Cape Town – The Blue Bulls took a major step towards the Currie Cup semi-finals on Friday night with a 39-29 win against the Pumas at Loftus. 

The Pumas had gone into the match desperate for victory themselves in the hopes of keeping their playoff aspirations alive, but in the end it was the home side that got the job done. 

The Bulls scored six tries to four from the Pumas having led 27-17 at half-time. 

The quality of rugby on offer was encouraging, with the Bulls in particular scoring some scintillating tries that came from quick, nifty passing and a dangerous counter attack. 

The Pumas were far more methodical in their approach, relying heavily on a dominant rolling maul to put the Bulls under pressure, but they did score one beautifully worked backline try that came from a set play in the second half. 

The men from Nelspruit had their chances to put some real scoreboard pressure on the Bulls, but errors at key times cost them dearly. 

Individually, it was another good day at the office for Bulls flyhalf Manie Libbok, while loose forwards Nic de Jager and Hanro Liebenberg put in massive performances. 

For the Pumas, Marnus Schoeman was his usual busy self at the breakdowns. 

The result means that the Bulls have now won three from five this season, while they go to the top of the Currie Cup log temporarily. 

That will change on Saturday if the Golden Lions beat Western Province at Ellis Park. 

Scorers:

Blue Bulls 39 (27)

Tries: Hanro Liebenberg, Jade Stighling (2), Dayan van der Westhuizen, Ivan van Zyl, jano Venter

Conversions: Manie Libbok (3)

Penalty: Libbok

Pumas 29 (17)

Tries: Marnus Schoeman, Marko Janse van Rensburg, Neil Maritz, Morne Joubert

Conversions: Chris Smith (3)

Penalty: Smith

Teams:

Blue Bulls

15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Jade Stighling, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Franco Naude, 11 Duncan Matthews, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg (captain), 7 Nic de Jager, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Eli Snyman, 4 Hendre Stassen, 3 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Matthys Basson

Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Conrad van Vuuuren, 18 Ruan Nortje, 19 Jano Venter, 20 Andre Warner, 21 Tinus de Beer, 22 Dylan Sage

Pumas

15 Devon Williams, 14 Morné Joubert, 13 Neill Maritz, 12 Ryan Nell, 11 Ruwellyn Isbel, 10 Christopher Smith, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Willie Engelbrecht, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Hugo Kloppers (captain), 4 Le Roux Roets, 3 Andrew Beerwinkel, 2 Marko Janse van Rensburg, 1Khwezi Mona

Substitutes: 16 Simon Westraadt, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Hilton Lobberts, 19 Francois Kleinhans, 20 Abrie Griesel, 21 Kobus Marais, 22 Henko Marais

Cape Town – Who could ever forget the performance of Kiwi referee Bryce Lawrence during the 2011 World Cup quarter-final between the Springboks and Wallabies in Wellington? 

It was a match that, to this day, gets South African fans hot under the collar. 

The result stands and the Boks were defeated 11-9 to be eliminated from the tournament, but the general feeling was that Lawrence allowed a free-for-all at the breakdown as Aussie fetcher David Pocock got away with absolutely everything on the ground. 

For the Aussies, the found a way to win a match where they had been dominated. For the Bok, a referee had cost them a shot at World Cup glory. 

Had the Boks won that match, they would have had a crack against the All Blacks in the semi-finals.

Instead, they were on their way back home and Peter de Villiers would never coach the Boks again. 

De Villiers’ journey with the national side between 2008 and 2011 was colourful, to say the least, but he still left with one of the best records against the All Blacks of any Bok coach. 

All these years later, De Villiers is still watching the developments of the Springboks with keen interest and while he is disappointed to have seen the decline in recent years, he is still trying to keep the faith ahead of next year’s World Cup in Japan. 

He does, however, have some advice for current coach Rassie Erasmus and much of that has to do with being more consistent in team selection.

“You don’t want to become negative. There is always hope, but we need to put some things in place,” De Villiers, currently the head coach of Zimbabwe, told Sport24 from Harare on Tuesday.

“Changing too much won’t do you any good. We need to build a core group, a core culture and a core method and then from there you can build a bigger base.

“All you’re doing now is creating fear of failure and players who will do everything in themselves not to lose, but nothing to win.

“The first thing that we should do is get a core of players who believe that they should be there and give them the right to play themselves out of the team.”

Erasmus, who has come under fire following disappointing losses to Argentina and Australia, is expected to make at least three changes to his starting line-up for Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against the All Blacks.

Kick-off is at 09:35 (SA time).

New York – Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam singles title on Saturday as her idol Serena Williams angrily imploded, calling the chair umpire in the US Open final “a thief”.

