Ken Borland

The Bulls stand on the brink of the United Rugby Championship playoffs confident that the mettle of the team has been proven by the way they have come through the fires of a most disheartening first half of the season under a new coach in Johan Ackermann.

The three-time URC runners-up go into Saturday’s last round-robin game against Benetton Treviso at Loftus Versfeld in fourth place on the standings, having guaranteed a quarterfinal place. But they will be eyeing a bonus point win that will guarantee them a home playoff.

It is a far cry from the situation at the start of the year when they had lost five matches in a row and languished in 12^th place on the log. The decision to replace coach Jake White, who had led them to the final in 2021/22, 2023/24 and 2024/25, with Ackermann was starting to look rash and there were genuine fears that the Bulls would miss out on the playoffs for the first time in URC history.

But a hard-fought 19-17 win in Edinburgh was the start of the recovery and they have now won eight of their last 10 matches in the competition. The confidence is back and the prospect of a home quarterfinal has the Bulls squad chomping at the bit.

Loose forward Mpilo Gumede is one of the newer faces in the Bulls’ first-choice URC 23 this year and the former Sharks man is enjoying the building of pressure that comes with knockout rugby.

“It’s been special for me. People always say the Bulls are the club to be at because they are chasing trophies, so I’m not surprised by where we are now. But it hasn’t been easy and we are aware of how much tougher it’s going to get. But it’s good for me, I can only challenge myself by seeing where I am compared with the best.

“It hasn’t been a consistent season for us, but we didn’t let that define us and we have gone from strength to strength by sticking to the plan and trusting the process. It’s also shown how close we are and how we fight for each other. No-one wants to be the one who lets the team down.

“Everyone is coming in to Loftus in the morning and giving their best. We are in it to win it and I think we are peaking now. It was tough, the way the season started, losing half-a-dozen games in a row, it has not been an easy turnaround. But we are a big club and we are expected to deliver, we understand where we are.

“We can reflect now on where we have come from, we have been through the worst. But the environment is unbelievable, it does not feel like we are just there to do a job. Each time I wake up and go to training it’s special because of the gees. We never speak down to each other, we stick together,” Gumede told kenborland.com.

While Gumede is treading new ground as a professional rugby player, it is not the first time wing Sergeal Petersen has found himself in the heat of knockout rugby. Having won the URC trophy with the Stormers in 2022, he famously scored two tries in the semifinal between the Bulls and Leinster two years ago in Pretoria, including a sensational matchwinning effort when he leapt in the air to claim a kick against a much taller player.

The 31-year-old flyer also believes the Bulls have much more certainty now in their ability to perform under the high stakes pressure of the playoffs.

“We have been through a rollercoaster but the fact is we are now at the business end of the season and it feels like we have kicked on and gelled at the right time. It was a bit stop-start to begin with under a new coach, but now is the time for us to start producing the goods, starting with a vital game on Saturday.

“We want to give ourselves the chance of a home semifinal by getting another bonus point win. I think we’re peaking now, we had a successful tour, winning two games, and it’s time to hit our straps now. After the start we had, our mindset every week has been that we know we’ve got to rock up. We know we’ve been focused because we’ve had to strive to win every game.

“Playing for a team like the Bulls, there is so much expectation to perform every time we go on the field. We believe we can take on any team and no-one in the squad has any doubts in themselves. There is so much trust in the leadership team,” Petersen told kenborland.com.

Petersen, who has racked up 85 appearances for the Cheetahs, Stormers and Bulls, says the key to success in the playoffs lies in executing the basics to perfection.

“Simplicity is now the most important thing. We’ve got the playing depth and the rugby knowledge of these situations – we have World Cup winners and Currie Cup winners and players and coaches who have been involved in URC and SuperRugby finals.

“It’s all about simplicity and execution now. We can’t look too far ahead, but anything can happen in the finals. The road we’ve been on has ensured there’s no complacency,” Petersen said.

Following the URC campaign, several players who have become folk heroes at Loftus Versfeld will be leaving the club – tighthead powerhouse Wilco Louw, the totemic lock Ruan Nortje, backline stalwart David Kriel and exhilarating winger Kurt-Lee Arendse are all departing.

Gumede said those remaining are determined to send them off with the trophy they have come so close to winning but which keeps slipping agonisingly from their fingers.

“Those guys have fought for the jersey for a long time, someone like Ruan wants us to win so badly. So we want to make a special moment for them, those guys who have been trying to win the URC from the start of the competition. We want to make sure we send them off nicely,” Gumede said.

