Ken Borland

The Sharks produced a display so lacking in elan and polish against Cardiff on Sunday night that CEO Eduard Coetzee took the unprecedented step of apologising for the performance at the post-match press conference.

Getting spectators to the ground on a Sunday night is a hard enough ask, but it then poured with rain at Kings Park and the Sharks dished up one of their worst performances in several years, being thrashed 35-0.

“I would like to apologise for that display to the fans who came here and sat in the rain, more than 7000 of them, and to our sponsors and stakeowners, they don’t deserve that,” Coetzee said at the start of his surprise statement to the media.

“A lot of effort has gone into this franchise and we will not just leave this there. We will turn it around and we will rectify that. That was unlike the Sharks and we will do everything possible to rectify this as soon as possible,” Coetzee said.

The CEO also praised Cardiff for their “unbelievable” display, but the magnificence of the visitors’ performance lay not so much in dazzling rugby but in simple clinical execution of the right plan for the conditions, and plenty of passion.

“They managed the game a lot better and we couldn’t do the same, so we were pinned in our 22,” Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell said. “We also made a lot of basic errors.

“If you can’t even do the basics well then you are not going to do well at this level. If you’re not going to be accurate or clinical, then you will find yourself in trouble.

“Needless to say it was a massive disappointment and just not good enough. It was an opportunity for guys to show they can play at this level, but now we will have to take a hard look from an individual perspective at players and management.

“It’s going to be hard work and it will be great if we can show the character to bounce back from this quickly,” Powell said.

An unprecedented 21 players will make their Currie Cup debut for the Bulls on Saturday as they take on Western Province at Loftus Versfeld in the opening round, but stand-in coach Pine Pienaar believes his rookies will give absolutely everything as they get to play in a North/South derby that would have been beyond their immediate dreams.

Nine of those players are not even in the Bulls structures and have had to be called in from club rugby. The extraordinary selection – for surely one of the most important games of the Currie Cup – has been forced on the Bulls because they have 28 players in Italy for the Rainbow Cup final, four are with the Springboks, four are unavailable due to injury, two are on duty with the Blitzboks and six have been called up by the Junior Springboks.

But there are still a couple of familiar faces in the team as highly-rated loosehead prop Simphiwe Matanzima will finally make his return after 10 months out with a torn achilles tendon and Richard Kriel, younger brother of David, will want to show what he can do at fullback. And TV viewers will get the eye-popping experience of seeing gigantic prop Mhleli Dlamini in the flesh when he comes off the bench.

“We see it as a reward for the guys at the clubs, in Varsity Cup or in our juniors who have done well. It’s going to be an unbelievable privilege for them to play in a North/South Currie Cup derby, everyone is looking forward to the challenge and that’s what we’ve spoken about with them. After we had a session just to get to know each other …

“These guys never thought in their wildest dreams that they would be playing for the Bulls now. We’ve prepared as best we can from last week and there’s an unbelievable atmosphere in the team because they all want to create an impression and express themselves. The one definite is that they will put in a massive effort and we’ll stay in the fight for as long as we can,” Pienaar said on Thursday.

Despite the difficulties involved in getting a team drawn from so many different parts to gel together, Pienaar says the Bulls will have a holistic game-plan against Western Province.

“I think we have a good combination between forwards and backs and we will try to attack space with ball-in-hand. There will be a lot of mistakes, but we won’t be looking at the scoreboard, it’s about getting our processes right and the guys will definitely go out and give it their all,” Pienaar said.

Bulls: Richard Kriel, Sebastiaan Jobb, Sango Xamlashe (Captain), Louritz van der Schyff, Kefentse Mahlo, Jandre Burger, Johan Mulder, Jaco Bezuidenhout, Jaco Labuschagne, Henco Beukes, Tiaan de Klerk, JJ Scheepers, Francois Klopper, Werner Fourie, Simphiwe Matanzima. Bench -Llewelyn Classen, Dewald Donald, Mhleli Dlamini, Adolph Visser, Eduan Lubbe, Tiaan Fourie, Kabelo Mokoena, Niel Beukes.

