High-energy morning at Colin Nathan’s HotBox gym watching top pros Xolisani Ndongeni, Shaun Ness, Ryno Liebenberg, Simphiwe Khonco and Alfonso Tissen working out.
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Monthly Archives: March 2016
Eddie Jones points the way for new Bok coach
Eddie Jones is a name you whisper quietly down Newlands way, but you must say it anyway for Jones has shown the way for SA rugby.
The Australian may have skulked out of the Cape in favour of a pot of cash (and miserable weather) with England, but he has proven that you don’t need a lifetime to transform. England were a rabble when he took over, but a pragmatic hand and a return to the fundamentals soon had them purring. They laid waste to everyone in the Six Nations and even pocketed that rarest of gems, a Grand Slam.
Jones, once England’s bête noire, is now their hero, his Cheshire cat grin a permanent reminder of sport’s grand capacity for surprise.
On Friday, South Africa will enjoy its own key moment when the new Springbok coach is announced. Anyone other than Allister Coetzee being the man would constitute a major surprise. There has been the usual flip-flopping of names, but his has been ever-present.
Coetzee will have a fair old job to do. Under Heyneke Meyer the Boks ended up bobbing on the waves, neither here nor there. Their size and strength always had them in with a shout, but they weren’t spontaneous or exuberant.
Meyer’s time was up the moment Japan embarrassed the Boks in the World Cup last September. The team was in two minds about how to play and Japan, with coach Jones looking on approvingly, went full throttle. It was a shambles.
Coetzee will come in and mouth the usual homilies about tradition and history and what have you, but all that matters is being number one. The Boks need to get back to being the best team in the world and not one that snaps at the ankles of the All Blacks and Wallabies.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Boks need to get back to being the best team in the world and not one that snaps at the ankles of the All Blacks and Wallabies[/pullquote]
The Boks did a fine job of winning friends and were media darlings the world over, but none of that should matter to the new coach. You win the PR battle if you win on the field. That is all that should count.
Coetzee needs to lay down his marker early. No-one can question his rugby intellect, but he must display the energy and sharp focus that the job requires. There can be none of the laboured thinking that characterised his last few months at the Stormers.
He must also show a capacity for fresh thinking. He has to make a big call on his playing philosophy – will he be ballsy or brittle? Meyer wasn’t bold enough to embrace a new game, an uncertainty that seeped into his team, most memorably against Japan and Argentina, in Durban last year.
As teams like the All Blacks and even Argentina have demonstrated, clever, creative and imaginative rugby can get you far. If the Boks can blend those qualities with their surplus of strength, they can claim the high ground.
Whatever Coetzee does, winning must be at the core. SA rugby fans have high expectations. Winning will see him feted. Losing will see him torn to pieces.
He won’t be a man alone. One of his first jobs will be to appoint a captain. Meyer set his stall out early by naming Jean de Villiers and sticking with him. It was a left-field call, but it was a smart one that brought much success.
Jake White did a similar thing with John Smit.
There aren’t many standout candidates, but Duane Vermeulen, SA’s Player of the Year two years ago, is the right sort of choice. He’s rugged, respected and experienced.
Coetzee will have to build a new team around his captain. Meyer was wedded to the older brigade, some would say to his detriment, but they’ve moved off and there are now holes all over the place.
Fortunately there’s much to work with – players like Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Willie le Roux are still babes in arms – and the emergence of players like Elton Jantjies (again), Warrick Gelant, Edgar Marutlulle and Malcolm Marx is a salve for all those wondering from where the next heroes will emerge.
As a player for Eastern Province, Coetzee was cheeky, combative and fiercely competitive. He must have the Boks playing in that very image. – © Sunday Tribune
A rare chance to watch boxing’s quiet genius
Andre Ward may be the best boxer you’ve never heard of.
The last American Olympic champion – he won gold in 2004 – Ward has been near untouchable as a professional, winning two world championships at super-middleweight.
He has since migrated to light-heavyweight and this weekend meets undefeated Cuban Sullivan Barrera in an intriguing match-up that will be broadcast on SuperSport 5 from 2.30am on Sunday.
Ward’s relative anonymity is based on two factors: he has fought just five times in the past five years, chiefly on the basis of promotional wrangles and injuries, and he is a quiet, introspective figure who refuses to wallow in smack talk.
Even so, many boxing insiders rank him among the pound-for-pound top three based on past performances against top names like Chad Dawson and Carl Froch. He didn’t beat them with power, but silky skills that are comparable to Floyd Mayweather in his prime.
Now 32, Ward hasn’t lost a fight since he was a 12-year-old amateur.
The American will be closely watched this weekend, both to see how he measures up against the tough Cuban and to get a line on his form with a fight against division king Sergey Kovalev said to be lined up for November.
Barrera hasn’t fought any big names, but he has two things going for him: he is Cuban, which suggests his fighting genes are solid, and he is trained by Abel Sanchez, perhaps the best coach in the business today.
The former world champion is unbeaten in 17 outings and knows that this is his opportunity to make a major name for himself. In some ways, it’s a win-win fight for him: a good performance against Ward, even in a losing cause, won’t hard his reputation. A win, of course, will skyrocket his status.
But few are expecting anything less than a typical Ward display at the new weight, where his speed and timing ought to prove critical against a rugged opponent who will have his moments, but not enough to make them count.
All rugby roads lead to St Stithians
Last week, I discovered that St Stithians, the moneyed school in northern Joburg, had appointed a sports scientist.