The last time the DP World Lions men’s team were in Bloemfontein to play the Free State Knights in a T20 match was, astonishingly, way back in December 2017 and it was a tiff that only lasted 13 overs before rain forced play to be abandoned.

Our defending champions are back in the City of Roses to take on the Knights in the CSA T20 Challenge on Wednesday night, and it is something of a journey into the unknown given the gap between T20 fixtures there and the fact that the Free Staters boast a new-look side.

Back in 2017, the Knights had players like Keegan Petersen, who scored an unbeaten 52 off 40 balls to take them to 86 for two when play was stopped, Theunis de Bruyn and David Miller playing for them. Now, having returned from being relegated to Division II last season, they boast some exciting new talent like Garnett Tarr, Dian Forrester and Tiaan van Vuuren.

The Free Staters may have only won one of their three matches so far this season, but DP World Lions coach Russell Domingo says it would be ill-judged to underestimate them in any way.

“The Knights could easily have won three from three; one of their losses was in a super over. They have good young cricketers but also lots of experience with guys like Aaron Phangiso, Malusi Siboto and Gihahn Cloete. Along with Jacques Snyman and Tiaan van Vuuren, they are a helluva dangerous side and they had a great win over the Warriors in their last match,” Domingo said upon their arrival in Bloemfontein.

“So we need to do what we’ve been doing in our last two matches, it’s working at the moment. We want to be solid and well-organised up front, and then play from there. We have a much less experienced batting line-up than last season with Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks and Wiaan Mulder all away, and the last thing we want to do is lose early wickets like we did in our first game against the Titans.

“So our plan is to assess conditions in the first three overs or so, and then allow the really good finishers we have to play. I’m of the school of thought that T20 games are not won in the first six overs but in the last six overs of each innings,” Domingo said.

Evan Jones (SR 193.10), Connor Esterhuizen (SR 165.71) and captain Mitchell van Buuren (SR 159.37) are like heavyweight boxers, primed to deliver the knockout blow at the death.

Our DP World Lions won both their weekend matches in Johannesburg, but just to ensure their success does not breed any complacency, their game against the Dolphins ended up in a much closer finish than expected.

The bowling attack is yet to resemble the title-winning unit of last season, and has been dogged by wides and no-balls in the first three matches – 38 wides and six no-balls in total.

“I’m still reasonably happy because it’s always tricky starting the season with T20 because your bowlers are not yet battle-hardened. We’ve had quite a lot of extras, especially wides,” Domingo said.

With Kwena Maphaka staying behind in Johannesburg due to school exam commitments, Lutho Sipamla is likely to return to the attack. Codi Yusuf took his place in the last match against the Dolphins, after a tough opener versus the Titans, and bounced back in typical bulldog fashion with two key middle-order wickets while conceding just six runs-per-over.

“Codi was good, he’s a big bowler for us across all formats. He was just struggling a bit with confidence, but he’s done a lot of work with Allan Donald [bowling coach],” Domingo said.

South African batting star Heinrich Klaasen hopes the impact sub rule used in the Indian Premier League never makes its way into international cricket, saying it negates the need for “smart batting”.

Klaasen steered the Proteas to victory in their opening T20 World Cup match in New York, a meagre target of 78 still requiring the batsmen to be at their sharpest on a treacherous pitch that saw the facilities at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium being criticised for producing a game that lacked entertainment value as the International Cricket Council seeks to reach new markets.

It was all a far cry from the recent IPL, in which strike-rates and totals reached all-time highs. Klaasen, the key finisher for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, had to play clever cricket against Sri Lanka on a pitch with inconsistent but often steep bounce, and plenty of seam movement, finishing with 19 not out off 22 balls.

It was the sort of match that would have been near-impossible in the IPL with the impact sub rule allowing teams to bolster their batting line-up while not weakening their bowling attack. Klaasen told SportsBoom that he would not like to see the international game adopt the gimmick.

“The impact sub rule allowed batsmen to play with much more freedom and the execution was at a different level on pitches that were good. In the IPL, you are measured by the number of sixes you hit and your strike-rate, that’s your bread-and-butter and no-one worries about your average,” Klaasen said.

“But I hope the impact sub does not come into international cricket. It frees up the batting side too much and you can have a batsman at number nine with it, so there’s no need for anyone to hang around.

“It takes away the creativity of batting, it takes away smart batting. Like when Jos Buttler scored a superb century off 60 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders to chase down 224, having scored just 25 off his first 18 deliveries. The impact sub will take away that sort of brilliance to sum up conditions and hang around a bit, against just bombing the ball over small boundaries.

