Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news — 31 August

Shaky Boks pre­vail in nine-try thriller
The Springboks fought back from a four-point defi­cit at half time to defeat Australia 44–31 in a tense Vodacom Tri-Nations encounter at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night. The Boks were pushed all the way by the Wallabies in an enter­tain­ing match which yiel­ded nine tries – five of them going to the men in green.

Right-wing JP Pietersen sealed vic­tory for the Boks with a well-taken try after the Wallabies were only six points adrift with just a few minutes left to play. The win was the first for John Smit’s out­fit in this year’s Tri-Nations and also ended the Springbok cen­tur­ion curse, with lock Victor Matfield becom­ing the first Bok to win in his 100^th Test – after Percy Montgomery and Smit lost in their cen­ten­ary Tests.

However, it was by no means a con­vin­cing per­form­ance from the World cham­pi­ons who were shaky on defence and, just as with the All Blacks the pre­vi­ous week­end, faded badly in the last quarter. In fact, had coach Peter de Villiers not decided to bring on Chiliboy Ralepelle (pic­tured right) to replace a rap­idly tir­ing Smit, the Boks could eas­ily have lost this match. Replacement hooker Ralepelle joined the fray on the hour and quickly made two cru­cial turn-overs to stem the Wallaby tide when it just seemed to be gain­ing momentum. It was a clever move by De Villiers and one won­ders what would have happened had he made use of the same option a week before.

The Wallabies star­ted like a house on fire going 14–0 up after just six minutes. Converted tries from scrum­half Will Genia and wing James O’Connor stunned the Boks who must have wondered what had hit them. Bok flanker Juan Smith took advant­age of some poor Wallaby defend­ing to score under the posts but the Boks quickly went fur­ther behind when wing Bryan Habana fumbled the restart, and O’Connor was able to coast through for his second try of the evening.

Hulking prop Gurthro Steenkamp then scored a second try for the Boks when he smashed his way through a host of defend­ers only for Habana to can­cel out his team-mate’s good work with another defens­ive blun­der. The Bok No 11 was caught in pos­ses­sion under his own posts, a pen­alty was awar­ded and a quick take saw Dean Mumm canter over for another Aussie try on 28 minutes.

With the Wallabies now 28–17 up the Boks were in danger of being over­whelmed, but a multi-phase move­ment even­tu­ally saw scrum­half Francois Hougaard (pic­tured) cre­ate enough space for mus­cu­lar eighth­man Pierre Spies to dot down under the posts. That brought the Boks back to within four points (28–24) at the interval.

The men in green then built on the momentum cre­ated by Spies’ try when burly full­back Frans Steyn dot­ted down in the far right hand corner shortly after the re-start. Bok fly­half Morne Steyn and Aussie coun­ter­part Matt Giteau then exchanged pen­al­ties to make it 34–31 to the Boks just on the hour.

Then came the fren­etic last quarter where the Wallabies threw everything they had at their foes only to be thwarted by some excel­lent, if not des­per­ate defend­ing. The lively Hougaard, who always gives one hun­dred and ten per­cent on the field, was par­tic­u­larly out­stand­ing in this regard.

The dimin­ut­ive No 9 pro­duced argu­ably the best cover tackle of the day when he stopped Adam Ashley-Cooper dead in his tracks just as the big Aussie centre was about to score what would have likely been a match win­ning try. Hougaard then sealed the Wallabies’ fate when he engin­eered Pietersen’s clinch­ing try to give the Boks a flat­ter­ing vic­tory mar­gin of 13 points.

Truth be told it was an uncon­vin­cing per­form­ance by the Boks who were only able to take the lead after 51 minutes when Frans Steyn scored his try. The South Africans were out­played for large peri­ods of the match and had the Aussies showed more com­mittment on defence, they could eas­ily have won Saturday’s game by a com­fort­able margin.

The Boks face the Wallabies again in their final Tri-Nations encounter at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The Aussies have not beaten the Boks on the Highveld since 1963 and will be eager to turn the tables on their foes.

