Ken Borland

Triumphant Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said Argentina are a tough side to crack and his team had to first make them soft up front, setting up their emphatic 48-7 win in Mbombela, which also sealed the Rugby Championship title for South Africa.

Although the Springboks scored seven tries, four of them going to backs, the platform for victory, following their 29-28 defeat in Argentina last weekend, was laid up front. South Africa utterly dominated the scrums and won all 10 of their lineouts.

“The manner we are trying to play may be more attacking, but we still want to be physical, have scrum dominance and our lineout worked very well tonight too. It made them tired trying to stop our tight five all the time, it was a bit like slow poison.

“It was a learning school for us last week, but I didn’t expect that sort of scoreline tonight because Argentina are very difficult to play against. Things were really tight in the beginning and they kept us out. But we didn’t want to stand back, it was all about temperament and leadership for us.

“We’ve used 35 players in the Rugby Championship, but for those crunch games it’s the older heads who pull us through. It was not spectacular by us, but we showed good intent. Argentina are physical, nippy and great on attack. Jerry Flannery [defence coach] was very nervous before the game but we kept them to just one try.

“We were gutsy enough, we played brilliantly at stages, much better than we did against them that side. It wasn’t perfect, but there was some really good stuff to build on,” Erasmus said after South Africa won the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2019.

While Argentina were able to keep the dominant Springboks out for the first eight minutes, they were unable to keep in touch thereafter as South Africa romped to a 27-7 lead at halftime.

“The heartbreak is because of how we lost,” Pumas coach Felipe Contepomi said. “We were never able to be the team we wanted to be, and then it becomes very hard when you play a team that has won the World Cup twice. They were better than us from minute one to 80 and that’s the story.

“I recognise that our players kept battling hard and working to get back, but we did not do what we wanted to do, especially in terms of defence. It is disappointing but it is part of learning – how to be better when under pressure. You need to stay poised and believe in what you’ve done in training,” Contepomi said.

Kathu (Northern Cape) – Englishman Jacob Oakley enjoyed a welcome respite from the tough maiden Sunshine Tour campaign he is enduring as he fired a wonderful seven-under-par 65 on Friday to lead after the first round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sishen event.

The 26-year-old from Cheshire has missed the cut in six of the seven Sunshine Tour events he has played in this season, but he did finish tied-53^rd in the SunBet Challenge Times Square Casino tournament at the end of last month.

Oakley started on the 10^th hole at Sishen Golf Club with three straight pars, but then caught fire with a birdie on the par-three 13^th and an eagle on the par-five 15^th to go out in three-under. The product of Styal Golf Club, where he was mentored by four-time DP World Tour winner David Horsey, was superb on the front nine, picking up further birdies on the second, fourth, fifth and eighth holes to claim a one-stroke lead over Malcolm Mitchell after the first day out in the Kalahari.

Mitchell continued his good recent form as he shot a 66 which included just one bogey, on the par-four 12^th. The 29-year-old, coming off top-10 finishes in his last two Sunshine Tour events, was faultless on a front nine in which he claimed three birdies. Remarkably, he made fours at all four of the par-fives on the highly-rated 6554m course.

“I drove the ball well today and I was able to take advantage of the par-fives, hitting all of them in two. And I also didn’t make any basic errors, like three-putting,” Mitchell said when asked how his success came about.

“The wind was all over the show, it had a mind of its own, so it was quite difficult out there. Luckily I’m a Durban boy though and I was able to figure it out. It’s just great that the hard work is starting to show and I’m just focusing on myself more than anything else. The mind controls everything, so I’m just trying to keep positive and stay in the present,” Mitchell said.

Kyle de Beer, who has already won nearly R600 000 in his rookie season, is tied for third on five-under-par with Simon du Plooy and Albert Venter.

Pietermaritzburg’s Neil Schietekat is among the group tied for sixth place on four-under-par.

Martin Vorster also finished with a 68, having been six-under-par with four holes left to play. But the closing holes of the front nine proved to be a bit of a mountain to climb for the 22-year-old making his way back from injury and he dropped two shots coming home.

Dirkie Chamberlain endured three-and-a-half tough years in the international hockey wilderness, but when the 37-year-old runs on to the park on Sunday for South Africa’s opening match of the Olympic Games, against perpetual gold medal contenders Australia, it will complete a remarkable comeback for the seasoned goal-scorer.

It is a personal triumph for Chamberlain, because she was overlooked for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, despite having 241 caps and having scored 65 goals for the South African women’s senior outdoor team. But suddenly last November she was back in the picture, called up by returning coach Giles Bonnet, who guided the team from 2010-2014, for two Tests against Germany. Having just turned 37, she ended a relatively lucrative career with HGC in Holland and returned to South Africa to push for her second Olympic Games, having played in 2012 in London.

“I’ve had a couple of setbacks in my career since the 2012 Olympics and I just really wanted to go there again, because it is the pinnacle of hockey and was always my dream,” Chamberlain told Rapport. “I had to give myself the opportunity again, otherwise I knew I would regret it once I’ve retired. So I’m really happy to be in Paris!

“And Giles Bonnet coming back to coach was one of the reasons I came back and worked really hard to get back in the national team. I had worked with Giles before and I knew the strength he would bring to the team. We couldn’t ask for a better coach, he has coached the China, Belgium and Canada national teams. And he has also worked with lots of other top coaches.

