South African Sports News – 16 December

‘Blitsboks’ come up short again
South Africa ended their Emirates Airline George Sevens tour­na­ment on a dis­ap­point­ing note, suc­cumb­ing 21–7 in the Plate final to England in a game they will want to for­get in a hurry. Last week the ‘Blitsboks’ lost to Australia in the Plate final of the Dubai Sevens and in front of a par­tisan home crowd in George, they were again out of sorts as England out­played them in the crit­ical facets of the game. After this loss, South Africa will need to find a rem­edy for their weak­nesses after being exposed for a lack of speed and flair in both tour­na­ments thus far in the series ...

Dan Norton opened the scor­ing for England and then threw a superb pass to Christian Wade after the English had robbed a South African lin­eout to extend the flyer’s lead as the top points scorer at this year’s tour­na­ment. The South Africans came out fir­ing in the second half, but their tend­ency to squander ball at cru­cial times in pos­ses­sion cost them dearly once again, as Wade latched onto a loose pass and ran 60m before feed­ing Isoa Damu who dot­ted down.

Shaun Venter scored a con­sol­a­tion try on the stroke of full-time, but it was too late with too little for the South Africans who will now be fully aware of how dif­fi­cult it is to defend an IRB World Series title.

Earlier, the ‘Blitsboks’ scraped home against Samoa 10–7 in an untidy Plate semi-final after tries by Deon Helberg and Mzwandile Stick (pic­tured) secured the win for the home side. The South Africans were knocked out of the Cup com­pet­i­tion early in the day’s play as they relin­quished their second title in as many weeks when they were defeated 22–17 by Fiji in the quarter-final. The loss was their fourth in a row to the Fijians.

Scorers
South Africa 7 – Try: Shaun Venter. Conversion: Cecil Afrika.
England 21 – Tries: Dan Norton, Christian Wade, Isoa Damu. Conversions: Ben Gollings (3).

SuperSport pull away from the pack
SuperSport United con­tin­ued their dom­in­ance in the Absa Premiership with crush­ing 3–0 vic­tor­ies over Moroka Swallows last Wednesday and Jomo Cosmos over the week­end. United are simply in awe­some form at the moment and are a sure bet to secure yet another PSL cham­pi­on­ship this season.

The log lead­ers are nine points clear of nearest rivals Mamelodi Sundowns who have 35 points from 20 out­ings. Third placed Santos has the same num­ber of points from the same num­ber of out­ings, but has scored less goals (24) than Sundowns (31).

Anthony Laffor (pic­tured) had a very suc­cess­ful out­ing for United against Swallows, scor­ing two well-taken goals with Glen Salmon net­ting a third. The goals were more evenly dis­trib­uted in SuperSport’s week­end match against Cosmos, with defender Morgan Gould, striker Dario Monteiro and mid­fielder Brent Carelse each find­ing the back of the net to secure another excel­lent win.

Results (from left to right)
Last Wednesday
Golden Arrows 0 — Free State Stars 1
Black Aces 1 -  Orlando Pirates 1
Ajax Cape Town 0 — Amazulu 0
Kaizer Chiefs 3 — Platinum Stars 1
Bloem Celtic 0 — Pmb Utd 2
Moroka Swallows 0 — SuperSport Utd 3
Jomo Cosmos vs Santos (washed out)

Over the week­end
Bidvest Wits 0 — Moroka Swallows    0
Free State Stars 2 — Black Aces    0
Platinum Stars 0 — Orlando Pirates 1
SuperSport United 3 — Jomo Cosmos 0
Santos 1 — Golden Arrows 1
Kaizer Chiefs 1 — Bloem Celtic 1
AmaZulu 0 — Mamelodi Sundowns 3
Pmb Utd 2 — Ajax Cape Town 1

Chiefs and Pirates ready to make their move
Kaizer Chiefs, like SuperSport, are another team that have been in good form in the PSL of late, with a good win over Platinum Stars last week and a 1–1 draw against Bloemfontein Celtic over the week­end. The Amakhosi have an intriguing encounter with the always-dangerous Ajax Cape Town at the Orlando Stadium today, and an intense tussle is expec­ted between these two evenly matched teams.

