Ken Borland

Back in 2000 when Anton Ferreira took ownership of the director of coaching role in the then United Cricket Board of South Africa, the national team were desperately trying to hang on to the coat-tails of an Australian side that was fast disappearing over the horizon.

That there has always been great talent within South African cricket is well known, but developing that talent into world-class cricketers requires expert coaching and for that, the coaches need coaching themselves.

Which is where Ferreira’s job was so important and one of the first things the former Northern Transvaal, Warwickshire and South Africa all-rounder did after he retired from playing in 1992 was to go to Australia and do an Australian Cricket Board coaching qualification. He would have been especially pleased with the Proteas’ emphatic series win over Australia at the end of the summer.

It was a great way to sign off as, disappointingly for the numerous people he has touched and influenced, Ferreira retired from his post, renamed manager of coaching and coaching education, this month.

But there are few people more passionate about cricket than ‘Yogi’ and he will remain in the game on a consultancy basis. The Africa Cricket Association are the first to benefit from his wisdom and enthusiasm as he has now turned his attention to training their coaches.

Passion is a priceless commodity in sport – consider how it has driven Asian cricket to pre-eminence in the game – but so is humility and, even as he was climbing the ladder both as a player and coach, Ferreira never forgot the lessons of his youth and in particular the tremendous example of his father, who was heavily involved in boxing.

“I am humbled and I can never repay the game for all the wonderful enjoyment it has given me. I learnt, as a young boy, about the importance of sportsmanship and treating everyone with respect from my wonderful father and about the game from Northern Transvaal legends like Denis Lindsay, Jackie Botten and Tiger Lance. They taught me about enjoying the pleasure of risk,” Ferreira said recently when he was honoured by Titans cricket for 40 years of service to cricket in the province and in South Africa.

Ferreira was able to not only develop the cricketing talents but also plant those life-skills in hundreds of South African players; although he has left the formal structures of South African cricket, there is no doubt he will continue to make an impact.

“Yogi has done it all in cricket, he has made an incredible contribution to the game, and was one of the people who laid the foundation for our current success as a franchise. What he has done for cricket in this area and around the country during his 18 years with Cricket South Africa has been phenomenal and his passion for the game is what sets him apart. And it was all done without any tendency for self-promotion, you won’t find a more humble, down-to-earth man,” Titans CEO Jacques Faul said in paying tribute to Ferreira.

From a personal perspective, this legend of the game (he was possibly more appreciated in English county cricket than here) was always approachable, usually smiling and keen to chew the fat over the great game of cricket. Given his marvellous sense of humour, it is always a pleasure to hear Yogi’s tales from a cricket career that has taken him around the globe.

Another former Northern Transvaal all-rounder, Hein Raath, has been a close friend of Ferreira’s dating back to when they both studied and played for the University of Pretoria.

Ferreira then took over the running of the club and, as Raath, a former chairman of Tuks cricket, pointed out, this job is now done by 17 people while Yogi did it all himself back then. Which rather sums up the man.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) released the schedule for the 2018/19 home international season on Monday and they have entrusted SuperSport Park in Centurion with trying to make a success of the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan.

The Test match starting on December 26 is one of the marquee fixtures on the South African calendar but it has been played in front of dwindling crowds on the coast since 1966, when the Australians were put to the sword by Denis Lindsay at the Wanderers in a match that started on December 23 and had a rest day on Christmas Day.

“It’s a privilege to host the Boxing Day Test which is an important date on the cricket calendar and we are thankful to be selected because there are only so many matches and it’s all up to CSA. People go for marquee events these days and there is a lot of sport on offer, but a lot of people are off work at that time and there are a lot of people still in Gauteng, so hopefully we will still get the good support we generally get at SuperSport Park,” Titans CEO Jacques Faul told The Citizen on Monday.

