Ken Borland

Bulls scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl has warned that their brilliant victory over the Sharks is worth nothing unless they build on it and maintain that momentum in their huge games coming up against the Stormers in Pretoria on Saturday and versus the Lions at Ellis Park the following weekend.

Top spot on the log is their’s at the moment, but the Bulls will need to keep winning to hold off the thus far unbeaten Free State Cheetahs and Stormers, who have won both their matches, because Jake White’s team then have a bye.

“As a team we took a lot of confidence from the Sharks game and that performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Before that we had been a bit stop-start, we didn’t have much flow in our first two games. Every game is important but now it’s really important that we build on that display and move forward, otherwise that win won’t help us.

“We have a couple of massive games coming up, but at least we were more clinical at the right times, there was better decision-making and we identified space better. Better decisions lead to better play, and this time we rounded off our chances. Coach Jake is very good at making sure that it is all about getting the team to win and we all understand our roles every week,” Van Zyl said.

While the Bulls were much more accurate with ball in hand, and also off the boot, their defence was also highly impressive against the Sharks as they conceded just one try.

“We’re very happy with our defence and the combination of scoring six tries and just conceding one is massive for us. The more consistent we are in our defence, the more opportunities we’ll have to win, so it’s something we continue to work on and against the Stormers we’ll come up against different players with different skill-sets. But we take a lot of confidence from the defensive effort against the Sharks.

“Joey Mongalo has been great for us as defence coach, he has great energy and clearly loves what he does, he’s passionate about defence and that rubs off on the team. We are eager to get better every week. The basics of our defensive system haven’t changed that much, but there’s a new energy,” Van Zyl said.

New Presidents Cup Internationals team captain Trevor Immelman is keen to build on the foundation laid by Ernie Els and has warned that his side will have a lot of exciting youngsters providing great depth as they look to end the eight-match winning streak of the United States.

Els led the Internationals to one of their best ever showings in December as they were edged out 16-14 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club by the Americans, captained by Tiger Woods. Immelman is the youngest ever captain to be appointed – he will be 41 when the Presidents Cup is played again in September 2021 at Quail Hollow, beating the mark set by Woods, who was coming to the end of his 44th year in December.

And Immelman is banking on an injection of youth to make the International team even more competitive next year.

“I was part of Ernie’s team for the last Presidents Cup and I will try and continue his legacy and I really look forward to building on the platform he created. It’s an amazing honour to follow in the footsteps of Ernie Els and Gary Player as the Internationals captain. They have both been mentors and great friends of mine, whose advice I have relied on through my life.

“In the last two years we’ve had a number of youngsters step up as some of the best golfers in the world. We have a lot of different players starting to play really well, guys who were on the fringes of the team last time around. We had a group of 12 in Melbourne and now I can cast a bigger net and create a group of 30 to 40 golfers, and start to get the camaraderie going,” Immelman told OFM radio’s Morgan Piek this week.

The 2008 Masters (again beating Woods) and two-time SA Open champion mentioned players such as Koreans Sungjae Im and Byeong Hun-An, Cameron Smith, Jazz Janewattananond, Pebble Beach winner Nick Taylor and Corey Conners as being amongst the young talent that is making him excited about being the seventh Internationals captain.

Not that the Cape Town-born Immelman is discounting a healthy contingent of his countrymen making the cut in 2021.

“There are the more experienced guys I grew up with like Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen, but South Africa has such a rich history of golfers performing at the highest level and winning the biggest championships – guys like Charl Schwartzel, who is coming back from injury and showing good form, and Branden Grace, who won the SA Open recently.

“Plus there’s someone like Erik van Rooyen, who has been playing some beautiful golf on the PGA Tour, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who is competing against the best in the world and showing what he can do,” Immelman said.

Temba Bavuma is the new captain of the Highveld Lions and the Proteas batsman warned that the franchise is dead-set on returning to their previous status as one of the powerhouses of domestic cricket.

The 28-year-old Bavuma is back at the Lions after just one season away with the Cape Cobras and, linking up with new coach Enoch Nkwe, is the sort of inspirational, high-profile figure who can drive a renaissance in Central Gauteng cricket.

“Enoch’s expectation is excellence and we will do everything in our might to fulfil that. But the players have their own expectations and we want to get back to the levels expected of us, get back to the top. We need to put up a performance and fight for the brand of cricket we want to play. We’re coming!” Bavuma said when he was unveiled as the new skipper at the Wanderers on Wednesday night.

Rassie van der Dussen, the leading run-scorer across all formats last season, has been named as the official vice-captain and Bavuma’s Proteas commitments means that he will have a vital leadership role to play as well.

Bavuma said that his return to the Lions was primarily motivated by personal reasons – his fiancée lives in Johannesburg – but it is clear that even though he left to play at his birthplace, his heart remained with his old team-mates.

“I really missed being part of this team and it was quite painful to watch their performances from the side. As captain, I won’t be doing anything different, I’m there to serve the team and inspire the players to perform their best. I know all the guys, we have a good relationship. But I’m not one to speak a lot, my focus is on just going out and doing what we have to do.

“It’s a massive honour and privilege to be given the responsibility of captain. I played under Alviro Petersen and Stephen Cook and I learnt a great deal from them and will try to live up to their legacy. I will have a strong hand in the culture of the team, how we go about achieving excellence starts there, and we have to do that on a daily basis,” Bavuma said.