Chiefs will want to build on their recent momentum and move up the log to chal­lenge SuperSport for this year’s title and a win over Ajax will be just what the doc­tor ordered.

The pick of the week­end matches is likely to be the clash between Santos and Orlando Pirates (pic­tured), at the Coetzenburg Stadium on Friday even­ing. Both teams earned draws over the week­end and will be aim­ing to emerge with a full haul of points rather than a share of the spoils, which could mean plenty of goals for spectators.

Fixtures
Yesterday
Black Aces vs Santos
Orlando Pirates vs Free State Stars

Today
Kaizer Chiefs vs Ajax Cape Town — Orlando Stadium:  1.30pm
Jomo Cosmos vs Bidvest Wits — Rand Stadium: 7.30pm
Moroka Swallows vs AmaZulu — Dobsonville Stadium: 7.30pm
Golden Arrows vs SuperSport Utd — Chatsworth Stadium: 7.30pm
Mamelodi Sundowns vs Pmb Utd — Super Stadium: 7.30pm
Bloem Celtic vs Platinum Stars — Seisa Ramabodu Stadium: 7.30pm

Friday
Santos vs Orlando Pirates — Coetzenburg Stadium: 8.00pm

Saturday
Kaizer Chiefs vs Mamelodi Sundowns — Orlando Stadium: 3.30pm
Bidvest Wits vs Golden Arrows — Bidvest Stadium: 8.00pm
Pmb Utd vs Moroka Swallows — Woodburn Stadium: 8.00pm
SuperSport Utd vs Black Aces — Super Stadium: 8.15pm
Platinum Stars vs Free State Stars — Royal Bafokeng Stadium: 8.15pm

Sunday
Bloem Celtic vs Ajax Cape Town — Seisa Ramadodu Stadium: 3.30pm
AmaZulu vs Jomo Cosmos — Chatsworth Stadium: 3.30pm

Kemp the hero for Cobras
The Cape Cobras made short of the Nashua Titans at Boland Bank Park in Paarl in their SuperSport Series match over the week­end, with all-rounders Justin Kemp (pic­tured) and Robin Peterson doing most of the dam­age for the home side.

Kemp weighed in with 93 runs and Peterson scored 100 to help the Cobras to an impress­ive 420 all out in reply to the Titans’ first innings total of 240. Gulam Bodi (64), Heino Kuhn (48) and Albie Morkel (43) were the only vis­it­ing bats­men to offer any sort of res­ist­ance. Things went from bad to worse for the Titans as they were rolled over for a paltry 108 in their second innings with only Jacques Rudolf (31) man­aging to post a decent score.

Charl Langeveldt (4/45 off 15 overs) and Francois Plaatjies (4/27 off 10 overs) were the des­troy­ers in chief for the Cobras as the Titans suffered a crush­ing defeat by an innings and 72 runs. In addi­tion to his out­stand­ing knock, Kemp grabbed four first innings wick­ets to spur his side to vic­tory. The Cobras’ next out­ing is against the bizhub Highveld Lions at the Wanderers in Johannesburg while the Titans square off against the Chevrolet Warriors at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. Both games begin today.

The match between the Lions and the Diamond Eagles at the Wanderers looked like yield­ing a res­ult, but bad light put a pre­ma­ture end to the con­test mean­ing both sides had to settle for a draw.

The Lions scored 368 all out in their first innings to which the Eagles replied with 337 all out, leav­ing the match nicely poised. The Lions car­ried on where they left off in their first innings as they notched up an impress­ive 301/6 declared in their second innings to set the Free Staters a vic­tory tar­get of 333.

The Eagles tried to get the runs, but it was ulti­mately to no avail as the fail­ing light forced the umpires to call a halt to pro­ceed­ings with the vis­it­ors on 114/3, still need­ing 219 runs for vic­tory. The Eagles’ next out­ing is against the Nashua Dolphins at the De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberley today.

Kruger and Tsotsobe skittle Dolphins
In another SuperSport match that fin­ished over the week­end, the Warriors got the bet­ter of the Dolphins by 88 runs at Kingsmead in Durban. The vis­it­ors scored 248 all out in their first innings to which the Dolphins replied with 70/0 declared.