“I think it’s not been as successful as CSA had hoped hosting Tests at the coastal venues, it’s only really Newlands that has had good crowds. It’s a bit nervewracking but exciting to see whether we can get the benefit of not just having two weekend days to target but four or five days. Pakistan are also a well-supported and talented team.

“We’ll certainly give it a go and hopefully not let anyone down, attendances have always been very good at our stadium, but the proof will be in the pudding,” Faul said.

To lessen the blow to Durban and Port Elizabeth, they will host the two Tests against Sri Lanka in February, while Newlands and the Wanderers will host the other two Pakistan Tests.

ZIMBABWE TOUR ITINERARY 2018

September 30: 10h00, 1^st Momentum ODI, Diamond Oval, Kimberley (Day)

October 3: 13h00, 2^nd Momentum ODI, Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein (D/N)

October 6: 13h00, 3^rd Momentum ODI, Eurolux Boland Park, Paarl (D/N)

October 9: 18h00, 1^st KFC T20 International, Buffalo Park, East London (D/N)

October 12: 18h00, 2^nd KFC T20 International, Senwes Park, Potchefstroom (D/N)

October 14: 14h30, 3^rd KFC T20 International, Willowmoore Park, Benoni (Day)

PAKISTAN TOUR ITINERARY 2018/19

December 19-21: 10h00, Three-day tour match v SA Invitation XI, Willowmoore Park, Benoni

December 26-30: 10h00, 1^st Sunfoil Test match, SuperSport Park, Centurion

January 3-7: 10h30, 2^nd Sunfoil Test match, PPC Newlands, Cape Town

January 11-15: 10h00, 3^rd Sunfoil Test match, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

January 19: 13h00, 1^st Momentum ODI, St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth (D/N)

January 22: 13h00, 2^nd Momentum ODI, Kingsmead, Durban (D/N)

January 25: 13h00, 3^rd Momentum ODI, SuperSport Park, Centurion (D/N)

January 27: 10h00, 4^th Momentum ODI, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (Day)

January 30: 13h00, 5^th Momentum ODI, PPC Newlands, Cape Town (D/N)

February 1: 18h00, 1^st KFC T20 International, PPC Newlands, Cape Town (D/N)

February 3: 14h30, 2^nd KFC T20 International, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (Day)

February 6: 18h00, 3^rd KFC T20 International, SuperSport Park, Centurion (D/N)

SRI LANKA TOUR ITINERARY 2019

February 13-17: 10h00, 1^st Sunfoil Test match, Kingsmead, Durban

February 21-25: 10h00, 2^nd Sunfoil Test match, St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth

February 28: 10h00, One-Day tour match v SA Invitation XI, Willowmoore Park, Benoni (Day)

March 3: 10h00, 1^st Momentum ODI, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (Day)

March 6: 13h00, 2^nd Momentum ODI, SuperSport Park, Centurion (D/N)

March 10: 10h00, 3^rd Momentum ODI, Kingsmead, Durban (Day)

March 13: 13h00, 4^th Momentum ODI, St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth (D/N)

March 16: 13h00, 5^th Momentum ODI, PPC Newlands, Cape Town (D/N)

March 19: 18h00, 1^st KFC T20 International, PPC Newlands, Cape Town (D/N)

March 22: 18h00, 2^nd KFC T20 International, SuperSport Park, Centurion (D/N)

March 24: 14h30, 3^rd KFC T20 International, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium (Day)

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20180424/282024737865818

It is almost a law of sport that teams can become victims of their own success in terms of competitors trying to lure a franchise’s star performers away, and the Highveld Lions are currently going through an unsettled period marked by the departures of key internationals Temba Bavuma and Eddie Leie, as well as their general manager, Heinrich Strydom.

But it could have been a lot worse because CEO Greg Fredericks reportedly tendered his resignation as well, but the board did not accept it and managed to convince the popular former MP to continue in his role, thus avoiding another major blow to a union that also lost several experienced players to matchfixing bans at the start of last season.

