South African Sports News — 10 August

Perfect Province remain on top
Western Province made it five wins from five starts in this year’s Absa Currie Cup com­pet­i­tion when they thrashed a hap­less Griquas out­fit 50–3 at Hoffe Park in Kimberley on Saturday after­noon. Province ran in six unanswered tries in a dom­in­ant per­form­ance that con­firmed their status as the lead­ing con­tenders for this year’s title.

Griquas were expec­ted to provide Province with a stern test in Kimberley after defeat­ing the Cape side by a single point there in 2009 and 2008 and los­ing by no more than five points in 2007 and 2006. And in the early going on Saturday, it looked as though another tight con­test was in the mak­ing as Province went into the inter­val just 12–3 ahead. However, the wheels came off for the home side in the second half as the vis­it­ors scored 38 unanswered points to romp to victory.

Griquas were hop­ing to remain unbeaten at home this sea­son after record­ing excel­lent vic­tor­ies over the Sharks (40–34) and Lions (26–20) in pre­vi­ous out­ings, but those plans were well and truly scuppered by Province who were full value for their vic­tory on the day. The loss was a rude wake up call for Naas Olivier’s men who must have wondered what had hit them.

Griquas, to their credit, put up a good per­form­ance in the open­ing 40 minutes as they tackled with fierce determ­in­a­tion and com­mittment to keep their more illus­tri­ous oppon­ents at bay. In fact, had Riaan Viljoen been on tar­get with all of his four attemp­ted drop goals, Griquas could have gone into the inter­val with a three point advant­age rather than being nine points in arrears.

However, stas­ist­ics always tell a story and with Province enjoy­ing an advant­age in the pos­ses­sion stakes it was only a mat­ter of time before this trans­lated into points. The vis­it­ors also employed the clever tac­tic of slow­ing the game down at key moments, a move which frus­trated Griquas and pre­served the energy levels of the Province players.

Willem de Waal slot­ted four pen­al­ties in the open­ing 40 minutes for Province while Griquas replied with a single pen­alty from Olivier as the home side fought hard to stay in touch with the the log lead­ers. Griquas were helped by the referee’s dubi­ous decision to yel­low card Duane Vermeulen for a dan­ger­ous tackle that at best war­ran­ted a penalty.

However, there was to be no help forth­com­ing for the home side in the second half as Province turned up the heat to power home to vic­tory. Juan de Jongh (pic­tured) began the try feast for the vis­it­ors seven minutes into the second period after an impress­ive multi-phase move­ment that saw a host of Province play­ers handle before the centre roun­ded off the move in the left hand corner.

De Jongh’s try sparked a des­per­ate response from Griquas who bashed their way towards their oppon­enst line only to loose the ball going for­ward fol­low­ing which Province launched a spec­tac­u­lar counter attack to set up their second five-pointer. Frikkie Welsh and Conrad Jantjes fea­tured prom­in­ently in that attack, but it was hooker Deon Fourie who got the try after col­lect­ing a pass from Vermeulen to crash over and score.

Fourie’s try seemed to knock the stuff­ing out of Griquas and Jantjes quickly took advant­age of the situ­ation to run through seven defend­ers to score Province’s third try. Then, a few minutes later, Springbok winger Gio Aplon added his name to the score­sheet when he dot­ted down near the corner flag and it was clear Griquas had con­ceded defeat.

Further tries from Pieter Louw and Lionel Cronjé rubbed salt into Griquas’ wounds and enabled the vis­it­ors to reach their half cen­tury — a feat unima­gin­able at the kick-off just 90 minutes earlier. The win means Province stay on top of the Currie Cup stand­ings with 23 points, just two points clear of nearest rivals the Sharks, who have four wins from five matches.

