Ken Borland

DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal – Louis Albertse handled the pressure of chasing down his first Sunshine Tour title like a mentsch on Saturday as he won the third leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate.

The 25-year-old began the final round with a share of the lead, and produced an impressive four-under-par 66 to finish on nine-under-par for the tournament and clinch victory by one stroke over CJ du Plessis (65).

But as well as Albertse played, a bogey on the par-four 16^th left him needing pars on the tricky last two holes of The Woods course, and negotiated the elevation changes and water bordering the 18^th green with aplomb.

“There are so many emotions, but it feels really good to have my first Sunshine Tour title. It’s never easy to win and the last nine holes when you’re going for your first win is particularly tough, but I tried hard to stay in the moment. The bogey on 16 was a bit unsettling, but I knew I was still 100% in it. I had been playing nicely the whole day and all I could do was give it my best.

“I’ve been in Category 9 since I started on tour and I’ve worked really hard to get out of it, I always felt I was good enough to win. Now there are lots of things to look forward to, getting into big events now without any worries. I saw a couple of scoreboards on the way in and I knew CJ was playing well, which was a good thing in a sense because I knew I had to keep pushing and not play defensively,” Albertse said after his wire-to-wire win, having shared the lead with veteran Brazilian Adilson da Silva after the first two rounds.

Albertse, who hails from Dundee in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, went out in two-under-par 33 and then made an ideal start to the back nine with a lengthy birdie putt on the 339-yard par-four 10^th hole.

“I made a few good par-saves at the beginning but unfortunately took a six on the second par-five. But I’ve been putting really well and the birdie on 10 was a massive bonus, that just makes sure you get into the right gear going into the downwind holes. I also made a really good save on 13 and then birdies on 14 and 15 [another long putt] kept the momentum going,” Albertse said.

Du Plessis’ five-under-par 65 started inauspiciously with a bogey at the first hole, but thereafter he did not drop a shot, collecting five birdies including four in five holes from the sixth. It is the Irene Country Club golfer’s fourth runners-up finish and he is yet to win a professional tournament.

Da Silva was one shot off the lead when he made the turn, but returned to the clubhouse in level-par to finish on six-under-par, two behind Du Plessis and in the tie for third with Riekus Nortje and Deon Germishuys.

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

The 2021 Currie Cup final will be a repeat of last season’s match-up between the Bulls and the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, and Sharks coach Sean Everitt, while acknowledging the brilliance of the defending champions in their semi-final win over Western Province, and the errors of his own team in struggling past Griquas, says the visitors can still win the title.

The Bulls hammered Western Province 48-31 after racing to a 24-5 lead in the first quarter, while the Sharks hung on grimly at the death to beat Griquas 28-24 in Durban.

“We beat the Bulls the last time we played them and we know they have a massive pack and they were sublime in the first 20 minutes of their semi-final. We know what’s coming and the big emphasis is going to be on stopping the momentum of their big ball-carriers. But our defence has improved, I’m happy where we are and in finals, defence wins the game.

“Under pressure we did make mistakes from a skills perspective against Griquas and we should have put them to bed earlier. It’s about making the right decisions at the breakdown, our reaction time was a bit slow and against the Bulls that will be suicide. But I’m not worried, we didn’t do a helluva lot wrong, we just need to neaten up our game and be squeaky clean in terms of our discipline,” Everitt said.

Bulls coach Jake White praised flyhalf Johan Goosen, who was as elusive as a cat on the prowl on attack with the way he exploited space and spotted the gaps. The well-travelled coach said his performance reminded him of the great Australian flyhalf Stephen Larkham.

“When I was coaching the Brumbies, my assistant coach Stephen Larkham used to run the B side attack in training against us and I saw the value of having a flyhalf who did not just see the space but could put the ball there so close to the defensive line. Johan Goosen is no different and we saw tonight what he’s like when he’s on song.

“Obviously the forwards got us front-foot ball, but before that he took control of the game, he was phenomenal and we basically won the match in the first 20 minutes. I’m very happy with the way we played, some of the plays we used were outstanding and the players also chose the right plays at the right time, in the right place. We don’t want to be one-trick ponies,” White said.

What a victory for the Dolphins in the 4-Day Series final and, while home ground advantage clearly played a big role in their triumph, that is not why they won the premier domestic title.

The Dolphins ended the franchise era on top of the pile because of their indefatigable fight and belief, and an enormous amount of skill and hard work. In the well-deserved clamour over the spectacular performances of spinners Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy, who took 19 of the 20 Titans wickets (the other one being a run out), it is easy to forget how wonderfully well the Dolphins had to play just to first make the final and then to ensure it was staged where they could bring into play their greatest strength.