Fredericks did not want to comment on his alleged resignation, but told The Citizen, “I had an offer which I turned down. My job here is not done.”

Strydom, who was also the CEO of North-West Cricket, has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Dolphins franchise and the Lions have been forced into a time of change, which they are trying to manage as best they can.

There has also been speculation that Cricket South Africa want to groom Lions coach Geoff Toyana for greater things by appointing him as one of the Proteas’ assistant coaches, which would be another blow to the franchise.

“Geoff has just renewed his contract with us for another three years. But if anything happens, we obviously do have succession plans and one or two individuals in mind. We are also advertising for a batting coach at the moment,” Fredericks said.

“The board has expressed concern, however, over the performances of the Highveld Lions and the Gauteng Strikers over the last season, and a committee led by David Terbrugge will investigate and come up with proposals. But the team lost Alviro Petersen and Neil McKenzie, and that experience you can’t replace overnight. People might not also know the important roles of players like Kagiso Rabada, Thami Tsolekile, Pumi Matshikwe and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

“Heinrich was also a huge asset for us, but we are very happy for him. He’s a very hard-working person and we will miss him. But if our pipeline is strong, then we should be able to replicate our previous successes, it’s about ensuring our character and culture stay strong,” Fredericks said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20170525/282119226487652

It was very hard to watch the Springboks v All Blacks game last weekend because there were a mountain of mistakes. You could see the players were really trying, but very often that’s not good enough against a quality side like New Zealand.

There were many system and individual errors within the Springbok defence, but the good news is that they can all be fixed, they can be corrected through good coaching. So I would prefer to talk about solutions rather than showing what went wrong.

Because I was in charge of the Springboks’ defence and kicking game for four years, I obviously know the pressure the coaching staff feel and have experienced this many times myself in my coaching career. You don’t coach for 21 years at a professional level without experiencing setbacks, so you must know how to fix them, plus the players pick up on your body language, passion and intensity.

Since I left the Springboks, I’ve been lucky enough to be working in Japan at the Kubota Spears. The Springboks defence was taken over by Jacques Nienaber, who was obviously being lined up for the full-time job.

He coached the defence in the Ireland Tests as a consultant for five weeks. Chean Roux worked hand-in-hand with him at the MobiUnit and was then earmarked to carry on his structures and principles as seamlessly as possible.

As a coach in this situation, you can’t just point the finger at the players. It’s important to have solutions and you need to look at yourself as well, take responsibility for the performance and fix it. Heyneke Meyer and Frans Ludeke always knew that I would take responsibility for the defensive performance, win or lose.

It’s very easy to point out what went wrong against the All Blacks, but it’s far more important to identify solutions. So here are six simple things that the Springboks can fix.

• The passive defence system. Over a period of time it has come through that line integrity is the key. But at the moment the Springboks are not coming off the line and pressurising the attacking team, or if they are, it’s in single fashion, for example Juan de Jongh trying to cut off the outside options.
  Experience has shown that all this does against the All Blacks is pressure our own inside defence. They are very good at running reverse-lines at the shooting defender.
  A 75% tackle success rate at Test level shows that this system is not working. Too many good defenders are making errors and missing tackles because we are allowing the attack to dictate to the defence.
  On the Sam Whitelock try, it came from width and the spacing of the defensive line was really poor – there were only three defenders covering 30 metres of space, they were far too tight to the ruck, which pulled the wings in.
  If you have a passive defence, like the Springboks had, then it highlights if anyone breaks the system. With a passive defence, the whole object is to push the attackers towards the touchline, so it’s never a good idea if everyone is drifting and one player comes in on a read.

• Winning the gain-line. I don’t think the Springbok backline once won the gain-line off first-phase ball, especially off the lineout. We call it ‘winning the race’ – if the defender can hit the ball-carrier behind the gain-line, it’s so much easier to set your defensive pillars in place. But if you allow the opposition to get easy yards over the gain-line as we did at the weekend, then it’s very difficult to get your pillars in place. The attack just rolls forward, gaining momentum … and confidence and belief.
  It’s quite simple: You have to close the space from the set-piece a lot quicker. You have to close the space (press) on the first receiver when he has the ball.