Scorers
WP: 50 – Tries: Juan de Jongh, Deon Fourie, Conrad Jantjies, Gio Aplon, Pieter Louw, Lionel Cronjé. Conversions: Willem de Waal (3), Cronjé. Penalties: De Waal (4).
Griquas: 3 – Penalty: Naas Olivier.
Other res­ults (from left to right)
Friday
Pumas 30 – Cheetahs 45 – Puma Stadium, Witbank
Bulls 43 – Leopards 38 – Loftus Versveld, Pretoria
Saturday
Sharks 48 – Lions 19 – The Absa Stadium, Durban

Upcoming fix­tures
Friday
Griquas vs Pumas – GWK Park, Kimberley
Leopards vs Sharks – Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace, Phokeng – 7.10pm
Saturday
Lions vs Cheetahs – Coca-Cola Park Stadium, Johannesburg – 3pm
WP vs Bulls – Newlands Stadium, Cape Town – 5.05pm.

Currie Cup log (After five rounds)
Pos  Team      Points
1.    WP           23
2.    Sharks      21
3.    Bulls         16
4.    Griquas     15
5.    Cheetahs   14
6.    Lions          6
7.    Pumas        5
8.    Leopards    4

Pitso plays it safe
New Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane (pic­tured), who replaced Carlos Alberto Parreira at the end of last month’s World Cup, has named a tried and tested side for tomorrow’s friendly inter­na­tional against Ghana at Soccer City in Johannesburg. The new coach has clearly taken a con­ser­vat­ive, but sens­ible approach to pre­pare Bafana for next month’s open­ing 2012 African Nations Cup (Afcon) qual­i­fier at home to Niger.

Mosimane explained that due to the fact there had been no league matches in Europe and South Africa because of the Fifa break after the World Cup, he opted to select play­ers who were part of the World Cup pro­gramme rather than to risk blood­ing new play­ers. The coach made only one sur­prise selec­tion when he picked new Kaizer Chiefs sign­ing Sthembiso Ngcobo, who joins Bernard Parker and Katlego Mphela, as the three strikers in the 22-man squad.

Ngcobo infam­ously refused to hon­our his call-up to the national squad for a match against Chile in February 2009 under then coach Joel Santana, cit­ing per­sonal reas­ons. However, under Mosimane’s gov­ernance all play­ers have been given a fresh start. “I have been impressed by the way Ngcobo ended as Free State Stars’ top goal scorer last sea­son and he deserves another chance. We can­not keep rely­ing on Mphela in every game. We need to test other strikers,” explained Mosimane.

SuperSport United cap­tain and cent­ral defender Bongani Khumalo, who is strug­gling with an ankle lig­a­ment injury, was not selec­ted. The lanky Khumalo had an excel­lent World Cup and will be sorely missed by Bafana against the Ghanaians today. Mosimane said he was not troubled about facing World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana in his first match at the helm of the Bafana squad. “This will be a big test for me and the play­ers and I aim to come through with a win and set up a found­a­tion for Niger and the 2010 Afcon qual­i­fy­ing cam­paign,” said Mosimane. The match kicks-off at 8.35pm.

Bafana squad
Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune, Moeneeb Josephs.
Defenders: Morgan Gould, Siboniso Gaxa, Tsepo Masilela, Bevan Fransman, Siyabonga Sangweni, Innocent Mdledle, Aaron Mokoena, Anele Ngconca.
Midfielders: Daine Klate, Teko Modise, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Macbeth Sibaya, Andile Jali, Steven Pienaar, Thanduyise Khuboni, Surprise Moriri.
Strikers: Sthembiso Ngcobo, Katlego Mphela, Bernard Parker.

Chiefs take Telkom Cup hon­ours
Kaizer Chiefs defeated Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates 4–3 on pen­al­ties in a tense encounter at Soccer City on Saturday even­ing to cap­ture their 11^th Telkom Charity Cup title. The Amakhosi’s vic­tory broke a seven-year drought in the tra­di­tional season-opening com­pet­i­tion and denied the Buccaneers a hat-trick of Charity Cup titles after their tru­imphs in 2008 and 2009.

