Category Archives: Sports News

Sport24.co.za | Mallett lauds ‘outstanding’ Boks

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Cape Town – Former national team coach Nick Mallett was impressed by the Springboks’ series-clinching win over France in Durban at the weekend.

The hosts’ comprehensive 37-15 win saw them take an unassailable 2-0 series lead heading into this Saturday’s final Test in Johannesburg.

“This was a really outstanding performance by the Boks against a team that was vastly strengthened. It was a French team that was very committed and came out to score a try early on,” Mallett said in the SuperSport studio afterwards.

“What impressed me tremendously was the work-rate of every one of the Boks close to the ball. When a tackle was made, the player got back to his feet and in position to help his mates. And if they were in a situation where they could turn the ball over, they did. In the first half, Jan Serfontein, Jean-Luc du Preez, Malcolm Marx, Frans Malherbe and Siya Kolisi all won penalties. That’s five penalties won by different players in one half and just shows how hard they are working for each other.”

Mallett also lauded the Springboks’ defensive effort, especially in the second half where there was a period that they held off 27 consecutive phases by the French on their own tryline.

“(sic) For 20 minutes in that second half when the French had 25 phases, it was quite extraordinary that they didn’t score. They kept on losing the brutal forward battle by going direct. Our defence was outstanding. The Springboks never lost the outside channel. We made 169 tackles to 58 by France and I reckon 100 of our tackles were made in those 20 minutes when we were defending on our own line. The Boks were good on defence and managed to scored four tries. It’s a good turnaround for this team. Things are looking up for the Boks.”
 
South Africa’s 37-14 win in the first Test in Pretoria saw them move from No 7 to No 5 in the World Rugby rankings and Mallett believes the team can quickly surge up to No 2.

“The backbone of this team has been the Lions players and we play in Johannesburg next weekend. I think it’s fantastic that Lions and Bok captain Warren Whiteley can take his team to his home ground in search of a 3-0 series win. Imagine the confidence we’ll then take into the Rugby Championship. I mean, Scotland are fifth in the rankings at the moment and with these sort of performances we can very quickly get back to No 2 in the world.”

Sport24.co.za | Eddie Jones’ England sweep Argentina

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Sante Fe – England defeated Argentina 35-25 in a Santa Fe thriller on Saturday to clinch a 2-0 victory in their two-Test series.   

As it happened: Argentina v England

The tourists, level at 25-25 with 16 minutes left, finished stronger as prop Will Collier barged over for a try that flyhalf George Ford converted.

Ford sealed success for England, lacking 30 of their best players, primarily due to British and Irish Lions call-ups, with a drop goal six minutes from time.

Scorers:

Argentina

Tries: Joaquin Tuculet, Pablo Matera, Emiliano Boffelli

Conversions: Nicolas Sanchez (2)

Penalties: Sanchez (2)

England

Tries: Charlie Ewels, Piers Francis, Danny Care, Will Collier

Conversions: George Ford (3)

Penalties: Ford (2)

Drop goal: Ford

Sport24.co.za | Ackermann praises SA ‘A’ effort in French Barbarians win

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Cape Town – South Africa ‘A’ coach Johan Ackermann was pleased with the performance of his team in their 36-28 victory over the French Barbarians at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Friday evening.

The South Africans held a slender 22-21 lead at the break in this first ever representative rugby match played at the iconic venue, where 9 071 spectators were treated to some excellent tries on Youth Day, which also offered free entry to all spectators under the age of 18.

A late try by fullback Lwazi Mvovo sealed the win over the French, who Ackermann admitted, surprised his team with their commitment on defence.

“They really defended well and that surprised us,” said Ackermann.

“They are full of capable players and that was a good experience for our guys. A lot of players have only played Super Rugby and domestic rugby, so it’s good for them to experience playing the French.

“Overall, it was a good exercise and we will be better next Friday when we meet them again at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, but so will they.”

Ackermann admitted that his players were a bit rusty, but understood the lack of recent action amongst his squad contributing to that.

“The guys have not played in a while and that showed,” said Ackermann.

“But we did well considering the fact that these were players from different regions getting together, they had to adapt from different structures into ours. There were one of two individual stand-outs, but overall we did well and I was very pleased with our scrums and lineouts.”

South Africa ‘A’ captain, Juan de Jongh, said the team enjoyed playing at Moses Mabhida Stadium: “There was a good atmosphere and the crowd actually helped in the end. We came together well as a squad and next week will be better as we will use the week to get better.”