READ: WTA to look into Serena Williams, umpire dispute

Osaka, 20, triumphed 6-2, 6-4 in the match marred by Williams’s second set outburst, the American enraged by umpire Carlos Ramos’s warning for receiving coaching from her box.

When a second code violation for racquet abuse was handed out to her – along with a point penalty – Williams exploded.

She tearfully accused him of being a “thief” and angrily demanded an apology from the official.

“You’re attacking my character,” she said. “You will never, ever be on another court of mine. You are the liar,” she fumed and Ramos handed her a game penalty for a third violation — verbal abuse — that put Osaka one game from victory at 5-3 in the second set.

Williams won the next game, and continued her tearful remonstrations with a supervisor on the changeover.

But Osaka — who displayed not only a stellar game but remarkable poise throughout — held serve to seal a historic win for her country.

“It doesn’t really feel that real right now. Maybe in a few days I’ll realize what I’ve done,” said Osaka, adding that the noise was so great in Arthur Ashe Stadium and her focus so single-minded that she wasn’t fully aware of the escalating controversy.

“When I turned around it was 5-3 so I was a little bit confused then,” she said of the game suddenly awarded to her.

“I felt like I had to focus. She’s such a great champion so I know she can come back from any point.”

READ: Mother of all meltdowns: Who’s saying what after US Open final

Williams, seeking a first Grand Slam title since the birth of her daughter Olympia on September 1 2017, was denied a 24th Grand Slam title that would have matched Margaret Court’s all-time record.

As the pro-Williams crowed booed the trophy ceremony announcer, Osaka was tearing up herself, but Williams urged the spectators to show the young champion respect.

“She played well,” Williams said, pausing to compose herself.

“This is her first Grand Slam. Let’s make this the best moment we can.”

When it was Osaka’s turn she seemed at a loss, apologizing to the crowd.

“It was always my dream to play Serena in the US Open finals,” she added, turning to Williams herself.

“I’m really grateful I was able to play with you, thank you.”

Williams’s outburst overshadowed an outstanding performance from Osaka, who made her second career title a Grand Slam after winning her first at Indian Wells in March.

A match with history at stake for both players got off to a tense start and it was Williams who blinked first, double-faulting on break point to give Osaka a 2-1 lead.

After a confident hold punctuated by a 106 mph ace Osaka broke again to lead 4-1, silencing the crowd.

READ: Serena Williams’ list of US Open implosions

They came to life again as Williams gained her first break chance, which Osaka saved with a 117 mph service winner. Williams squandered one more chance before Osaka sealed the hold with another big serve.

It was in the second game of the second set that Williams was warned for receiving coaching, a charge she vigorously denied.

“I don’t cheat to win,” she said. “I’d rather lose.”

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted in an interview with ESPN that he was trying to advise her with a hand gesture, although Williams was apparently oblivious.

“The star of the show has been once again the chair umpire,” he tweeted.

“Should they be allowed have an influence on the result of a match? When do we decide that this should never happen again?”

Williams was up 2-1 on the changeover when she spoke again with Ramos appearing to smooth things over, and she finally found a way to break Osaka for a 3-1 lead.

The tranquility didn’t last long. When Osaka broke back with the aid of two double faults and a backhand into the net from Williams, the American smashed her racquet to the court. A second code violation came with a point penalty to start the next game that sent her into orbit.

“I didn’t get coaching. I haven’t cheated in my life. I stand for what’s right,” insisted Williams as they headed into the sixth game — in which Osaka held at love.

After Osaka broke for a 4-3 lead Williams continued her verbal assault on Ramos, who docked her a game for a third violation that put Osaka up 5-3.

The scene recalled Williams’s ugly rant at a line judge in her US Open semi-final loss to Kim Clijsters in 2009 and her verbal attack on chair umpire Eva Asderaki in her 2011 final loss to Samantha Stosur.

Williams said she didn’t know if she would have managed to turn things around if the dispute with Ramos had not occurred.

“It’s hard to say because I always fight till the end and I always try to come back, no matter what.”

ALSO READ: Serena: ‘I am not a cheat’, accuses tennis of ‘sexism’

Cape Town – This one’s a biggie, all right, for coach Rassie Erasmus … but captain Siya Kolisi will also come under an increasingly harsh spotlight if the Springboks go down to Australia on Saturday.

READ: Ashwin Willemse won’t be back on SuperSport

Certainly any (already hugely unlikely) prospect of either team beating holders New Zealand to the Rugby Championship crown this year will only flutter further out of the window for the losing outfit in Brisbane.

Cynics will be tempted to brand the duel at Suncorp Stadium (12:00 SA time) little more than effectively the beginning of another more secondary, best-of-the-rest competition for 2018 in the southern hemisphere.