The game began at a fast pace with both teams exchan­ging scor­ing oppor­tun­it­ies in the open­ing 10 minutes. Young Chiefs striker Lucky Khune (pic­tured) had the first oppor­tun­ity to find the back of the net after meet­ing a Siphiwe Tshabalala cross at the back post, but he decided to play the ball down rather than unleash a header towards the goal­mouth, and the danger was eaily cleared.

However, Khune more than made up for his mis­take when he scored the open­ing goal in the 13^th minute, blast­ing a vicious right-footed drive into the top corner of the net after strike part­ner Sthembiso Ngcobo had shrewdly played him into space on the edge of the pen­alty area. The 21-year-old Khune cel­eb­rated his goal with a series of back flips along the Pirates by-line before being mobbed by his team-mates.

Chiefs were for­tu­nate not to be reduced to 10 men on 18 minutes when Jimmy Jambo dragged down vet­eran Lucky Lekgwathi after the Pirates player looked set for a good scor­ing chance, but ref­eree Daniel Bennett decided on a yel­low card rather than red – allow­ing the Amakhosi to breathe a sigh of relief. Buccaneers mid­fielder Mark Mayambela almost scored from the res­ult­ant free kick, his power­ful shot bring­ing out the best in Chiefs goal­keeper Arthur Bartman who man­aged to deflect the ball over the crossbar.

Pirates pressed hard for an equal­iser in the remain­ing minutes of the second half but were thwarted by the well-organised Chiefs defence and so the sides changed ends with the Amakhosi still hold­ing a slender 1–0 advant­age.  The Buccaneers even­tu­ally equal­ised in the 10^th minute of the second half when Lekgwathi met an Isaac Chansa free kick and headed the ball past a help­less Bartman.

With 20 minutes left to play a quick passing move­ment from Pirates split open the Amakhosi defence leav­ing Ndumiso Mabena clear on goal. However, instead of unleash­ing a shot, the young striker tried to win a pen­alty by tum­bling in the pen­alty area. Referee Bennett was hav­ing none of it how­ever, and cor­rectly booked Mabena for sim­u­la­tion instead.

A short while later Pirates ‘keeper Moeneeb Josephs was almost caught out with a quick free kick from Bafana Bafana team-mate Tshabalala that whistled over the cross­bar. Buccaneers sub­sti­tute Tlou Segolela then threatened to add to the score line with a ter­rific shot that pro­duced a spec­tac­u­lar save from Bartman.

With Bennett blow­ing his whistle to sig­nal the end of reg­u­la­tion time, the match went to pen­al­ties and it was Chiefs who pre­vailed after Pirates’ Phenyo Mongala fired his side’s final kick high over the bar to hand the Amakhosi a nar­row 4–3 vic­tory. The win will be an excel­lent con­fid­ence booster for Chiefs as they pre­pare for another long sea­son which will stretch all the way into the early part of next year.

Two flops in a row for South African fight­ers
World Boxing Association (WBA) Inter-Continental ban­tam­weight cham­pion Tshifhiwe ‘The Atomic Spider’ Munyai (pic­tured right) failed in his bid to cap­ture the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) sil­ver ban­tam­weight crown when he dropped a 12-round decision to Christian ‘Italiano’ Esquivel in Mexico City on Saturday night. The 23-year-old Mexican’s super­ior work rate enabled him to carve out a unan­im­ous decision vic­tory over the 25-year-old South African who suffered only his second loss as a pro­fes­sional against 20 wins and a draw.

Munyai’s hand­lers decided to take the fight even­though their charge had fought just 10 days before, knock­ing out Ghanaian Prosper Ankrah in three rounds at Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park. However, the move back­fired as Munyai was soundly beaten by Esquivel who con­trolled the action with a power­ful left jab and pun­ish­ing right cross.