Sport24.co.za | Mapoe in as Boks opt for consistency

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Cape Town – Lionel Mapoe will replace Jesse Kriel at outside centre in the only change to the Springbok line-up for the second Test against France in Durban on Saturday (kick-off 17:05 SA time).

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee named an otherwise unchanged team on Thursday for the second encounter against Les Blues at Kings Park.

Mapoe returns to the Springbok starting line-up as replacement for Kriel, who is unavailable after he suffered a blow to the head last Saturday at Loftus Versfeld.

All five players who made their Test debuts last weekend – Andries Coetzee (fullback), Raymond Rhule (right wing), Courtnall Skosan (left wing), Ross Cronje (scrumhalf) and Dillyn Leyds (outside back) – were retained by Coetzee, who said he wanted to maintain continuity and build momentum.

“We kept changes to a minimum and one change to the squad means we can continue to work on our continuity, which is so important,” said Coetzee.

“This is a new group, so playing together again means that the important combinations are gaining more experience. It is also nice to reward good performances and all of them deserve another opportunity.”

Coetzee said the Springboks worked hard during training this week and called for improvements in all areas of their game, especially as the French are expected to be bolstered this week with the inclusion of several players from Clermont and Toulon, who were not available for the opening Test.

With Kriel not available for the Durban encounter, the Springbok coach explained that the decision to select Mapoe next to Serfontein was an easy one.

“Jan Serfontein had a very good match at inside centre in Pretoria and we wanted a specialist at No 13 as replacement for Jesse, so Mapoe is a logical choice. It also means we’re preventing making two changes to the team,” said Coetzee.

The Springbok coach reckons France will no doubt increase their physicality and effort in the second Test.

“The forward battle will always be a very important part of the game,” said Coetzee.

“We know we will be up against a very well prepared French team in the second Test and we are readying ourselves for that. They would like to bounce back and we would like to continue with our processes. Both teams have a lot to too play for.

“Although not perfect, I’m pleased with the set-pieces and expect a huge onslaught from the French in both areas. We created a number of scoring opportunities, which is a great positive, and hopefully our execution will be better this time.”

Earlier, France confirmed eight changes to their starting line-up.

Teams:

South Africa

15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Raymond Rhule, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (captain), 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jean-Luc du Preez, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Frans Steyn, 23 Dillyn Leyds

France

15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Damian Penaud, 12 Gaël Fickou, 11 Virimi Vakatawa, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Kévin Gourdon, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Romain Taofifeuna, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado (captain), 1 Jefferson Poirot

Substitutes: 16 Clément Maynadier, 17 Eddy Ben Arous, 18 Uini Atonio, 19 Julien le Devedec, 20 Bernard le Roux, 21 Antoine Dupont, 22 Jean-Marc Doussain, 23 Nans Ducuing

Sport24.co.za | Springboks wary of new France pivot Trinh-Duc

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Cape Town – The Springboks expect François Trinh-Duc to start at flyhalf in Saturday’s second Test in Durban.

Trinh-Duc is one of several French stars who missed the series-opener in Pretoria as they arrived late in the country due to commitments in the French Top 14 final.

Jules Plisson started at pivot last Saturday, with Jean-Marc Doussain the reserve flyhalf but the expectation is that Trinh-Duc will be utilised in the second Test.

Trinh-Duc, who plays for Toulon, boasts 58 Test caps and could prove the Springboks a few headaches this Saturday.

But Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies is looking forward to testing himself against Trinh-Duc at Kings Park.

“Trinh-Duc is a very experienced and well-rounded player. He’ll test us in different areas,” Jantjies was quoted as saying by Netwerk24.

“We must make sure that our defence is sharp and that we hold onto the ball when we have possession.”

Jantjies was one of South Africa’s star players in the first Test, scoring 15 points as the Springboks ran out 37-14 winners.

But the Boks expect a better French outfit in the second Test.

“The forwards worked incredibly hard to give us good positions from where we could attack. Like coach Franco (Smith, skills and attack) said, we know the French are going to come with a huge onslaught and we have to be ready for it,” Jantjies continued via a press statement on Tuesday.

Sport24.co.za | Faf backs AB as Proteas skipper

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Cape Town – Faf du Plessis has backed AB de Villiers as captain of South Africa’s ODI team even though they crashed out at the group stages of the Champions Trophy after a big defeat against India on Sunday.

The Proteas suffered a humiliating eight-wicket defeat to their Asian opponents at the Oval to be eliminated from the tournament after also losing to Pakistan the game before.

It was not just the loss but the manner in which the Proteas capitulated in the batting department to be bowled out for just 191 in the first innings, which included three run-outs.