The Warriors then respon­ded in kind by declar­ing their second innings on 96/6 leav­ing the Dolphins a vic­tory tar­get of 275 runs. However, it was not to be for the KwaZulu-Natalians as they were bowled out for just 186 in their second innings with none of their bats­men mak­ing any note­worthy con­tri­bu­tions. Garnett Kruger (pic­tured) with 5/71 off 15.3 overs and Lonwabe Tsotsobe (3/37 off 16 overs) were the des­troy­ers in chief for the visitors.

Both cap­tains must be com­men­ded for their sport­ing declar­a­tions, which made a res­ult pos­sible after time was lost on each of the open­ing three days due to inclement weather.

The weekend’s res­ults mean that the Cobras top the log on 76.52 points with the Warriors (66.10), Lions (65.66) and Titans (62.22) in second, third and fourth place respect­ively. The Eagles (54.08) and Dolphins (50.42) are some­what off the pace, but are most cer­tainly not out of the run­ning with three rounds still remain­ing in the competition.

Meanwhile, it has been con­firmed that Jacques Kallis will take the field for South Africa against England in the open­ing game of a four match test series, which begins today at SuperSport Park in Centurion. The star all-rounder has been bat­tling a rib injury for the past two months, which has kept him out of the one-day series against the visitors.

However, Kallis will only play as a bats­man after not bowl­ing a single deliv­ery dur­ing the Proteas’ train­ing camp at Senwas Park. Dependable middle order bats­men Ashwell Prince will also take his place in the side after an absence of almost nine months, while fast bowler Makhaya Ntini will play his 100^th test match for South Africa. Prince, Ntini and spin­ner Paul Harris last played for the Proteas in March in the test series against Australia.

England warmed up for today’s test match by draw­ing with an SA Invitational XI at Buffalo Park in East London over the week­end. The English bats­men got in some much needed bat­ting prac­tice and looked in good form against the SA XI bowlers.

Isaac’s world falls apart
Jan Zaveck from Slovenia is the new International Boxing Federation (IBF) wel­ter­weight cham­pion. The unher­al­ded and rel­at­ively unknown Zaveck shocked the crowd (and the box­ing world for that mat­ter) at the Wembley Indoor Arena in Johannesburg on Friday night when he crushed defend­ing cham­pion Isaac Hlatshwayo (pic­tured right) of South Africa inside three one sided rounds.

The stocky vis­itor was the aggressor from the open­ing bell, unleash­ing hard com­bin­a­tions on a tent­at­ive Hlatshwayo who could only muster a few token jabs in reply. A hard left hook soon had the local man on rub­bery legs and sens­ing his oppon­ent was ripe for the tak­ing, Zaveck kept up the pres­sure and knocked Hlatshwayo down in the second round.

The local man some­how man­aged to drag him­self to his feet and beat the count, but it was only delay­ing the inev­it­able. The fero­cious assault con­tin­ued in the third round and Hlatshwayo soon found him­self on the can­vas twice more before American ref­eree Kenny Chevalier stepped in at 2 mins, 55 secs to save the defend­ing cham­pion from fur­ther punishment.

It was a very dis­ap­point­ing per­form­ance by Hlatshwayo who seemed ill at ease, both in the build up to the fight and dur­ing the bout itself. Something was clearly amiss with the nor­mally dur­able South African who was mak­ing the first defence of the title he won by out­point­ing Delvin Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic in August.

Hlatshwayo seemed intim­id­ated by his lightly regarded oppon­ent from the out­set and fought without any drive or determ­in­a­tion. Whatever the cause of his poor per­form­ance on the night, it is hoped that 32-year-old from Soweto can rebound from this shock­ing loss and recap­ture the form which has seen him out­box accom­plished fight­ers such as Rodriguez, Nate Campbell, Cassius Baloyi and Phillip Ndou.

The 33-year-old Zaveck improved to 28–1 (16 KOs) with the win while Hlatshwayo fell to 29–2-1 (10 KOs) with the loss. The South African’s only pre­vi­ous defeat was a point’s loss to highly regarded American Kendall Holt in November 2006. Zaveck’s sole defeat came at the hands of Polish fighter Rafal Jackiewicz, who nar­rowly out­poin­ted the Slovenian in Katowice, Poland in November last year.

