Ken Borland

So near and yet so far is probably an apt summation of the Springboks’ Rugby Championship campaign, and there is a lingering feeling that Jacques Nienaber’s team are still not playing to their true potential and are still not ruthless enough when it comes to translating dominance to points on the scoreboard.

And their next opponents, on November 5 and 12 respectively, are Ireland in Dublin and France in Marseille. Those are the top two sides in the world rankings and then we will have a better idea of whether South Africa are genuine World Cup contenders or just also-rans in a southern hemisphere competition that is no longer the gold standard of international rugby.

Having hammered the All Blacks in Nelspruit on the opening weekend, the Springboks really only have themselves to blame for not winning the Rugby Championship for just the fifth time.

Their first misjudgement lies squarely on Nienaber (and maybe director of rugby Rassie Erasmus) for not choosing the best XV to play New Zealand the following weekend at Ellis Park. The All Blacks were in disarray and ripe for the taking after their 26-10 defeat at Mbombela Stadium. When your greatest rivals are on their knees, you don’t experiment and give them a helping hand, you ruthlessly turn the knife and ensure they sack their coach mid-competition.

Instead, Ian Foster’s men bounced back with an impressive win, the ship was steadied and, despite an historic first loss at home to Argentina, they were worthy winners of the Rugby Championship.

Having lost to the Pumas 25-18 in Christchurch, New Zealand then thrashed them 53-3 the following weekend in Hamilton, the result that ultimately won them the title, because it left the Springboks needing a bonus point and turning around a big points differential in the final round to claim the silverware.

It is that kind of ruthlessness, the ability to really put opposition away, that the Springboks lack. The last time they scored 40 points in the Rugby Championship, never mind winning by a margin of 39, was back in August 2019 against Argentina.

I get that Test matches cannot always be like a commercial for open, running rugby, but the great sides are able to leverage dominance and make it reflect on the scoreboard. And there have been periods when the Springboks have enjoyed an absolute monopoly on momentum, but just did not have the execution or intent to make it count.

In the last match against Argentina, I would have liked to have seen the Springboks try and play some expansive rugby. They had nothing to lose – even if they lost, they still would have finished second.

But with crash-ball centres at numbers 10 and 12 and the creativity of Lukhanyo Am missed at outside centre, the Springboks still just relied on their usual formula of scoring from set-pieces and rolling mauls.

They were not helped by a referee, Damon Murphy, who was determined to be in the middle of the limelight. If you are going to steal the show, at least make sure you are competent, but Murphy and his officiating team made a series of terrible decisions that robbed South Africa of momentum.

From winning the World Cup in 2019, the Springboks no longer seem to be the leaders of the pack. I don’t see much growth, especially in terms of their attacking play, since those heady days in Japan. The opposition will have had four years to work out how to blunt South Africa’s forward-based, strangling game of stout defence and contestable kicking, and the Boks better have more strings to their bow if they hope to defend their title.

Perhaps Nienaber, an inexperienced head coach maybe in Erasmus’s shadow, has tried too hard to prove he is the man and is too prescriptive in terms of the style of play. While throttling the opposition has worked, one wonders if the Springboks are not strangling their own potential in the process?

Let’s hope they express themselves more in Europe.

The Sharks have turned down the option to play a more ‘upmarket’ team and include their returning Springboks in their United Rugby Championship visit to Newport to take on the Dragons on Saturday, instead deciding to leave them in Durban until after their tour is over.

While the Bulls and Stormers are fielding some of the Springboks who were involved in the Rugby Championship, Sharks coach Sean Everitt has made just two injury-enforced changes to the team that opened their campaign with a narrow (in the end) win over Zebre in Parma.

Lock Gerbrandt Grobler injured his bicep in training this week and will be replaced by new signing Justin Basson, with Hyron Andrews moving on to the bench.

And replacement flyhalf Fred Zeilinga has also returned home injured, with Anthony Volmink replacing him amongst the substitutes.

“The Springboks have been given a week off and will integrate themselves back into training next week in Durban,” Everitt said on Thursday. “If we need to call in some of them due to injuries for next week against Leinster, then we will.

“But I would prefer them to get up to date with what we were doing in pre-season and what we have implemented since then. It’s a bit different for us because of the number of Springboks we have.

“Fortunately they are all guys who prepare well. But they did miss part of pre-season and they need to get up to speed. They’re all quality players and we will need to introduce them for a couple of games in October.

“But for now we are leaving them in Durban to prepare for the clash with Glasgow back at home on October 15,” Everitt explained.

Having upset Munster in Newport last weekend, the Dragons are shopping for their second successive home win, having begun the season with a fearful 44-6 hammering away to Edinburgh.

What the Sharks want is a repeat of their first 40 minutes against Zebre last weekend, when they were impressively efficient in garnering a 28-3 lead. They lost focus in the second half though, and had to hang on desperately for a 42-37 triumph.