De Villiers has endured a lot criticism during the tournament because of his batting, he only scored 20 runs in three games, but mostly for the way he has led the side.

De Villiers’ critics say Du Plessis, who led the ODI side to whitewash series wins over Australia and Sri Lanka over last year while AB was injured, should have been named as the permanent leader.

Already the Test skipper, Du Plessis however feels the players let De Villiers down in this tournament.

Du Plessis said after the India defeat: “It’s so hard to put all this pressure on AB and almost blame him. I can certainly tell you he has led the team really well, he has done everything.

“The team let him down. I ran him out. There’s nothing that he did wrong today. 

“We were beaten, not even by a better team; we just played our worst game of cricket in a while. Every guy in his role in the team must take responsibility for not fulfilling his job today.

“It’s just the way we played in this tournament. I don’t think it was just today. The game against Pakistan was a very inconsistent performance as well.”

Sport24.co.za | ‘Hurt’ AB clings to his crown

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London – I am not going anywhere.

That was the fulcrum of Proteas one-day international captain AB de Villiers’s message as he faced the unenviable press conference post-mortem on his team’s crushing exit from the ICC Champions Trophy at the hands of India at The Oval here on Sunday.

The team’s media officer Lerato Malekutu implored an eager army of questioners to “speak into the microwave” – she gave a more radiant smile than De Villiers did as she acknowledged her harmless booboo – and the skipper certainly then got the near-inevitable grilling.

But if anyone was wishing to hear the 33-year-old batsman, who plays more selectively for South Africa these days, say he was relinquishing his ODI crown, he wasn’t about to play ball, despite this failure to reach the knockout phase, coming immediately on top of a 2-1 bilateral series defeat to England.

Why did he still want to be the captain? “Because I am a good captain, and because I believe I can take this team forward. I can take us to win a World Cup, I believe … I love doing it (the leadership).”

Asked whether a profound shake-up was required in the wake of another glaring failure in a multinational limited-overs tournament, he replied: “That question can only be answered by those in control of making radical decisions.

“It’s not my decision, that. We’ll have to wait and see what people out there decide.

“I’m not thinking about the next (tournament) now. We just want to sort of get through this hurt. It is hurting quite bad.

“(The loss was) nothing to do with the energy, the belief in the team; we felt we had a great chance to win today, we just unravelled as a side out there.

“It’s as disappointing as any of the other (major tournament) losses of the past … it ranks right up there. The way we lost was the most disappointing part … we were in a really good position with the bat in hand early on.

“Through soft dismissals we lost our way. That was the part for me that hurt the most. We were on the way for around 300, which I thought was very defendable on that wicket today.

“I wouldn’t like to blame guys out there; it’s just one of those things that happen.”

De Villiers’s insistence that his charges didn’t implode mentally is likely to spark quite spirited debate back home, considering how the batting collapsed from a decent platform, and including the run-outs of himself, David Miller and last man Imran Tahir. 

“I felt the team was pretty composed out there today. I didn’t think we lost it with composure. I felt pretty calm out there.

“A few errors in judgement cost us badly today. We desperately needed another partnership in the middle order; that’s where we lost our way. We needed to get the ball rolling again after my run-out. We couldn’t do that.”

On his own dismissal, he said: “There was a call out there, and I thought we could get through for the run.

“Run-outs happen. But three in one innings is definitely not the way we want to play our cricket.”

*Rob Houwing is attending the Champions Trophy for Sport24. Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

India give SA masterclass in how to win when it matters

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That price was an anaemic total of of 191, a low hurdle that India hopped in 38 overs to win by eight wickets.

In the process, India burnished their reputation as a team who seize the moment and with it the trophy: they have won the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the World T20 in the last 10 years.

South Africa confirmed that when the kitchen heats up they head for the garage: they have won one match in their last 19 trips to those three tournaments when elimination has loomed, and that game wasn’t a final.

AB de Villiers’ men seemed on course for a far more substantial score while Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla were compiling their partnership of 76 — South Africa’s highest opening stand in the tournament and only their second of 50 or more for any wicket.

Drama didn’t seem imminent when Amla cut Ravichandran Ashwin into MS Dhoni’s gloves in the 18th over, and when De Kock reached a half-century it was noted that all five time he had made 50 in one-day internationals against India he had gone on to a century.

Not this time. De Kock scored 53 before swiping past a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja that nailed his off-stump.

Even so, at 116/2 and not quite halfway through their innings, South Africa seemed set to post a total that could compete with India’s potent batting order …

Five overs later, the madness struck.