Esquivel, who hails from Temoaya in Mexico, moved his record to 20–2 (14 KO’s) with the win and is now first in line to chal­lenge coun­try­men Fernando Montiel for the WBC ban­tam­weight title. Munyai, on the other hand, drops down the WBC rank­ings and must have regreted mak­ing the long trip to Mexico. However, the fighter’s pro­moter, Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves, defen­ded the deci­cion to put his charge in with Esquivel at such short notice say­ing the sud­den oppor­tun­ity was “just too good for Munyai to turn down”.

“The fight against Ankrah was little more than a spar­ring ses­sion, so it was not a case of Munyai over-exerting him­self in a short space of time,” explained Berman. “Had he been involved in a tough, gruelling 10-rounder, we would not have sug­ges­ted the fight in Mexico City on Saturday night,” added the Golden Gloves boss.

Munyai’s defeat was the second loss for a top-level South African fighter in as many weeks after Juan Alberto Rosas relieved Simphiwe ‘The Golden Master’ Nongqayi of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior ban­tam­weight title in Tepic, Mexico last Saturday even­ing. As they say in the fight game going into someone’s back yard and com­ing away with a win is always a tough ask, and in the case of both Nongqayi and Munyai that assign­ment proved too much to handle.

Meanwhile, the IBF junior light­weight title fight between local con­tenders Cassius ‘Mr Shy Guy’ Baloyi and Mzonke ‘The Rose of Khayelitsha’ Fana which was sup­posed to have taken place on Friday night, has been res­ched­uled for August 27 in Johannesburg.  The 35-year-old Baloyi will enter the ring with a record of 37–4-1 (19 KO’s) against the 36-year-old Fana (29–4; 12 KO’s) and must be favoured to win after out point­ing his com­pat­riot in an April 2008 bout.

Cameron comes up tops in Pietermaritzburg
Cameron van der Burgh (pic­tured) won the 100m breast­stroke title at the Telkom SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday when he pulled away in the final 25m to clock 58.28 secs, beat­ing his 58.99 set in the semi-final. William Diering, who cap­tured the 200m breast­stroke title, took sil­ver in 1:00.84, with Neil Versfeld round­ing off the podium in 1:01.27.

The men’s 100m indi­vidual med­ley title went to Gerhard Zandberg with Darian Townsend and Graeme Moore fin­ish­ing second and third respect­ively. Moore clocked an impress­ive 54.81 in the semi-finals only to lose his way in the final after a poor third leg. Zandberg’s win­ning time of 53.57 and Townsend’s 54.62 were both within World Short Course Championship qual­i­fy­ing markers.

Moore was able to win the men’s 100m free­style title ahead of Lyndon Ferns when he clocked 48.69 to Ferns’ 48.76, while teen­ager Vanessa Mohr nar­rowly edged out vet­eran Mandy Loots in the ladies 50m but­ter­fly final (27.54 to 27.77). Loots made up for the defeat by win­ning the 100m indi­vidual med­ley ahead of Kathryn Meaklim. Wendy Trott was fir­ing on all cyl­in­ders when she added the 400m free­style title to the 800m free­style title she had won on Saturday. Trott’s time of 4:06.26 was two seconds inside the required 4:08.90 set by Swim SA as a qual­i­fier for the World Short Course Championships.

Natalie du Toit broke another world record in her dis­ab­il­ity cat­egory when she recor­ded a fast 1:07.80 for the 100m but­ter­fly to bet­ter the old record by almost five seconds. The 26-year-old Du Toit departs local shores for the IPC World Para-Olympic Championships in Eindhoven in Holland later this week.

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Photo Credits:
Photo – Juan de Jongh: Source – www.smh.com.au
Photo – Pitso Mosimane: Source – www.skysports.com
Photo – Lucky Khune: Source – www.m.kaizerchiefs.com
Photo – Tshifhiwe Munyai: Source – www.saddoboxing.com
Photo – Cameron van der Burgh: Source – swimnews.swimfacts.com