“It will allow teams to not play the situation so well. We also don’t get a lot of difficult pitches in the IPL, which is why the way teams go extremely hard in the powerplay is the big trend, and then the middle-order adjusts depending on whether you’re in trouble or flying,” Klaasen said.

While South Africa started their T20 World Cup campaign in impressive fashion against Sri Lanka, Lady Luck has not always been on their side in ICC events and they are yet to win one of the main trophies. Klaasen says the number of players they have with experience in the high-pressure IPL arena has helped them perform better in recent World Cups.

“We’ve got off to a very good start which means we can relax a bit and just keep building on that confidence. We need to focus on what we do best and keep that intensity.

“But the Netherlands have beaten us twice and Bangladesh can beat any team on their day, so we need to play the big moments well in those games.

“We’ve matured and gelled nicely as a team and a lot of the guys have played in the IPL, where there is a lot of pressure and expectation. We have been playing good World Cup cricket lately. Of the last three World Cups, we’ve only had one bad one, the 2022 T20 in Australia when we didn’t play well.

“But in Abu Dhabi in the 2021 T20 we only lost one out of five matches but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, and last year in India in the ODI World Cup, we played some unbelievable cricket to reach the semi-finals,” Klaasen said.

“I am very proud of the way we bounced back, it showed that we have learnt from our mistakes,” chuffed DP World Lions captain Bjorn Fortuin said shortly after lifting the CSA T20 Challenge trophy following their commanding seven-wicket win with 14 balls to spare over the HollywoodBets Dolphins in Johannesburg on Sunday.

While the margin of victory was ultimately comfortable, there were tough periods in the game that our Pride had to overcome. The Dolphins dominated the last five overs of their batting innings to post a competitive 165 for eight, and the DP World Lions had lost three wickets by the halfway stage of their chase.

But just as Fortuin (4-0-24-2) and Codi Yusuf (4-1-16-2) stepped up with the ball, Reeza Hendricks and Wiaan Mulder made light of the situation with the bat, plundering a tremendous unbeaten 85 runs for the fourth wicket off just 48 balls.

Hendricks played the perfect anchoring role, facing the first ball of the innings and batting through to the end to finish with a wonderful 73 not out off 52 balls, including three sixes. Mulder blasted a fiery 55 not out off just 26 balls, with four sixes.

“All of the squad have been responsible for us winning at some stage,” Fortuin said. “It’s nice to see the younger players developing alongside all the very established players we have.

“The Dolphins batted well after we made it difficult for them at the start, but with our batting line-up, I know if we restrict the opposition to anything close to par, then I’m confident we will chase it down.”

Hendricks and Mulder showed their experience and class during their partnership, when another wicket for the Dolphins could have made for an awkward finish for the #PrideOfJozi. After Ryan Rickelton (18 off 13) and Hendricks had rushed the DP World Lions to 50 in five-and-a-half overs, the Dolphins struck back with three wickets and did not concede another boundary in the next fifty runs.

But vitally, they could not buy another wicket.

“They really kept us honest in the middle and it was important for me to try and bat deep,” Hendricks said. “It was also important to bat well up front and lay a platform, and we did that between Ryan and myself. One of the top four then had to bat through and today it just happened to be me. At the DP World Wanderers Stadium, you want to take it as deep as possible because with wickets in hand, you can always score well in the last five overs.

“We did slow down after the powerplay, but we really needed to make sure we didn’t lose another wicket. Wiaan then came in and played an unbelievable knock, it changed the momentum and put the Dolphins under pressure,” Hendricks said.

Yusuf did a superb job with the ball in the final over, removing both the set batsmen, Jason Smith (51) and Eathan Bosch (17), and he was impressively cheap, going for just four runs an over in his four-over quota.

“Codi has been massive for us. He was in and out of the team at the beginning of the competition and it is tough for a youngster to be mentally up for it when you get dropped after one game and then come back in and are expected to produce. He has a bright future and he’s not just a white-ball bowler,” captain Fortuin said.

Fortuin himself capped an outstanding season with his telling contribution, ending the competition as the second most economical bowler with a run-rate of just 5.85. The left-arm spinner was only fractionally behind Imraan Manack of Boland (5.83).

Rickelton (441) ended as the second-highest run-scorer, with Hendricks just one run behind, while leg-spinner Nqaba Peter, who bowled three tidy overs before getting some punishment in his fourth on Sunday, took the second-most wickets.