Ken Borland

Ripped apart by Benetton Treviso on one of the most frustrating days in Bulls history, coach Jake White decried the “arrogance” of South African rugby that saw most pundits and fans expecting the local champions to just rock up in Europe and win the Rainbow Cup final.

The Bulls were meant to be triumphant forerunners of a wave of South African teams entering and dominating European competition via the new United Rugby Championship, but instead there will now be many questions overseas as to what our teams are going to add to the proud Celtic league.

Ponderous, one-dimensional and error-prone in comparison with an impressive Benetton side that produced some dazzling rugby, the Bulls were hammered 35-8.

“It would be a bit arrogant to think that we could just arrive in Italy and beat a club side and then fly home. Sometimes as a coach you just have to take it, tactically Benetton were very smart and there was no one area where we stamped our mark, we were a bit short in everything. But I’m a realist and that’s the first time many of this team felt pressure like that.

“Benetton have a lot of experienced Test players, they’ve played against England at Twickenham and France in Paris, and when you get them here at home, they can play. We looked inexperienced and we can blame that, the heat or the crowd, but at the end of the day we got it wrong. It was up to us to find a way, to do things differently,” White said.

While the Bulls have basically physically-dominated everyone back at home, it is clear that they play a more highbrow form of rugby in Europe and the South African teams are going to have to adapt very quickly. South Africa’s dominant team have just been handed a whipping by a team, impressive as they were on the day, no-one in Europe seriously thinks is better than big guns Leinster, Munster and Ulster, never mind the Champions Cup teams.

“It’s a completely different game up North and Benetton are a well-coached team who played really well. We did not enjoy it today being convincingly beaten, but we have got to find our feet. Hopefully this loss makes us so much better and I’m glad for the opportunity to grow as a team. Our youngsters have now seen that it’s a completely different game up here.

“To the other South African teams I would say ‘Don’t come here thinking it’s the same as what you’re used to’. It’s a totally different sort of defence and attack that you play against, homework and analysis is going to be so important. Back home we know the teams and players and we thought we have been clinical there, but we have never been punished for not kicking the ball out like we were here,” White admitted.

The much-vaunted Bulls pack was a bit of a sleeper in the first half of their decisive Rainbow Cup match against the Sharks at Kings Park at the weekend, but a thoroughly dominant third quarter laid the platform for a comfortable 34-22 win and Jake White said although it is the nature of coaching to always be critical of something, he was satisfied that their mission in Durban was accomplished.

With both sides scoring a try apiece in the first half, the Bulls held a narrow 13-10 lead at the break, but they had notched their crucial fourth, bonus point try by the hour mark. That assured them of their place in the Rainbow Cup final against Benetton in Treviso this weekend. The final quarter saw the Sharks fight back as the Bulls were given two yellow cards.

“I was very happy with our defence with 13 men because the Sharks have some really good attacking players, but I would have preferred to have 15 men finish the game. But our experience told at the end and it’s a difficult one to manage once we scored our fourth try because you want to protect players and give those on the bench a run, but it’s a balancing act because you don’t want to get caught out and you are also on the cusp of getting some momentum for the final.

“But we got what we wanted out of the game and the message the whole time to the players was to go for the win and play the way we always play. If it took until the 79^th minute, we had to believe that the fourth try would come, and we had to back our intensity and keeping the ball in play. I’m very happy we showed we can handle the pressure,” White said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said his team did not have any right to make excuses for their defeat.

“We put ourselves in position to get the four tries we needed, we had six entries into the Bulls’ 22 in the first half alone, but we only converted one of them so we can’t make any excuses. We just weren’t able to convert, losing the ball over the line, and then things unravelled in the second half with soft penalties. There was ill-discipline at times too, which the players must take responsibility for.

“We need to cut down on our error-rate. We wanted to get the ball into the wider channels, get it through the hands, like in Aphelele Fassi’s good runs and the Siya Kolisi try. Unfortunately at times we just could not get the ball there when we had the opportunity to do that, which comes down to decision-making and sticking to the plan, not holding on to the ball instead of moving it,” Everitt said.

