourth place.

Scores – https://sunshinetour.com/tournament-information/?tourn=BLCH&season=221S&report=tmentry~season=221S~alphaorder~#/home

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi manned up to the recent problems his team have been having on the field with an heroic individual effort against the All Blacks on Saturday, so it was little surprise that he was very much in touch with his emotions after a match in which he gave so much but still ended on the losing side, thanks to a late New Zealand penalty.

The flanker dashed around the field with focused intensity on Saturday and was particularly useful at the breakdowns, doing a lot of the dirty work as he and Kwagga Smith formed a great partnership. But as much as he led from the front, Kolisi was not able to drag his team across the line as they went down 17-19.

“It definitely hurts. We prepared as well as we could, we were focused on the right now. I felt on the field that we were in there with a good chance, our set-pieces dominated. So it is really hard to lose a game like that, but we know that if we stick to our processes then the results will come.

“We wanted to stand up and fight today. We knew as a team what we are capable of and it was about making sure we played properly. New Zealand brought high speed and physicality, but I can’t fault my team – our plan worked, our structures were really good. So I don’t really know what went wrong,” Kolisi said after the match.

Many critics have pointed to the Springboks’ decision, after they had taken a 17-16 lead into the last 10 minutes, to kick front-foot ball away, including two up-and-unders from the All Blacks’ 22, as the reason for their defeat. Kolisi said this was the choice of the players and he stood by the tactic.

“The players made that call, we decided to stick to the game-plan. That’s how we know how to play and we will never change from that. And it had been working all day,” Kolisi said.

The surprise selection of the exciting Aphelele Fassi on the wing for the first Test against Georgia, making his debut alongside another uncapped wing in the hot-stepping Rosko Specman, does not advertise the Springboks’ intent to necessarily play expansive, attacking rugby, but is rather down to Covid leaving them with no other choice.

While Sbu Nkosi’s positive Covid test was announced at the start of the week, what wasn’t revealed is that his Sharks team-mates Makazole Mapimpi and Lukhanyo Am are isolating as well because they were close contacts, while the France-based Cheslin Kolbe only arrived in camp at the weekend.

The only other wing available in the squad is another Sharks player, Yaw Penxe. But although regular fullback Fassi is younger than Penxe, he has more experience of top-level franchise rugby and has played occasionally on the wing for the Sharks.

“We’ve had a few Covid issues, Lukhanyo and Makazole were deemed to be close contacts after we originally selected the team on Saturday. That’s why Fassi and Jesse Kriel have had to come into the mix. Aphelele is very talented, he has a massive skill set. We know he is predominantly a fullback, but he has slotted in beautifully on the wing.

“Rosko is a livewire who brings lots of energy but he is fully professional. They have both trained really well and will bring x-factor and lots of spice, and they have good guidance around them in Willie le Roux, Handre Pollard and Jesse Kriel, which is important. Hopefully the debutants can express the skills that make them unique on the day,” Nienaber said on Tuesday.

While the Springbok back three all have the ability to score that peach of a try that is like sweet nectar for rugby lovers, Nienaber knows the forwards will have to smooth their way up front first against a physically-imposing Georgian team. The Springboks have a pack with players like Bongi Mbonambi, Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit that know how to get under the opposition’s skin.

And then there’s Jasper Wiese, the massively impactful Leicester Tigers eighthman who will come off the bench for his debut.

“We’ve followed Jasper closely, he’s outstanding at getting and stopping momentum, he basically knocked the door down for selection. Georgia are ranked No.12 for a reason, we’ve done our homework on them.

“In the Autumn Nations Cup their game against Wales was close for 75 minutes. So we need to work hard to get a foothold in the Test. Georgia are very good in the tight phases – scrums, mauls, lineouts and ball-carries,” Nienaber said.

Springbok team: Willie le Roux, Rosko Specman, Jesse Kriel, Francois Steyn, Aphelele Fassi, Handré Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Kwagga Smith, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Trevor Nyakane, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nché. Bench – Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Marvin Orie, Jasper Wiese, Herschel Jantjies, Elton Jantjies, Damian Willemse.

Like migrant birds flying from their wintering grounds to their summer breeding spots, the Bulls find themselves in a very warm and muggy Treviso and they are hoping to bring the heat and catch Benetton by surprise in their Rainbow Cup final at the Stadio Monigo on Saturday evening.

Having swept all before them in South Africa over the last year, the Bulls have gone to Italy as the winners of the southern leg of the competition, to take on the European winners, a Benetton side that have surprised all and sundry with their resurgence in the last couple of months.

The last trophy presentation the Bulls enjoyed was when they won the Currie Cup at the height of our summer, and their winter work has involved finishing top of the franchises involved in the Rainbow Cup. But the temperature is expected to rise to above 30⁰ on Saturday in north-eastern Italy, so that will take some adapting to. Coach Jake White said though that he hoped the intensity of the Bulls’ play will force Benetton to do some adapting of their own.

“The nice thing is we played through the summer in South Africa so we’re used to weather like this. I hope we can play with the same tempo and pace that we did then and hopefully that surprises Benetton. We’ve had a year of really tough derby rugby, so hopefully that helps us as well. Having been together as a team for a lot longer now, our ball-in-play time has also improved and we’ve seen the effect of that.

“But Benetton have done really well, they’re the only unbeaten side, they beat Connacht, who beat Munster who had just beaten Leinster. Plus Benetton are playing at home while we have to adapt to travel, and 11 of their team started for Italy against Scotland not that long ago, so we are up against international players. Now that we’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be good to measure ourselves,” White said on Friday.

While the Bulls are breaking new ground for South African rugby, they do have some experience in the kitty of what to expect in the form of captain Marcell Coetzee and lock Jan Uys, who have both played in Italy before.

“It’s fantastic to have Marcell’s experience, he played here for Ulster, they won by three points and it was a struggle. Jan Uys also played in this competition, in Italy, for Brive and that experience is a must-have, especially with no Duane Vermeulen, Morne Steyn, Marco van Staden and Arno Botha. When I was coaching in France, we played against a couple of Italian sides and they do present a bit of a different package in terms of strategy,” White said.

“It’s actually the first time I have experienced so much heat in Europe, but there are no excuses, we have to adapt if we want to be champions,” Coetzee said. “I told the players we will need to control our emotional levels, we need to be relaxed and calm, but we are going to be in some dark places and then it’s about who wants it more. Fortunately this team has been playing finals and winning … ”