A Wallaby win is cer­tainly not improb­able given Saturday’s shaky per­form­ance from the Boks and Rocky Elsom’s out­fit will cer­tainly be con­fid­ent of exact­ing revenge for a defeat that was largely of their own mak­ing. The match kicks-off at 5pm.

Scorers
South Africa – Tries: Juan Smith, Gurthro Steenkamp, Pierre Spies, Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen. Conversions: Morne Steyn (4) and Butch James. Penalties: Morne Steyn (2) and Frans Steyn.
Australia – Tries: Will Genia, James O’Connor (2) and Dean Mumm. Conversions: Matt Giteau (4). Penalty: Giteau.

Tri-Nations log
Pos      Team                Pts
1.         New Zealand      23
2.         South Africa       6
3.         Australia            5

Four-try Pumas shock Bulls
The 2010 Absa Currie Cup sea­son is not prov­ing to be a happy one for defend­ing cham­pi­ons the Vodacom Blue Bulls. The men in blue suffered their fourth defeat from eight starts when they went down 22–21 to an unfan­cied Barloworld Toyota Pumas oufit at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Friday evening.

It was a mem­or­able vic­tory for the home side who had only man­aged to win one of seven games prior to tak­ing the field on Friday.  The Pumas, play­ing in front of a 20 000-strong crowd, outscored the Bulls by four tries to two in the first-ever rugby match played at the Fifa World Cup venue.

The Pumas star­ted strongly, get­ting the best of the open­ing exchanges and were rewar­ded for their efforts when eighth­man Doppies le Roux crashed over the tryline after just three minutes of action. Flyhalf Elgar Watts (pic­tured) missed the con­ver­sion but made amends with a bril­liant solo try just minutes later when he sprin­ted in from all of 50 metres.

With the Pumas 10–0 up and brim­ming with con­fid­ence the Bulls were up against it, but they slowly began to fight their way back into the match when fly­half Francois Brummer kicked a 20^th minute pen­alty to reduce the defi­cit to seven points. Visiting prop Dean Greyling then barged over the line for a try seven minutes later before another Brummer pen­alty put the Bulls in front on 35 minutes.

Brummer missed two fur­ther pen­alty attempts in the 39^th and 41^st minutes that would have given his side a use­ful six-point lead at the break, but the Bulls were still able to go into the inter­val 11–10 ahead. The vis­it­ors must have felt they had turned the tide with their late first half fight­back and would have been even fur­ther encour­aged when eighth­man Dewald Potgieter crashed over for a con­ver­ted try just seven minutes after the restart.

However, des­pite being 18–10 down the Pumas will still very much in the game, show­ing a lot of flair on attack. Replacement back Ashwin Scott scored the home side’s third try when he dived over in the right-hand corner after 53 minutes to reduce the defi­cit to three points. Watts added the con­ver­sion to make it 18–17 to the vis­it­ors with 25 minutes to go.

Replacement fly­half Jacques-Louis Potgieter then exten­ded the Bulls’ lead with a 58^th-minute pen­alty before the Pumas went back in front through centre Tiaan Meyer who powered his way over for a try after 64 minutes. The Bulls tried des­per­ately to get back in front, but the Pumas, spurred on by their home fans, held on for a mem­or­able victory.

“We can see ourselves set­tling down in Nelspruit,” said a thrilled Pumas cap­tain Hannes Franklin (pic­tured left)after the match. “Well done to the whole team,” he added. It was indeed a most sur­pris­ing vic­tory for the newly pro­moted Pumas who exac­ted revenge for a 38–15 defeat to the Bulls in their open­ing match of the competition.

Scorers
Pumas 22 – Tries: Doppies le Roux, Elgar Watts, Ashwin Scott and Tiaan Meyer. Conversion: Watts.
Blue Bulls 21 – Tries: Dean Greyling, Dewald Potgieter. Conversion: Jacques-Louis Potgieter. Penalties: Francois Brummer (2), Potgieter.