The Kingsmead pitch has completely changed character over the last 20 years and is now the most sub-continental of venues in South Africa, allowing the Dolphins to use their brilliant spinners to dominate visiting teams.

But in order to get into the final and then host it, people may forget that the Dolphins had to win back-to-back games at the Wanderers and St George’s Park, two of the toughest venues for away teams. The brilliant Keshav Maharaj had much to do with those victories.

Before that they beat the then high-flying Knights at Kingsmead, fast bowler Daryn Dupavillon taking 11 wickets to prove the Dolphins aren’t just one-trick ponies. Winning your last three matches outright is surely the sign of a champion side.

Having overcome the odds just to get into the final, the Dolphins seemed destined to have to share the title with the Titans after only 10 overs were able to be bowled on the first two days due to rain. When the Titans  began their first innings on the penultimate day, replying to a solid 295 by the Dolphins, there were not much more than five sessions left in the match.

The Titans swear that they were trying to be positive and not just bat for the draw, but in no time at all they were thoroughly entangled in the Dolphins’ spinners’ web and shot out for a record low score of just 53.

The Dolphins then had plenty of time to bowl the Titans out a second time and ensure they had the last trophy of the franchise era all to themselves.

It is just reward for all the good things going on at Kingsmead and the shares of coach Imraan Khan and CEO Heinrich Strydom have understandably risen considerably over the last year.

While the loss of the famous old Kingsmead greentop will be mourned in some quarters, and we do need to keep some of those sort of pitches going in our country, I am all for having a venue at which spin bowling is trumps. The Proteas have suffered so many calamities on the subcontinent in recent years that learning how to play in those conditions is clearly a priority.

More and more cricket will be played on the subcontinent in the years to come, so if South Africa are to challenge for global silverware, they have to master the skills needed on low, slow, dusty pitches that turn.

We need a variety of surfaces in our domestic cricket and I remember well how exciting it was in the 1980s and 90s when Kingsmead was the Green Mamba, St George’s Park and Newlands brought the spinners into play, Wanderers and Centurion had pace and bounce, and places like Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom were batting tracks which made the bowlers toil.

With the introduction of Boland and North-West into the first division for next season, Potchefstroom will be back and let’s hope Paarl will back the spinners and be a result pitch.

Having qualified for all three finals this season and taken away silverware in two of them, the Dolphins, playing a brand of cricket they trust and have mastered, and enjoying a strong culture and environment around the team, will be backing themselves to continue their dominance in the new structure as well.

The Bulls have already broken their 10-year trophy-drought this season by winning the SuperRugby Unlocked title, but at the end of the day, the Currie Cup is the big prize they are after according to coach Jake White.

The Bulls won the SuperRugby Unlocked competition by four points and those points were then carried over to the Currie Cup. White’s charges have subsequently finished top of the log in the Currie Cup as well, but this time they have to get through two knockout matches to claim the silverware, starting with their semi-final against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re not trying to be arrogant, but we said at the start of the season that we wanted to play in the final and win the Currie Cup. So we’ve now got two weeks left to play, whether you look at this season as one or two competitions or two competitions in one, at the end of the day we are in the playoffs. Now we want to get to the last round and win the trophy.

“We’ve done the hard work to get into the final, we’ve put the hard yards in to justify home advantage. The reality is we’ve got a lotto ticket for the last two rounds, hopefully we stay alive after this weekend. There won’t be any crowds but I still think it’s a massive bonus for the guys to sleep in their own beds, be in their own changeroom, all the little things,” White said this week.

While the 2007 World Cup winning coach acknowledged that it was far from a fait accompli that the Bulls would achieve their goal, White did make their journey in 2020/21 sound somewhat miraculous.

“I’ve coached in competitions before where the first and second team on the log don’t play in the quarterfinals, they go straight to the semis and get a week off. But sometimes the team that finished first on the log doesn’t win, there are still no guarantees even if you finish first. But this team really want to win the Currie Cup, they want to be part of history and write their own script.

“No-one expected us to do so well. I’ve had seven months to work with this group and in the last 10 years the Bulls had not won a senior trophy, we lost five of our six SuperRugby games last year and finished sixth in the Currie Cup in 2019, losing to Griquas at Loftus. So other teams were far ahead of us and I’m very satisfied with how things have gone. But we haven’t really won anything yet,” White said.