• Blindside defence. As alluded to in earlier columns, this was the same part of our defence that was exploited by Australia from the lineout and from a scrum, and was mercilessly exploited by New Zealand on Saturday. The key is that the hooker and blindside wing have to communicate the reversing of play and the players have to look up before folding to the openside. The Springboks’ blindside defence has to be much, much better than it was against the All Blacks.

• Scrumhalf channel off scrum. New Zealand also ran at this channel and since 2014 they’ve been doing the same thing against us. So as a defence coach that would have been my first port of call – making sure that the defence of the scrumhalf channel was really strong in Christchurch.
  But Aaron Smith punched through that channel so the scrumhalf and the flank have to work together. The first defender has to adjust and basically they have to play flat after that.
  The scrumhalf must defend the ball – after all nobody has ever scored a try without the ball!

• High balls. Every All Blacks high ball went on Francois Hougaard, so that was obviously seen as a mismatch for Israel Dagg to exploit. To be fair, Francois dealt with it well, but the Springboks need to be able to play from the retreating ruck post-kick.

• Kicking game. The kicking game is really quite simple and I believe we over-complicate it to a large degree. The key is that a kick is only as good as its chase, so the work-rate has to be much higher. If the kick is long, then the harder the chase, the easier it is to catch the opposition further back, to separate the counter-attacking wing and fullback from their cleaners/forwards. So the chase has to be a heck of a lot better and more aggressive from the Springboks.
  Tactically, the Springboks should be in a strong position because they have right-footed and left-footed options at flyhalf and fullback, because all they have to do then is get into the middle of the field and the right-footer [Johan Goosen] can go on the right side of the ruck and the left-footer [Elton Jantjies] takes the left. That will create indecision in the opposition back three as to who will exit. It will also affect the All Blacks’ pressure plan because the key guys trying to charge down the kick are always Aaron Smith or TJ Perenara and Brodie Retallick – it will be more difficult for them to pick up who is going to kick.
  Because the Boks have such a good mauling game, the box-kick from 9 is vitally important and needs to have an organised chase and contest, so they need to select wings that go up in the air.

These are the solutions to the defensive problems which I know I would be asking questions about if I were in the same situation as Chean Roux.

Just on Malcolm Marx and his alleged throwing woes, I think the criticism is incredibly unfair. People just look at the stats and not at what actually went on. It’s easy to say we lost four lineouts and blame the hooker, but if you look through all our games against New Zealand over the last four years, we’ve always lost four or five lineouts against them in the second half, because at halftime, whatever they talk about, they come out differently in the second half.

The World Cup semifinal last year against the All Blacks was decided because we lost five set-pieces around the halfway line. So to come out firing against a young hooker in his first Test is really not fair.

And I’ve looked at his throws – the first one was not straight, that was obvious and an error on his part because his alignment and set-up were wrong. But the two other lost throws were directly because of poor lifts by the back supporter, he was late.

And then at the lineout on the line, the triggers were not right as to when the hooker should throw in. At the top level, the hooker always has a trigger telling him when to throw, it tells him when to begin the throw. It comes from the jumper and it’s important to get it right.

The positive is that in rugby you always get another chance and I really think the Springboks will be so much better at home, they always do play better back here.

I really hope the Springboks and their coaching staff will bounce back well against Australia. I’m sure they will because there is too much hurt and as a group they know their responsibility is to give the country hope. I believe they will do that in these two home Tests.

Allister Coetzee is also a highly-experienced coach who everyone seems to forget won the World Cup in 2007. He’s been in these situations many times and he will know how to get out of it. We just need to give him and the Springboks our backing and support.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012-15, having won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.