Hlatshwayo, a former South African and International Boxing Organisation (IBO) light­weight cham­pion and IBO wel­ter­weight cham­pion, recently rejoined trainer Manny Fernandes after leav­ing Nick Durandt’s stable. However, the move seems to have done Hlatshwayo more harm than good after argu­ably the worst per­form­ance of his career, which saw the South African lose the fight, his title, his con­fid­ence and his status as one of the best wel­ter­weights in world boxing.

In another let down, the fight between former South African feather­weight and World Boxing Union (WBU) junior light­weight cham­pion Philip Ndou and jour­ney­man Ali Phiri was can­celled, after the Zimbabwean was declared unfit to box.

Other res­ults on the Branco Sports Productions bill
Jackson Chauke KO 2 Sandile Mxabaniso (fly­weights)
Oscar Chauke KO 1 Tendai Sanyarukova (junior feather­weights)
Warren Joubert KO 3 Patrick Masango (junior light­weights)
Nthuthuko Memela TKO 4 Masande Kakaza (junior welterweights)

Otieno robbed by the judges
Nick Otieno must be very wary of return­ing to the Orient Theatre in East London after he suffered his second con­tro­ver­sial points defeat to a South African boxer there in the space of five months. On this occa­sion it was former South African and World Boxing Council (WBC) International fly­weight cham­pion Nkqubela Gwazela who tri­umphed over the Kenyan with a major­ity point’s decision.

Gwazela got the win with ver­dicts of 96–95 and 97–95 with the third judge giv­ing the South African the nod with a score of 96–96 after 10 rounds of ban­tam­weight action. However, Otieno had every reason to feel dis­ap­poin­ted with the ver­dict after suf­fer­ing his fourth loss against 19 wins (8 KOs).

The wily Kenyan had the bet­ter of the exchanges against the heavy-handed Gwazela (18–7; 14 KOs) and left his mark on the South African whose face was a bloody mess at the fin­ish. The vis­itor clearly deserved the decision, but for some unknown reason the judge’s saw oth­er­wise. Truth be told, the ver­dict smacked of a homet­own decision, which is always a black eye for boxing.

Otieno also lost a close decision to Lubabalo Msuthu whom he chal­lenged for the World Boxing Foundation (WBF) ban­tam­weight belt in August; with many feel­ing he had done enough to get that ver­dict as well. After his exper­i­ences in South Africa over the past five months, it’s doubt­ful if the Kenyan would ever want to visit these shores again, and few, if any­one, could blame him.

Other res­ults on the Eyethu Promotions bill
Bongani Mfundisi W6 Siviwe Mqakamba (mini fly­weights)
Maxolise Mbexeshi TKO 1 Siyanda Ngange (junior feather­weights)
Luyanda Mrawuli W6 Dumisani Tose (feather­weights)
Ayanda Yaphi TKO 1 Wandile Mseleku (junior lightweights)

Meanwhile, it has been announced that Hekkie ‘The Hexecutioner’ Budler (pic­tured left) will take on Juanito Rubillar of the Phillipines for the vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) junior fly­weight title on February 27 next year. Budler’s title shot will form part of a Golden Gloves tour­na­ment to be held at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park.

The dimin­ut­ive South African (13–0; 5 KO’s) will have a tough nut to crack in Rubillar (48–13-7; 23 KO’s) who turned pro­fes­sional way back in July 1994 and who has shared a ring with many of the world’s top junior fly­weights.
However, the 32-year-old Phillipino has been unable to cap­ture a major title and has been thwarted in bids for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) mini-flyweight title, the World Boxing Council (WBC) junior fly­weight title (twice) and for the World Boxing Association (WBA) junior fly­weight title. The 21-year-old Budler has enlis­ted the ser­vices of former world cham­pion Baby Jake Matlala to help him pre­pare for his bout with Rubillar.

In other bouts on the bill, prom­ising young­ster Thomas ‘Tommy Gun’ Oosthuizen (9–0; 7 KO’s) squares off against Zambian John Chibuta (8–3; 1 KO) for the vacant WBA International super mid­dle­weight title while former Commonwealth ban­tam­weight cham­pion Tshifhiwa ‘The Atomic Spider’ Munyai (18–1-1; 9 KO’s) swaps leather with Carlo Magali (12–5-2; 6 KO’s) of the Philippines.