“The first half was the best rugby we’ve played for a long time and I was very happy with that,” Everitt said. “But in the second half we allowed them to get momentum.

“Zebre and the Dragons are both dangerous out wide and we struggled with our width in defence and allowed them quick ball at the breakdowns.

“Plus we never stuck to our kicking plan. So really we put ourselves under the pump. Having conceded only three penalties in the first half, not many at all, we then gave away seven in the second half when we were feeling the pressure. But those things are all fixable,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Ben Tapuai, Thaakir Abrahams, Boeta Chamberlain, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi, Dylan Richardson, James Venter, Reniel Hugo, Justin Basson, Thomas du Toit (c), Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench – Dan Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Carlu Sadie, Hyron Andrews, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Marnus Potgieter, Anthony Volmink.

While almost all the focus in the build-up to South Africa’s first T20 against India in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday has been on Proteas captain Temba Bavuma and his pedigree in the shortest format of the game, the skipper himself said on Tuesday that all his focus is on fulfilling his role for the team.

Bavuma returns to international action for the first time since June when he retired hurt for eight off 11 balls in the fourth T20 against India in Rajkot; South Africa going on to be skittled for just 87 and losing by 82 runs as the hosts levelled the series. The fifth and decisive match was then washed out.

Bavuma tore a tendon in his elbow when diving to make his ground on a quick single. But questions had already been raised in India over his place in the side as he ended the series with 61 runs in four innings, at a strike-rate of only 103.38, the lowest of any frontline batsman in the series.

When he last week failed to attract a single bid for the SA20 league from any of the IPL-associated franchises, it created a fresh storm over his head.

“My focus is on the team and my role as captain is to lead and serve as best I can,” Bavuma said on Tuesday when asked whether he will be going all-out with the bat to prove the naysayers wrong.

“My job is to make sure the team is in the best space possible going into the World Cup. Anything else I try not to give energy to, they’re all distractions and sideshows.

“I’m trying to put what happened at the auction behind me and my biggest focus is on my role as captain,” Bavuma said.

The Indian team are resting the swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who gave the Proteas, and especially Bavuma, a torrid time in the previous series. Jasprit Bumrah is back to lead the attack. The home side’s most experienced batsmen, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, are also back in the fray, having rested in the earlier rubber.

“We were tested and challenged in all departments last time here and I think we responded quite well,” Bavuma said. “They have some big names back with pedigree behind them, and they will lead from the front.

“They will boost the confidence of the Indian team and add some x-factor. But it’s good for us to be coming up against their best players.

“It’s quite challenging against their opening bowlers in the powerplay, they get the ball to swing and move quite a bit, more than we are accustomed to at home.

“The key is to limit the damage, manoeuvre around them and try and get some momentum later on,” Bavuma said.

Play starts at 3.30pm SA time.

According to his critics, Jake White’s coaching stint at a team always ends in a sudden departure before his term is over, but the well-travelled coach has found somewhere that feels like home as it was announced on Friday that his contract at the Bulls has now been extended until 2027.

White arrived at Loftus Versfeld in 2020 and immediately began turning their sagging fortunes around, winning back-to-back Currie Cup titles and Super Rugby Unlocked, before steering his team into the United Rugby Championship final, where they were pipped by the Stormers.

Now 58-years-old, White’s coaching wisdom is clearly highly valued by a Bulls union that wants to shepherd their teams back to the dominant days of old when they were the tallest trees in the forest.

“I know I’ve moved around previously,” White said on Friday, “but what I have here in terms of the CEO, the board, players of the calibre of Johan Grobbelaar, Elrigh Louw, Canan Moodie and Johan Goosen who have signed until 2026, it works.

“The expectation is that we will continue to grow. I’ve coached around the world and you know when you’ve got the right mix. I always thought I would find that dream job and maybe I chased things a bit when I was younger.

“Staying five more years in Pretoria is a perfect fit for me. We have the same vision, there will be continuity. It’s working and I’m enjoying it. Loftus is my home, it’s a strong union that wants to win.

“I want to be part of a group of winners, there are unbelievable schools and supporters here. Loftus is a lekker plek, it’s like the head office of rugby,” White said.

After a lean period that lasted a decade, the Bulls board know they now have a top-class coach and a brilliant team with prospects of getting even better, so giving White a three-year extension was a no-brainer.

“It’s with great excitement that we can announce Jake has extended his contract until June 2027, so that’s an additional three years, which we are absolutely ecstatic about,” CEO Edgar Rathbone said.

“The work Jake has done over the past two years has been unbelievable and a bunch of players have also committed long-term, so we are trying to give ourselves stability.

“Every competition we play in, we want to win. It’s been a building process and we hope to build on that still further. Jake brings the youngsters and the older players together in a high-performing system.

“For every Bulls supporter, winning and traditional values are incredibly important, as is how important the home ground is. We get all of that in Jake White,” Rathbone said.