Other res­ults (from left to right)
Friday
Lions 45 – Leopards 22 – Coca-Cola Park Stadium, Johannesburg
Sharks 48 – Griquas 30 – The Absa Stadium, Durban
Cheetahs 29 – Western Province 24 – Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

Upcoming fix­tures
Friday
Leopards vs Pumas – Profert Olen Park, Potchefstroom
Griquas vs Cheetahs – GWK Park, Kimberley – 7pm
Lions vs Western Province – Coca-Cola Park Stadium, Johannesburg – 7.10pm
Bulls vs Sharks – Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria – 7.10pm

Currie Cup log (After eight games)
Pos  Team      Pts
1.    Sharks       35
2.    WP            28
3.    Cheetahs   24
4.    Bulls          24
5.    Griquas      23
6.    Lions         20
7.    Pumas       12
8.    Leopards     4

Dlamini’s brace sinks Maritzburg
Two goals from Ayanda Dlamini (pic­tured) helped AmaZulu to a nar­row 3–2 vic­tory over KwaZulu-Natal rivals Maritzburg United in their open­ing 2010/11 Absa Premiership fix­ture at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday after­noon. Dlamini scored his second goal in extra time to secure vic­tory for Usuthu who were pushed all the way by The Team of Choice.

In an action packed affair that was a bril­liant dis­play of how foot­ball can be played in South Africa, United will be bit­terly dis­ap­poin­ted with the loss after twice com­ing from behind to draw level in the match. AmaZulu quickly took the lead when Dlamini scor­ing his first goal after 13 minutes with an excel­lent glan­cing header fol­low­ing a free-kick by Ntokozo Sikhakhane from the left. Undeterred, Martizburg soon found an equal­iser when Rudolph Bester tapped in from close range after Mbongeni Mzimela failed to clear a Kurt Lentjies’ free-kick into the area.

Usuthu went back in front in the 38^th minute when debutant Lehlohonolo Majoro headed home power­fully fol­low­ing a well-placed cross by Sikhakhane from the right. With United a goal behind at the inter­val Amazulu must have been pretty chuffed with them­selves, but all that changed when Siphiwe Mkhonza scored an own goal just seven minutes after the restart.

Mkhonza, with hardly any pres­sure on him, lobbed the ball back to his own goal­keeper from about 30 yards out, but com­pletely mis­judged the pass to find the back of his own net. Thereafter both teams vigouri­ously went in seach of the equal­iser and it was Dlamini who came up with the goods in stop­page time with a curl­ing shot that United goal­keeper Shu-aib Walters was unable to keep out.

Usuthu’s next PSL fix­ture is against Bloemfontein Celtic at the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium next Wednesday even­ing. Celtic lost their open­ing game when they went down 2–0 to Ajax Cape Town on Friday even­ing and will have their work cut out for them against the con­fid­ent KwaZulu-Natalians. United are at home to Kaizer Chiefs in their next out­ing and are likely to be in for a tough time against the Amakhosi who out­classed Moroka Swallows 2–0 on Saturday.

Other PSL res­ults (From left to right)
Friday
Orlando Pirates 2 – Vasco Da Gama 1 – Cape Town Stadium
Saturday
Wits University 3 – SuperSport United 0 – Bidvest Stadium
Free State Stars 0 – Santos 0 – Charles Mopeli Stadium
Mamelodi Sundowns 2 – Moroka Swallows 0 – HM Pitje Stadium
Sunday
Black Aces 2 – Platinum Stars 3 – Puma Rugby Stadium

Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana face a tricky test when they take on a rel­at­ively unknown Niger out­fit in a cru­cial 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qual­i­fier at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday night. After defeat­ing France and Ghana in their last two out­ings the South Africans will fancy their chances of beat­ing the West African min­nows, although Bafana skip­per Aaron Mokoena (pic­tured) cau­tioned against overconfidence.

“We can­not afford to under­es­tim­ate Niger. They pose a whole lot of new chal­lenges for us and it will be a whole new ball game play­ing them after the World Cup and Ghana,” Mokoena explained. “We are look­ing at the big­ger pic­ture and that is to qual­ify for the 2012 Afcon (in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea). Our cam­paign starts against Niger and we have to secure three points,” he added.