The action con­tin­ues when rising light­weight star Jason Bedeman (10–0-1; 8 KO’s) takes on Bilal Mohammed (14–3; 11 KO’s) of Zambia and Florante Simba (2–0; 2 KO’s) tackles debutant Devi Jose in a four round cruis­er­weight con­test.
In upcom­ing action this week, Tando Vukuza (6–4-1; 0 KO’s) will make the first defence of his South African feather­weight title when he takes on Sabelo Jubatha (4–0; 3 KO’s) in East London on Friday evening.

Charl just misses out
Spaniard Pablo Martin won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at the Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane on Sunday by a single shot from South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel (pic­tured). It was the 23-year-old’s first vic­tory as a pro­fes­sional and it came in the open­ing event of the European Tour’s 2010 Race to Dubai, which is co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour.

Schwartzel made a strong bid for the title, but in the end, Martin dis­played remark­able patience for a young man, after sur­viv­ing a roller-coaster third round with Ernie Els to main­tain the lead he took after his second-round 63. Els’ chal­lenge evap­or­ated as the South African struggled to a five-over par 77 and a share of 17^th place.

Sunshine Tour Order of Merit leader Anders Hansen con­sol­id­ated his pos­i­tion, with Schwartzel leap frog­ging into second place behind him. The South African is now the only player with a math­em­at­ical chance of over­haul­ing the Dane in the season-ending SA Open, which begins on Thursday.

Defending cham­pion Richard Sterne (who also tri­umphed in last year’s SA Open) crowned a week in which he seemed to have regained some of his remark­able 2008 form. The South African earned a share of fourth with England’s Robert Rock and Dale Whitnell and the man he beat for last year’s SA Open title, Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin.

Sterne will be look­ing to con­tinue his rich vein of form with a suc­cess­ful defence of his SA Open title, but will be up against some very good com­pet­i­tion at the Pearl Valley Golf Estate.

Scoreboard (Top 10 fin­ish­ers only)
271 — Pablo Martin (ESP) 68–63-71–69
272 — Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 67–69-68–68
274 — Anders Hansen (DEN) 68–70-68–68
276 — Richard Sterne (RSA) 72–66-72–66, Dale Whitnell (ENG) 70–68-72–66, Robert Rock (ENG) 69–68-70–69, Gareth Maybin (NIR) 68–70-67–71
277 — Shiv Kapur (IND) 68–71-68–70, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (FRA) 71–69-66–71, Damien McGrane (IRL) 67–70-68–72

SA whip China in Argentina
The South African men’s hockey team wal­loped China 5–0 after lead­ing 2–0 at half-time in their Champions Challenge fifth place play-off in Salta, Argentina on Monday.

The num­ber 15 ranked South Africans had an easy time of it against the 13^th ranked Chinese, who never got going in the match. Goals from Thornton McDade, Julian Hykes, Justine Reid Ross, Gareth Carr and cap­tain Austin Smith (pic­tured) did the trick for the South Africans as their oppon­ents failed to get on the score sheet.

The tour­na­ment was won by New Zealand, who beat Pakistan 4–2 in the final.

Photo Credits:
‘Blitsboks’ come up short again — Photo – Mzwandile Stick: Source – zimbio.com
SuperSport pull away from the pack — Photo – Anthony Laffor: Source – mtn8.mtnfootball.com
Chiefs and Pirates ready to make their move — Photo – Orlando Pirates: Source – africatower.com
Kemp the hero for Cobras — Photo – Justin Kemp: Source – cricinfo.com
Kruger and Tsotsobe skittle Dolphins — Photo – Garnett Kruger: Source – cricinfo.com
Isaac’s world falls apart — Photo – Isaac Hlatshwayo: Source – fightography.com
Otieno robbed by the judges — Photo – Hekkie Budler: Source – gvgatchalian.blogspot.com
Charl just misses out — Photo – Charl Schwartzel: Source – edition.cnn.com
SA whip China in Argentina — Photo – Austin Smith: Source – zimbio.com

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