Kagiso Rabada endured a 39-month break between five-wicket hauls before taking five for 34 on Saturday to wrap up an innings win for the Proteas in the first Test against the West Indies, but the fast bowler said even though he was relieved to end that dry spell, the failure to notch the statistical landmark was not frustrating for him.

“Cricket is a game where you’re measured by the highest accolades like scoring hundreds or taking five and 10-fors, so you always strive to do that, but it’s not like you’re looking for that or desperate for it because sometimes you can bowl really well and not get any wickets. It’s an old cliché but they do tend to repeat themselves.

“Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do the five-for thing for the last couple of years but I knew I just had to be consistent in my preparation. But I am quite relieved to get it, it’s like scoring a hundred, who wouldn’t be happy? I was really glad with my performance, but without the support of my team-mates this wouldn’t have happened.

“With Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje bowling exceptionally well and the batsmen coming to the party and putting runs on the board, this makes it easier for me. I just try and control what I can control and the cricketing gods were smiling at me today,” Rabada said after his 10^th five-wicket haul in just 46 Tests.

He is the seventh South African to join that club and he said the Proteas, by returning to basics and playing as a team, were ruthless as they battered the West Indies into submission.

“This game can be unforgiving but we have just tried to be consistent in our preparation and we’ve established how we want to play. And we stick to that. And if you do that then luck tends to be on your side more often than not. In previous games we were probably lacking in important periods, we let the game slip away. We would be good in patches and at other times quite sloppy.

“We’ve identified the moments in the past when we slackened off and in this Test we kept our foot on the throttle. We are a young team, we are rebuilding, and we will take a lot of confidence from this performance. We must keep building on what we have established in this Test and we will stick to our processes and not take anything for granted,” Rabada said.

Tabraiz Shamsi has been in the shadow of Imran Tahir in white-ball cricket for most of his international career and is finally back in the Test squad after appearing in the longest format of the game just twice, in 2016 and 2018, and says he is eager to win games in all formats for the Proteas in the West Indies.

Shamsi has established himself as South Africa’s No.1 limited-overs spinner, winning the T20 Player of the Year award on Monday night and featuring in seven of their nine ODIs since the start of 2020. But it is his Test prospects which are perhaps most interesting.

The left-arm wrist-spinner took a wicket in each innings on Test debut against Australia in Adelaide in November 2016 and his second Test was against Sri Lanka in Galle in July 2018. Shamsi was threatening in the first innings, taking three wickets, and then added a single wicket in the second innings.

But that was his last Test appearance, although coach Mark Boucher did want to play him in a three-pronged spin attack in the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi in January, but Shamsi pulled out shortly before the toss with a back spasm.

“As far as the Test team goes, I feel like I have unfinished business, but I have to wait my turn and give it my all when the chance comes, I only think about winning games for my country. The role of a spinner is very important in the West Indies because their batsmen play calypso cricket, high-octane cricket, just playing shots. So a leg-spinner or a wrist-spinner can definitely turn the game there.

“It hasn’t been easy being behind Imran Tahir for so many years, just playing one or two games here and there, usually when we’ve already won the series. But you only really learn when you play regularly: If you make a mistake on Wednesday then you can try and rectify it on Friday and Sunday. Consistency of playing leads to better performances,” Shamsi said.

Confidence and consistent performances are certainly also products of having the same team together for a while and Shamsi is looking forward to the T20 squad playing some regular cricket now ahead of their World Cup in October/November. South Africa will play five T20s against the West Indies and three versus Ireland, as well as having series against Sri Lanka and India lined up.

“It will be nice to go into the World Cup with some confidence, but it is five months away. So I just want to keep improving and hopefully I’ll be in even better form then after quite a good last season. The World Cup will be in the subcontinent so this is a nice opportunity to fine-tune and come up with and perfect game-plans where the pitches are normally slow.

“We may get the same conditions at the World Cup so we want tough games now. The team maybe does not have a lot of caps, but we have all played a lot of domestic cricket. We know the skills in the squad and that gives us confidence, we know the firepower we have is really exciting. It’s not bad to be flying under the radar and I think we will surprise a few people,” Shamsi said.