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The other men’s teams in the Premier Hockey League have been warned that they will have to fight very hard to take the inaugural title ahead of the Milo Maropeng Cavemen as Rassie Pieterse’s side went to the top of the standings with a gripping 3-2 win over the Schick Garden Route Gazelles in a thrilling match at the Randburg Astro on Sunday.

The top-of-the-log clash dazzled from the outset with the dangerous Lance Louw showing the intent of the Cavemen as he pounced on the ball in the seventh minute, robbing an attacker and then racing forward before finding Cameron McKay with a super reverse-sticks ball which the in-form striker deflected into goal from the penalty-spot.

Lloyd Norris-Jones hit the post after a tremendous run from the halfway line in an attack that was a foretaste of what was to come from the international player in the second and third quarters.

The Cavemen went 2-0 up in the 23rd minute when Jarryd Patrick slotted the ball home to make sure that some lovely skill by Michael Abrahams did not go to waste, but the Gazelles made sure that they were on the scoreboard on the stroke of halftime as Gertjie Lamprecht got on the end of Norris-Jones’ reverse-sticks cross.

The Gazelles pressed hard for the equaliser in the third quarter, a great run by Keenan Horne leading to a string of five short-corners in quick succession, with goalkeeper and captain Pieterse making a couple of great saves.

It did eventually come in the 43rd minute though as Norris-Jones produced another tremendous run and Jason MacLachlan deflected the ball into the goal at the far post.

The Cavemen claimed their third goal – the winner – in the 54th minute as the excellent Louw fired home a penalty stroke. It was a tough call against the Gazelles after Satchi Reddy had lost composure in the circle, swung wildly at the ball and missed, and then brought down Patrick, although it was well to the right of the goal.

But the gutsy Gazelles fought back and another fine run by Horne, keeping the ball through a couple of tackles, finished with MacLachlan flicking home. But the equaliser was referred to the TV umpire and it was a hammer blow when he ruled that there had been a back-sticks play by the Gazelles, although it was not particularly obvious.

The result left the Gazelles a point behind the Cavemen, who have a game in hand, and the pressure is now on Steve Evans’ side as both the Tsogo Sun Drakensberg Dragons and the Private Property Golden Gate Gladiators are just two points behind them, both with a game in hand.

DRAGONS DOWN ELEPHANTS

The Dragons outfit is full of dangerous, skillful players and their short-corner is a particular threat, as they showed on Sunday by beating the Every Sun Addo Elephants 2-0 thanks to two brilliant drag-flicks from the set-piece by Dave Agar.

The national under-21 side is playing under the guise of the Gladiators and is also a skillful, pacy side, with Ryan Crowe a particularly key offensive force, as he showed by being involved in all three goals as they beat the Mapungubwe Mambas 3-2.

The Gladiators were not able to beat marvellous Mambas goalkeeper Hendrik Kriek and his seasoned defence until the 43rd minute, by which time the opposition had taken a 1-0 lead through a short-corner goal by Lyall Meyer.

But the Gladiators equalised as Steven McManus rounded off a Crowe attack. Not to be outdone, Crowe then gave the Gladiators a 2-1 lead showing great skill and producing a superb finish.

But the under-21s were not able to clear their lines in defence soon afterwards, conceding a short-corner. Goalkeeper Robert McKinley made a superb save from the initial flick, but the rebound was popped in by Meyer.

There were just seconds remaining though when Crowe produced a great ball to captain Alex Stewart, who fed Walter Pfaff, the Southern Gautenger flicking into the side-netting for the winner.

In the women’s tournament, the Nestle Pure Life Blyde River Bunters just never accept that they are beaten as they scored their second shootout win of the event, this time in sudden death, to see off the Ezee Tile Madikwe Rangers.

They had to come from behind just three minutes before the end of normal time to level the scores at 1-1, Izelle Verster driving into the circle after picking up a ball deflected out of defence, and passing to Lauren Nina, who made one touch and then produced a great finish inside the near post.

The Rangers had scored the opening goal in the 36th minute as Bernadette Coston intercepted a pass and set off on a pacy run, before Charne Martell won a short-corner. Lisa-Marie Deetlef’s first attempt was well-blocked but led to another short-corner, from which her strong slap headed straight for Jessica de Bruyn-Smith, who could only turn the ball into her own goal.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the shootout through Deetlefs and Coston, goalkeeper Anelle van Deventer producing excellent saves to deny the first two attempts of the Bunters from Charne Hill and Elmien Marais.

But the next three Rangers – Sinalo Jafta, Sylvia van Jaarsveldt and Toni Marks – all could not find the goal. The inspirational Nicolene Terblanche got the Bunters on the board in the shootout and Anel Luus’s well-taken shot took the shootout into sudden death.

Deetlefs, the heart of the Rangers defence and still every bit the player she was at the 2012 Olympics, unfortunately lost control of the ball as she went first in sudden death. Terblanche, showing the composure befitting the national women’s captain, took her time and found the target, to leave the Bunters five points clear of the Rangers at the top of the log.

The other women’s game on Sunday saw the Young Solutions St Lucia Lakers outlast the Clinix Orange River Rafters 2-0 in the midday sun.

Rafters goalkeeper Sanani Mangisa was usually in the middle of the action, but she could not stop Kaz Bowyer from slapping in at the near-post, having initially saved Jacinta Jubb’s short-corner shot.

It was another tough old day at the office for the Rafters as the Lakers made it 2-0 in the 17th minute, Kelly Madsen making a strong run into the circle and Kate Koenig putting away her ball across the goal.

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