“So I’m just super-happy he’s coaching us, we’re lucky to have him. That’s what you need if you’re playing in the Olympics – the best. We don’t have the resources and sponsors that push other teams like the top four, but Giles is so passionate and he gives us a sense of calm and belief,” Chamberlain said.

The hurt of being rejected for so long, despite being one of the country’s best ever strikers, was channelled into improving her body and mentality; her ‘other’ career as a fitness instructor has certainly helped Chamberlain prolong her career and give her an unlikely second bite at the Olympics.

“I pride myself on my fitness and keep my body as healthy as I can,” Chamberlain said. “It’s about being the best you can be physically and mentally. Having the right mindset and work ethic definitely helps me keep playing. A lot of players get injured when they are past 30 and that’s when their career ended.

“I find it’s the small details that really help and I spend so much time in the gym to prevent injury. It’s also to maintain my strength and I also watch my nutrition. If you are going to stay at this level, then you have to keep up with the youngsters and the energy they have.

“So I have to put in extra work because mobility and stretching are so important if I’m going to still be able to compete with the strongest and the fastest,” Chamberlain said.

The Pretoria-born Chamberlain will also be helping the youngsters in the squad to get through the whole Olympic experience, which can be daunting, given the crowds will be the biggest they have ever played for.

“With my previous experience at the Olympics, I know what to expect. It’s going to be a packed stadium and you can hardly hear each other, it could be distracting. So we have to focus on that more in our preparation and I will help the others in the team who don’t know what it’s going to be like. We just need to stay calm and shut out the noise, and at least we know what’s coming,” Chamberlain said.

South Africa, ranked 18^th, have been placed in a pool with four teams who sit in the top-10 of the world rankings – Argentina, Australia, Great Britain and Spain.

“Any pool in the Olympics is going to be tough and we have prepared the best we can in Belgium, against the right opposition, like China. The focus was on our weaknesses and our strengths.

“At the Olympics, every team is so on form because this is what they have been planning for, but anything can happen. We’ve focused on what we can control, like working on our structure,” Chamberlain said.

South Africa’s men’s team may also find the going tough in their pool, but their tenacity was shown when they pushed the Netherlands, the world’s number one team, hard on Saturday before going down 5-3. Matches against Great Britain tonight, Germany, Spain and France follow this week, but ace defender Andrew Hobson is confident of their chances.

“We’re definitely not here just to participate, our goal is to get out of our pool and into the knockouts. The teams there have probably beaten us eight times out of 10, but we have beaten them a couple of times. So they know if they don’t turn up then they could be in for a rude awakening,” the Stellenbosch University product Hobson said.

“We have a wealth of experience in our team and lots of pace, so we can draw on that. We are almost known for our counter-attack, so teams give us a bit more respect these days and don’t dismiss us as lightly.

“The Olympics is of course a different challenge, it takes a little while to sink in, but we are confident we’re able to keep the ball and manipulate space as well, we are a more rounded team these days,” the Paul Roos Gymnasium educated Hobson said.

The second and third days of the second Test against Australia at the MCG have been tough times for the South African attack, a good batting pitch meaning too many of their balls were amorphous, non-shaping deliveries that did not threaten a powerful batting line-up that racked up a massive 575 for eight declared.

That gave Australia a huge first-innings lead of 386 and the Proteas struggled to 15 for one in their second innings at stumps.

Bowling coach Charl Langeveldt said on Wednesday that although the attack could be proud of their effort, they needed better control when the ball was not doing much.

“It’s been a tough three days in general for us, but we did not start well with the ball on Day One. On the second day we put in the effort, Anrich Nortje brought a lot of heat,” Langeveldt said.

“Control is something we need to speak about, that can improve. It’s a young bowling attack, but they need to control the run-rate for longer periods.

“Stringing together 18 consecutive good balls is one of our KPIs and we could not achieve that, which is a bit of a red flag going forward. But this is a good pitch and we have played a lot of Tests lately on more bowler-friendly wickets.

“I’m happy with the enthusiasm, that was brilliant and I cannot fault it. We need to stay patient and I think reward is going to be around the corner,” Langeveldt said.

While Kagiso Rabada is currently the year’s leading wicket-taker in global Test matches with 47 in just nine matches, Langeveldt admitted that their spearhead has been out of sorts in Melbourne and that the other bowlers have not bowled well enough in partnerships.

“KG has not been on song and the others have only been in periods. We haven’t bowled well as a unit, those bowling partnerships are important and they have just not been there,” Langeveldt said.

“So we need to address that, but we have not played much on good cricket wickets lately and this is a good one. Sometimes you just need to bowl a few dot balls and use the bumper as a surprise ball.

“KG always takes wickets, but the challenge for him at the moment is control. Someone like Pat Cummins also leaked runs when he was at the beginning of his career, now he takes wickets and has control.

“That’s the challenge for KG going forward, especially on flatter pitches. We always need to assess the conditions and we always talk about adapting,” Langeveldt said.

But blaming these shortcomings on inexperience does not seem right. Rabada has already been playing Test cricket for seven years and has 267 wickets. Cummins debuted 11 years ago but has played 11 Tests fewer than Rabada due to injuries.

Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi are both playing in their 17^th Test match, while Marco Jansen has only just completed his first year of Test cricket.

Spinner Keshav Maharaj, playing his 47^th Test, was also not at his best as he conceded 135 runs in 41.5 overs and went wicketless.