At 12.24pm, Faf du Plessis nudged Jadeja to point and tried to take a single that wasn’t there for the taking, and even a full length dive by De Villiers couldn’t stop one of cricket’s most fleetfooted players from being run out.

That would have been a cruel blow to absorb for South Africa’s captain, who came into the tournament as the No. 1 ranked batsman in the format but scored only four runs from the five deliveries he faced in his first two innings.

He had a shot at redemption on Sunday, and he seemed determined to take it.

But it was stolen from him by poor judgement and, perhaps, fate. 

At 12.29pm, Du Plessis cut Ravichandran Ashwin to short third man, set off on a run, changed his mind and returned to his crease, and looked up to see David Miller at the same end of the pitch.

The ball was duly delivered to the other end, and after much deliberation it was decided that Miller was the one to go.

In the space of those five minutes and the six deliveries they encompassed, South Africa’s hopes of staying alive in this tournament ebbed to a new low.

Their supporters will dispute that assertion considering how many times they have been shot in this movie before — every four years since 1992.

Du Plessis was their last hope of rewriting that sorry script, but he dragged Hardik Pandya onto his stumps four overs after Miller went.

Up in the dressingroom, De Villiers sat ashen-faced and holding a pen.

Might he have been composing his resignation from the captaincy or even his international retirement?

Or was he pondering the cruelty of finishing on the wrong end of the equation in all seven knockout matches in which he has batted?

Or that he was not required to bat in the only knockout match South Africa have won during his career – the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Sri Lanka in Sydney?

Other players looked equally distraught; the sight of De Kock, his arm draped consolingly, even protectively, around Miller’s shoulder particularly poignant.

South Africa’s last eight wickets disappeared for 51 runs, all 10 for 115, and two of them in as many deliveries by Bhuv Kumar.

Imran Tahir survived, with a squirt to third man, the hattrick ball — which was accompanied by a rising roar of demand from an apparently exclusively India-supporting, sell-out crowd.

The innings was ended by, wouldn’t you know it, Tahir’s run out.

India’s reply was more a festival than a fight.

So much so that Tahir did not take his customary tear into the outfield when he had Shikhar Dhawan caught in the deep for 78 to end a second-wicket stand of 128.

Dhawan’s partner, Virat Kohli, finished with 76 not out.

Now, there’s a man who knows his way around the kitchen.

Sport24.co.za | Cronje: Faf and I are ‘great mates’

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Cape Town – This time, last year, Faf de Klerk was the man chosen by Springbok coach Allister Coetzee as his first-choice scrumhalf. 

A year later, and De Klerk is out in the Springbok wilderness. 

Instead, Ross Cronje will earn his first Test cap when the Boks take on France in the first of three Tests at Loftus on Saturday. 

Cronje has moved ahead of De Klerk in the Lions pecking order in Super Rugby this year, and he will get his first crack – just as De Klerk did last year – at Test level on Saturday. 

Cronje is one of four debutants in the Springbok side for the clash – the others being Andries Coetzee, Raymond Rhule and Courtnall Skosan. 

Speaking in the build-up to the game, Cronje said that he shared a strong friendship with De Klerk. 

“Faf and I are great mates, on and off the field,” Cronje said. 

“We’re both very supportive of each other. Coach Ackies (Lions coach, Johan Ackermann) obviously believes in that rotational system and when I got an opportunity I believe I took it.

“I’m just excited to be here and see what happens.”

While a Bok debut is always daunting, Cronje can take comfort in the fact that he will have his Lions team-mates Warren Whiteley and Elton Jantjies around him at No 8 and flyhalf, respectively. 

“Playing with Wazza (Whiteley) and Elton obviously gives me a lot confidence. I know exactly what they’re about and the type of game they play,” said Cronje. 

“However, I believe the team has really gelled well over the last couple of weeks.

“The guys, not just the Lions boys, have made it a lot easier.”

There is another potential debutant on the bench in the form of Stormers wing Dillyn Leyds. 

Kick-off on Saturday is at 17:00.

Teams:

South Africa

15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Raymond Rhule, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (captain), 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jean-Luc du Preez, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Frans Steyn, 23 Dillyn Leyds

France

15 Brice Dulin, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Henry Chavancy, 12 Gaël Fickou, 11 Virimi Vakatawa, 10 Jules Plisson, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Loann Goujon, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Yoann Maestri (captain), 4 Julien le Devedec, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Clément Maynadier, 1 Jefferson Poirot

Substitutes: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Eddy Ben Arous, 18 Mohamed Boughanmi, 19 Bernard le Roux, 20 Kévin Gourdon, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Jean-Marc Doussain, 23 Vincent Rattez