“I am still in the dark about what to expect from Niger, but it is a win at all costs game for us,” said Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane. “The good thing is I have my play­ers in camp early and we will be ready. I do not care how we win as long as we get three points,” he added. Mosimane said the exper­i­ence Bafana gained in the World Cup will stand them in good stead in a tough qual­i­fy­ing group that includes African cham­pi­ons Egypt and Sierra Leone. “We have learnt a lot from the World Cup, the play­ers have bene­fit­ted and now we need to take that exper­i­ence into the Afcon qual­i­fi­ers,” said the coach. Saturday’s match kicks-off at 8.30pm.

Boxing bon­anza in Brakpan set to excite fans
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior light­weight belt will be up for grabs at Carnival City near Brakpan tomor­row night when South African vet­er­ans Cassius ‘Mr Shy Guy’ Baloyi and Mzonke ‘The Rose of Khayelitsha’ Fana duke it out for the vacant title over 12 rounds.

The 35-year-old Baloyi, who is gun­ning for an unpre­ced­en­ted sev­enth world title belt, has won 37 bouts (19 by knock­out), los­ing four and draw­ing one in an illus­tri­ous career that stretches all the way back to 1994. Fana, 37, is a former holder of the belt and has already shared a ring with Baloyi, drop­ping a 12-round major­ity decision to his rival in April 2008.

In that bout Fana (29–4; 12 KO’s), allowed Baloyi to take an early lead but ral­lied in the later rounds to lose by scores of 117–111, 116–112 and 114–114. Baloyi later lost the title to fel­low South African Malcolm Klassen, who in turn lost it to Robert Guerrero, who then relin­quished the belt. Even though both fight­ers are in the twi­light of their careers they are still in top con­di­tion and a thrill­ing battle is expec­ted between the two ring veterans.

In another all-South African clash, 27-year-old Moruti Mthalane (pic­tured) makes the first defence of his IBF fly­weight crown against 22-year-old Zolani Tete (13–0; 11 KO’s). Tete, a south­paw, once held the lightly regarded World Boxing Federation (WBF) belt and earned his shot at the IBF title by out­point­ing Richard Garcia of the Philipines in February this year.

However, Garcia could be described as ordin­ary at best and Tete will have to lift his game con­sid­er­ably if he is to enter­tain any hopes of vic­tory against the accom­plished Mthalane (25–2; 16 KO’s). ‘Babyface’ as Mthalane is known is one of South Africa’s best pound for pound fight­ers and cap­tured the IBF crown by com­fort­ably out­point­ing tough Mexican Julio Cesar Miranda in Johannesburg last year.

In another IBF title elim­in­ator fea­tur­ing two South Africans, this time for the junior feather­weight belt, former International Boxing Organisation (IBO) junior feather­weight cham­pion Takalani ‘Panther’ Ndlovu (pic­tured) squares off against Jeffrey ‘Mongoose’ Mathebula (23–2-2; 13 KO’s). The taller Mathebula will have his work cut out for him against the more exper­i­enced Ndlovu (30–6; 18 KO’s) who has been punch­ing for pay since April 1999.

In the fourth high pro­file fight on the Branco Sports Productions bill, South African min­im­um­weight cham­pion Tshepo Lefele (16–4; 10 KO’s) faces a stern test in the form of ex-World Boxing Council (WBC) min­im­um­weight cham­pion Katsunari Takayama (23–4; 9 KO’s) of Japan. The win­ner will earn the right to chal­lenge IBF min­im­um­weight cham­pion Nkosinathi Joyi of South Africa.

Meanwhile, Gauteng vet­eran Pius Dipheko tackles unbeaten Namibian Bethuel Ushona in a nine-bout tour­na­ment at the Turfontein Racecourse in Johannesburg on Friday night. Dipheko, from Kagiso, faces Ushona in a light­weight bout sched­uled for 10 rounds.