It is almost too unpalatable to contemplate just how far behind the eight-ball the Boks will be deemed to be, now almost exactly a year ahead of RWC 2019, if they get beaten comprehensively on Saturday by a Wallaby side who so recently haemorrhaged 78 points across successive meetings with the world champion All Blacks.

But that, of course, would be to take a glaringly bleak view in the lead-up.

There will be a resurgent sense of optimism, by contrast, if South Africa can beat the Australians on their own turf for the first time since 2013.

Erasmus has controversially made mass changes for Saturday, which may have triggered some sense of unease in the camp — either that or a constructive awakening of some sort.

Whichever proves to be the correct backdrop, particularly assertive leadership by Kolisi, something that will need to echo in his own performance, seems essential for this one.

Let’s not beat about the bush: the fact that his own positional role (the ever-vexing question of whether he is better suited to No 6 or 7 flank) remains a “merry-go-round” at this point serves as an indicator, even if only to some degree, that he cannot quite glue himself convincingly to a specific personal duty.

Kolisi is back on the open side for the Wallaby Test, after playing blindside in each of the pair of Argentina encounters, and I would argue (though there are dissenters on this score) that it is the slot where he has generally fared better in his currently 33-cap international career.

It has been written many times before, with validity, that Kolisi is a fairly complex hybrid between the two positions: certainly in build, he is almost too big for No 6 and yet also not quite strapping enough to be your classical blindside “wrecker”.

The No 7 drawback is aggravated when mobile Warren Whiteley is fielded (the status quo) as the eighth-man; Kolisi is likelier to come into his own as a blindsider when powerhouse Duane Vermeulen is wearing No 8.

More immediately, however, the 27-year-old must readjust – and fast – to the more stealing-based berth, where a few especially tough challenges face him on Saturday.

Just for starters the Wallabies, entirely predictably, will put out two ace fetchers in the same loose trio: their own skipper Michael Hooper, and another pocket battleship in David Pocock.

But if that already means the dice is a little loaded against South Africa’s lone designated fetcher, Kolisi, the snubbing of hooker Malcolm Marx – he is curtailed to the bench – only adds to the real danger of the Australians bossing the breakdown.

On several occasions in his exciting, still developing Test career so far, Marx has really been the Boks’ most inspirational source of ball-theft, getting those immense shoulders over the “pill” with zeal.

So if ever Kolisi wanted to put a major stamp on a key Test match, and in the face of some steep hurdles, Saturday seems a perfect opportunity.

Throughout this season, he has tended to deliver workmanlike performances a lot of the time, rather than truly earth-shattering ones personally.

He has burst to prominence by running some exquisite lines on attack, but also gone through noticeable phases of games where his general influence somehow seems more muted.

There is less reason, I believe, to query his captaincy.

For all the ups and downs of the Bok Test year so far, their ability to chisel out victories in certain major clashes – like the decisive first two in the England series – from positions of some considerable arrears on the scoreboard, suggests men with a healthily-beating collective heart.

And that, by extension, usually means a bunch on the correct wavelength with their leader.

But remembering that South Africa largely continues its reputation as a “loose-forward factory”, including through several overseas-based players who will only crank up their candidacies as the World Cup looms larger, Kolisi putting beyond any doubt his own presence in the Test trio from a pure playing-levels point of view would be timely this weekend.

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

Cape Town – Former South African fast bowler Allan Donald has named his best-ever cricketing XI with former Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis and former batsman AB de Villiers selected.

Donald revealed his all-time XI on the Lord’s Cricket YouTube channel, with the criteria being that he had to have played with or against them, or have been strongly influenced by the players mentioned.

Donald, known as “White Lightning” during his career, named the usual suspects, which included Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, who regularly make such lists.

However, Donald received flak from some fans on YouTube, who noticed the omission of Indian and Pakistani players, which included icons Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram.

Former Proteas legend Kallis slotted in at No 4 on the list and Donald stated that his former South African team-mate is “probably the greatest cricketer of all time”.

Kallis, who retired from international cricket in 2014, played 166 Tests for South Africa scoring 13 289 runs and taking 292 wickets in the process.

When referring to De Villiers, the former Proteas bowling coach said that he is “one of the all-time bests and is an explosive batsman.”

De Villiers, who announced his retirement from international cricket in May, played 114 Tests for the Proteas and scored 8765 runs with an average of 50.66.

Donald retired from international cricket in 2003 and played 72 Tests for South Africa, taking 330 wickets at average of 22.25.

He is currently the assistant coach at English county club, Kent.

Allan Donald’s all-time XI:

Matthew Hayden (Australia), Justin Langer (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Brian Lara (West Indies), Sir Viv Richards (West Indies – captain), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia – wicketkeeper), Shane Warne (Australia), Malcolm Marshall (West Indies), Curtly Ambrose (West Indies), Glenn McGrath (Australia)