Only a run-out prevented spinners Senuran Muthusamy and Prenelan Subrayen from the unprecedented feat of both finishing the match with 10-wicket hauls as the Dolphins won the 4-Day Domestic Series final in extraordinary fashion at Kingsmead on Monday, beating the Titans by an innings and 76 runs.

The Titans were bowled out for 166 towards the end of the extended morning session on Monday, a vast improvement on their miserable 53 all out in the first innings, but still nowhere near enough to prevent the Dolphins from claiming the title outright.

Slow left-armer Muthusamy was the second-innings destroyer, taking six for 79 in 28.2 overs, giving him match figures of nine for 91. Off-spinner Subrayen claimed four for 56 in 38 overs, giving him 10 for 80 in the match.

It is the first time in South African first-class history that two bowlers from the same side have taken 19 wickets in a match. The other Titans wicket fell to a run out.

With almost the entire first two days of play being lost to the weather, it seemed something miraculous would have to occur for an outright result to be achieved.

The Dolphins had that magic in their kitbags though, their two magnificent spinners being accurate and relentless, backed by superb fielding, led by wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle, Keegan Petersen’s catching up close and Ruan de Swardt in the ring.

The Titans batsmen just did not have the skill and intent available to them to break the stranglehold, although Rivaldo Moonsamy showed good fight on Monday as he scored 41 in two hours at the crease.

The Dolphins have been the dominant team in the domestic season, claiming two (one shared) of the three trophies available to them and reaching the T20 final.

In an unprecedented move, Cricket South Africa company secretary Welsh Gwaza is set to be given his own personal assistant, but the controversial Thabang Moroe ally may find his empire-building cut short following the mentions of him in the Fundudzi Forensic Report released on Monday.

Asked to confirm on Monday whether CSA are busy with the appointment of a PA for Gwaza, CSA communications officer Sipho Rihlamvu said: “CSA considers vacancies based on each portfolio’s needs analysis and how the filling of such vacancies would best serve the organisation. These needs are presented to the relevant structures within CSA and signed off with the prerequisite approvals. Any consideration for the positions within CSA must satisfy the said criteria.”

Other sources have suggested Gwaza has requested a PA because of his “increased workload”, a sure sign that the company secretary is being given more responsibility and therefore more power.

But Gwaza could be one of the CSA staff members against which both Fundudzi and CSA’s lawyers, Bowmans Gilfillan have recommended disciplinary processes be started.

One of the most serious examples of misgovernance exposed by Fundudzi was the deal with Global Sports Commerce for the Mzansi Super League, which has now opened CSA up for losses of R27.5 million should GSC fail to honour the terms of the settlement. The CSA Board were given assurances by Gwaza, as well as former CEO Moroe and chief operating officer Naasei Appiah, who have both subsequently been fired, that due diligence had been done on GSC, but it was never presented to the Board, before Moroe authorised payment of R30 million to the sports management company.

Gwaza was also one of the Exco members who was aware that the South African Cricketers’ Association had not been paid the image rights money due to them from the 2018 MSL.

Other funds that CSA are trying to recover, as exposed by the Fundudzi Report, are the R3 019 244 given to ‘Service Provider X’ by Moroe and Appiah without following the Procurement Policies of CSA.

Moroe’s bungling of the step-in at the Western Province Cricket Association, with Fundudzi finding he misled the CSA Board, cost the federation R725 227 in costs awarded to WPCA by the arbitrator. His appointment of Chantel Moon, who was not qualified for the job, as head of human resources on a consultancy basis without following due process in August 2019 cost CSA nearly R1.7 million according to the report. Moon was also allegedly paid R1.25 million in 2017/18 for ad hoc HR work without a signed contract.

Appiah’s purchase of alcohol for R201 372 on the company credit card was also flagged by the forensic investigators, as was Moroe’s R64 830 booze bill.

In terms of loans to the affiliates, the WPCA owe CSA R57.7 million, while the total loan bill to all affiliates for stadium upgrades comes to nearly R169 million.

Most alarmingly, CSA could not provide the forensic investigators with documentation supporting the signing of the top 40 procurement contracts agreed between January 2016 and December 2019.

NSA Vulindlela were paid about R6.8 million for security services without a contract or Board approval, and without a tender process.