Ken Borland

The Springboks will be putting aside thoughts of the bonus point and will be concentrating on laying the platform for victory in their Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Pretoria on Saturday, captain Jean de Villiers said on Friday.

Coach Heyneke Meyer began the week by stressing the importance of obtaining bonus points, and previous results, both against Argentina and at Loftus Versfeld, merely increase the expectation.

The Pumas’ four previous visits to the Highveld have always resulted in the Springboks running riot, winning 73-13 last year in Soweto, 63-9 at Ellis Park in 2008, 49-29 in Springs in 2002, and 46-26 in Johannesburg in 1994.

Since winning the series against the British and Irish Lions there in a three-point thriller in 2009, Loftus Versfeld has also been a high-scoring venue for the Springboks – beating Australia 44-31 in 2010 and 31-8 in 2012, and Samoa 56-23 last year.

But De Villiers preached caution on Friday.

“Argentina have selected a very strong side and we’re not looking past tomorrow, which is our most important game. We ended the incoming tours well and now we need to take that momentum into the Rugby Championship.

“Whatever happened before is in the past, it’s a brand new ball game. We have to start well and focus on what we do as individuals and collectively.

“It’s really about getting the first phases right and getting a platform. We’re not thinking about the bonus point, we’ll get the result if all the processes are in place, if we tick all those boxes,” De Villiers said.

The Pumas’ tight five has just 105 caps between them, compared to the 251 of their Springbok counterparts, but the Argentina loose trio is a force to be reckoned with, boasting the experienced Juan Manuel Leguizamon and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, and the prodigious talent of Pablo Matera.

“They certainly have a good loose trio, they’re all quality players. Leguizamon and Lobbe have been around for a while and it’s going to be a real challenge at the breakdown, they’ve shown what we can do there.

“But I’m looking forward to the battle of the breakdown because we’ve got a good combination there as well,” De Villiers said.

The Pumas backline certainly has the potential to stretch the Springbok defences, especially with the increasingly expansive approach new coach Daniel Hourcade is advocating.

“Their nine [Martin Landajo] and 10 [Nicolas Sanchez] are an established combination and I played with Martin Landajo at the Barbarians, he’s a very good player.

“They have a lot of experience in midfield, Juan Martin Hernandez is a very gifted player and Marcelo Bosch has done really well at Saracens. So they will definitely challenge us defensively and we’ll need to be at our best,” De Villiers said.

The Pumas are streets ahead of the Springboks in terms of preparation, having been in camp for six weeks compared to just the two weeks Meyer has had to work with De Villiers and company.

But the Springbok captain said his team were happy with their preparation.

“It’s more time together than we’ve had in the past and we’re very happy with our preparation.”

Argentina could, in fact, have over-trained for the Test, with Hourcade apparently having his team out on the field three times a day.

Significantly for the Springboks, Saturday’s Test will mark the first Rugby Championship starts for flyhalf Handre Pollard, outside centre Damian de Allende and right wing Cornal Hendricks.

De Villiers, appearing in his 97th Test, will play between Pollard and De Allende and he said he was looking forward to guiding two of the future stars of Springbok rugby.

“It’s great to see guys come through and get their opportunity, Handre and Damian have showed that they are good enough.

“Handre showed in Port Elizabeth against Scotland that he ticks all the boxes as a world-class flyhalf. I’m very excited to play next to him for the first time, I’ve watched him since he started playing for the same school as me [Paarl Gymnasium] and it’s great to see how well he’s done,” De Villiers said.

The Pumas will undoubtedly be tricky customers on Saturday, but the Springboks need to win well in order to reinforce their standing as the All Blacks’ nearest challengers.

Graeme Smith is the captain who has sent the opposition in to bat more than any other skipper in Test history and the statistics for Centurion show that South Africa have won four of the last six Tests there batting second.

So the decision to send Australia in to bat on the first day of the first Test at SuperSport Park yesterday perhaps should not have been as surprising as it was. Except that the conditions really did not justify it: there was bright sunshine, the temperature was already high, the pitch had a slight greenish-yellow tinge to it but nothing out of the ordinary. It was the sort of day that just feels like a “batting day”.

The first session was always going to be tough for batsmen and the Australians struggled to 83 for three at lunch and were 98 for four soon after the break. But by the close of play, Shaun Marsh and Steven Smith had added 199 to take the tourists through to 297 for four at stumps.

Apart from not being at their sharpest, once again starting a Test series slowly, South Africa were guilty of not playing what was in front of them; the statistical history might have said one thing, but the here and now of the actual conditions were suggesting the opposite.

Coach Russell Domingo is known to be an ardent follower of statistics and Ryan McLaren admitted after the day’s play that the decision at the toss had been motivated by past history.

“The stats going into the game say enough – in most games, the team bowling first ends up winning, it’s a high percentage and it’s what’s worked in the past,” McLaren said.

Yesterday, however, it was a case of the pitch offering the usual amount of assistance for the first hour and then flattening out.

“The ball moved around a bit in the beginning, but it was slowish off the pitch. And then the ball got softer and the pitch became slower and flatter as the day went on,” McLaren admitted.

The overall record at Centurion indicates that the team batting second have won the Test 10 times in 19 matches, which is only slightly greater than 50%. Australia, having not appeared here since 1997, just played what was in front of them.

“We were surprised actually that we were sent in to bat,” Steven Smith said. “We thought it would be quite tough this morning, but if you get through that initial period then it would be quite nice for batting. And there is good pace and bounce in the wicket and if you get through the start, then it is good for batting.