Former Olympian and South African junior heavy­weight cham­pion Danie Venter will take on Norman Slabani in a heavy­weight con­test sched­uled for six rounds while former South African and World Boxing Foundation junior feather­weight cham­pion Oscar Chauke squares off against another Namibian, Abraham Ndaendapo.

Other bouts
Kyle Bothma vs Jeremiah Joshua – junior wel­ter­weights (6 rounds)
Rudolph Venter vs Rudy Bruwer – light-heavyweights (6 rounds)
Sting Gundarela vs Ronnie Lategan – light-heavyweights (6 rounds)

Irvette makes it a double
National cham­pion Irvette van Blerk (pic­tured) was in scin­t­il­at­ing form over the week­end win­ning the back-to-back Spar Women’s 10km Challenge and pock­et­ing R20 000 for her efforts. The 23-year-old, who cap­tured the South African title over the same dis­tance in Paarl two weeks ago, set a blis­ter­ing pace from the out­set in both races to simply blow away the competition.

Van Blerk won the Centurion race by more than half a minute in 34 min, 26 secs on Saturday and claimed vic­tory in the Durban event the fol­low­ing day with an even bet­ter time. Commenting on her tac­tics in the Centurion event Van Blerk said she had not planned to push the pace in the early stages, but took advant­age of her strength on the hills on the tough new route.

“It’s not an easy course, but I’m glad it was hilly. I think it helped me a lot.  It was hot out there, but I felt good so I decided to go for it,” explained Van Blerk. Zimbabweans Rutendo Nyhora (34:59) and Sharon Tavengwa (35:08) were second and third respect­ively while South Africa’s lead­ing middle dis­tance track ath­lete, Rene Kalmer, fin­ished a dis­ap­point­ing eighth in 37:08.

Van Blerk picked up where she left off on Saturday when she showed the field a clean pair of heels to break the tape in 33:45 in Durban with Zintle Xiniwe (34:48) second and Poppy Mlambo, who missed the start of Saturday’s race due to a taxi acci­dent, third in 35:06. Kalmer had another dis­ap­point­ing run, man­aging only 37:03 for 10^th place.

Meanwhile, world 800 metres cham­pion Caster Semenya clocked a season’s best of 1 min, 59.65 secs, to fin­ish third on her Diamond League debut in Brussels on Friday. “One minute 57 would be a good time for this year,” the 19-year-old South African told report­ers after suf­fer­ing her first defeat of the sea­son. “I will be bet­ter with more races so I can run faster. No com­pet­i­tion, no run fast,” she added with a smile.

Included in South Africa’s squad for October’s Commonwealth Games Semenya took the cau­tious approach in Brussels, run­ning the first lap at the back of the pack. She advanced up the field on the out­side in the final 200, but could not catch former world cham­pion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya and European gold medal­list Mariya Savinova, who was second. “I wasn’t expect­ing to run fast like that. I’m happy with the time,” said Semenya.

Olympic final­ist Juan van Deventer (pic­tured) also recor­ded a season’s best in the men’s 1 500m race at the IAAF World Challenge meet­ing in Rieti, Italy, on Sunday. The 27-year-old was only 0.22 seconds short of the per­sonal best he set in New York 15 months ago, clock­ing 3:34.52 to fin­ish ninth in a field of 13. Kenyan Olympic cham­pion Asbel Kiprop won in 3:31.78, just ahead of coun­try­man Silas Kiplagat who clocked 3:31.97.

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Photo Credits:
Photo – Chiliboy Ralepelle: Source – www.sportydesktops.com
Photo – Francois Hougaard: Source – www.images.xoila.com
Photo – Elgar Watts: Source – www.bochasyguindas.blogspot.com
Photo – Hannes Franklin: Source – www.daylife.com
Photo – Ayanda Dlamini: Source – www.daylife.com
Photo – Aaron Mokoena: Source – www.sportydesktops.com
Photo – Moruti Mthalane: Source – www.blogs.dispatch.co.za
Photo – Takalani Ndlovu: Source – www.theboxingexaminer.com
Photo – Irvette van Blerk: Source – Gallo Images
Photo – Juan van Devente: : Source – Gallo Images