“There are a few cracks forming too and, with the heat overhead, we’re hoping to get a big total and then use those cracks.”

South Africa’s bowlers toiled admirably, but were not at their sharpest. Dale Steyn, suffering from a stomach bug, deserves special mention for bowling 20 overs and taking two for 54.

His strikes removed dangermen David Warner (12) and Michael Clarke (23), but it’s apparent that there is a definite release in pressure once the seamers come out of the South African attack.

Australia were precariously placed on 113 for four after 40 overs midway through the second session when Robin Peterson came on to bowl. Marsh and Smith hit 22 runs off his four overs to change the momentum and added 63 runs in the 14 overs before tea.

Smith, originally a limited-overs dasher, plays with a refreshing simplicity and plenty of good sense, and he admitted that tightening up his technique and being more patient have been the two major factors in his recent success.

Marsh, able to average no more than 35.02 in first-class cricket, went to his second Test century and surprised everyone. A controversial selection, his inclusion was a hunch that did pay off and is going to be celebrated for a long while.

The left-hander was able to play within himself, occupying the crease for five-and-three-quarter hours, but he was accomplished when driving down the ground or cutting.

“Marsh and Smith played really well, you have to give credit to them. Shaun showed how good a player he is, he was under pressure, he took a few blows, but he adapted well,” McLaren said.

South Africa took more blows on the first day than Australia, but they have shown time and time again that they can adapt to misfortune, even if much of it was self-inflicted right at the start of the day.

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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.”

Pakistan’s cricket team manager and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will probably disagree over the security situation in that country, but what isn’t in doubt is that Pakistan will face a daunting assignment of their own in South Africa over the next two months as they take on the Proteas in Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals.

Three Tests against the top-ranked South Africans will be Pakistan’s first and toughest appointment.

While the Proteas have shown brilliant current form with a 12-Test unbeaten run since December 2011, Pakistan have only played six Tests in the same period.

That’s partly because nobody wants to play in Pakistan due to the security situation in the troubled country and they have been forced to host their “home” Tests in the United Arab Emirates.

“There is a difference between perception and reality. Pakistan is as safe as any country. We’re not getting enough Test experience, under the pretext of security concerns,” manager Naveed Akram Cheema growled at his team’s arrival press conference at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday.

Cheema is the managing director of the Water and Power Development Authority and the chairman of a host of other parastatals, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he insisted on giving a political answer to what was a cricketing question.

But be that as it may, Pakistan will face an uphill challenge taking on the South Africans at home.

Captain Misbah ul-Haq acknowledged that, saying his team will have to adapt quickly to conditions here, having last played in anything similar when they won a one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in September 2011. Earlier that year, they won a two-Test series in New Zealand.

“It’s really difficult for a team that does not play a format on a regular basis, but we’ll have to work hard and adjust as a group. Against the number one team, in South African conditions, we will have to play well for it to be game-on. We know it will be tough, but we will have to adapt to conditions. But this Pakistan team has a lot of youngsters who have really performed well and they love to take on a challenge. It’s time for them to come up with good performances and go one step ahead in their careers,” Misbah said.

Though Pakistan seemingly have a bowling attack that is capable of storming the Proteas’ castle, their biggest challenge will be scoring enough runs. Their batsmen, so impressive in sub-continental conditions, might not even make it across the moat when they come up against the bounce, swing and seam of Steyn, Philander and Morkel.

“It’s a quality bowling attack and we will have to bat well. It’s a real challenge when you’ve just come here from the sub-continent and whenever we’re abroad in countries like New Zealand and South Africa, we have to practise hard for the bounce and pace,” Misbah said.

Pakistan handled James Anderson, probably the closest bowler to Dale Steyn in world cricket, reasonably well in the UAE last year, but they will not have seen Vernon Philander before.

“The way Philander bowls, swinging the ball and hitting the seam, he will be a real factor with the new ball and it’s not surprising he takes so many wickets,” Misbah mused. “But in Test cricket you need to get the basics right, you need to stick to the basics against a bowler like him.”

The Pakistan attack is one of the best balanced in world cricket, with two right-arm quicks in the tall Umar Gul and Ehsan Adil, a left-arm giant in the seven-foot Mohammad Irfan, a pacy left-arm swing bowler in Junaid Khan and quality slow bowlers in off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and left-arm orthodox Abdur Rehman.

“The attack doesn’t have much experience here, only Umar Gul has played in South Africa, but if they adapt to the conditions then this attack can get the wickets we need. Especially Junaid, I think he will love to bowl here and Irfan too if he can get the ball in the right positions. Saeed Ajmal will be a factor if there is turn and bounce,” Misbah said.

Dav Whatmore, the former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach who played for Australia, is now with the Pakistan team and he warned against his bowlers getting too hyped up.

“In terms of fighting fire with fire, I’d like to see our skills do the talking more. The aggression part of the bowling should be shown with skill.

“It will be difficult for our batsmen over here, generally there’s higher bounce and more pace, but if the guys get over that, then it’s pretty good batting conditions, like Australia. If the youngsters get over the initial difficulties, then they could capitalise,” Whatmore said.

The Pakistanis open their tour with a four-day match against an SA Invitation XI starting in East London on Friday and Misbah said the likely Test team will play.

But the conditions in the sleepy Indian Ocean city will be very different to the charged-up atmosphere at the Bullring when the first Test starts at the Wanderers the following Friday (February 1).

The safety of the Pakistan team might then be in serious doubt.

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