This is either a sign that the world has gone cuckoo or that a top school has recognised the need for an expert in drawing the very best from its learners. Happily, it is the latter.
The horse has bolted on the idea that school sports are quaintly Corinthian; the move by Saints is designed to ensure sportsmen achieve optimum training, nutrition and rest to produce excellent results. Competition at school level, as we all know, is intense at best, fierce at worst.
“I’m not sure there is a local precedent for such an appointment,” said Tim Nuttall, rector of the school, “but we want to ensure we do the right thing all round.”
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Saints production line may have a few more pleasant surprises in store.[/pullquote]
Indeed, the school already has a High Performance Centre. Having produced Kevin Anderson and Kagiso Rabada in recent years, the Saints production line may have a few more pleasant surprises in store.
This weekend St Stithians host their annual Easter Sports Festival. I’ve been going since the early 1990s and it’s never been less than great fun. The sheer scale of the 105-hectare campus gives the event a big feel and the rugby is always entertaining. Much depends on which schools attend, but invariably there are some traditional powerhouses and a few “exotics” who add to a healthy mix.
Many Springboks played at the Saints festival in their schoolboy years, among them Joel Stransky (Maritzburg College, 1985), Bakkies Botha (HTS Middelburg, 1997), Bobby Skinstad (Hilton College 1993/4) and Schalk Burger (Paarl Gimnasium, 2000).
The festival has expanded over the years and now includes other sports such as basketball, cross country, netball, hockey, tennis and squash. But it is primarily a gathering of rugby types with 25 000-odd spectators making the trip.
The Saints Festival team.
The facilities are outstanding and the add-ons of catering and other activities – including a “chill zone” for teens and live bands – make it an agreeable jaunt over the long weekend, whether for just one match or an entire day.
Now in its 34th year, the festival logistics are staggering. Over 40 schools (both boys and girls) participate with 1000 competitors involved in over 150 fixtures.
I’ll be popping in and out over the long weekend, especially as a number of the fixtures are must-see.
At just R40 per entry, it’s top rugby (and other sport) at a steal.
The 12 rugby schools competing this weekend:
Clifton College (KZN)
Bishops (Western Cape)
DHS (KZN)
Graeme College (Eastern Cape)
Grey High (Eastern Cape)
Michaelhouse (KZN)
Pretoria Boys (Gauteng)
St Alban’s (Gauteng)
St Andrews (Eastern Cape)
St Stithians (Gauteng)
Westville (KZN)
Wynberg (Western Cape)
FIXTURES
(My daily top picks highlighted)
| THURSDAY 24 MARCH | ||||
| TIME | FIELD | TEAM | TEAM | |
| 09h45 | Baytopp | Clifton | vs | St Albans |
| 11h00 | Baytopp | DHS | vs | Bishops |
| 12h15 | Baytopp | St Stithians | vs | Graeme College |
| 13h30 | Baytopp | PBHS | vs | St Andrews |
| 14h45 | Baytopp | Michaelhouse | vs | Wynberg |
| 16h00 | Baytopp | Westville | vs | Grey PE |
| SATURDAY 26 MARCH | ||||
| TIME | FIELD | TEAM | TEAM | |
| 09h45 | Baytopp | Clifton | vs | Graeme College |
| 11h00 | Baytopp | St Andrews | vs | St Albans |
| 12h15 | Baytopp | Grey PE | vs | Bishops |
| 13h30 | Baytopp | PBHS | vs | Michaelhouse |
| 14h45 | Baytopp | Wynberg | vs | Westville |
| 16h00 | Baytopp | Old Stithian Association 7’s | vs | DHS Old Boys 7’s |
| 16h30 | Baytopp | St Stithians | vs | DHS |
| MONDAY 28 MARCH | ||||
| TIME | FIELD | TEAM | TEAM | |
| 09h45 | Baytopp | DHS | vs | St Andrews |
| 11h00 | Baytopp | Graeme College | vs | PBHS |
| 12h15 | Baytopp | Wynberg | vs | St Albans |
| 13h30 | Baytopp | St Stithians | vs | Clifton |
| 14h45 | Baytopp | Michaelhouse | vs | Grey PE |
| 16h00 | Baytopp | Bishops | vs | Westville |
Full details of the festival here: http://events.stithian.com/events/easter2016/
There’s also an on-the-go app: www.saintsfestival.com.
World record next for Wayde
Don’t be surprised if the next time Wayde van Niekerk’s name is up in lights it’s for breaking the 400m world record.
It’s a target the world champion’s team has quietly mapped out, but typically for the low-key athlete they don’t make a song and dance of it. Few even knew he was competing in his Bloemfontein hometown last weekend, but when he pulled out a sub-10 sec 100m, the news shot around the world. Elite sprinters regularly dip below 10 seconds, but up to now none has combined such speed over 100m, 200m and 400m.
Not even Michael Johnson managed such versatility, although if Usain Bolt was in the mood he could probably run a sub-44 sec 400m.
Johnson’s 400m world record of 43,18 sec has stood for 17 years. Van Niekerk’s personal best is 43,48, the sixth-fastest of all-time and roughly two metres adrift of Johnson in a practical sense. Only three have run faster: Johnson, Jeremy Wariner and Harry Reynolds.
It puts the South African into a stratosphere all his own. LaShawn Merritt, his chief international rival, is joint 11th on the all-time list and he’s the only other active 400m athlete in the top 15.
Although Van Niekerk began his sprinting career in the Western Cape with the 100m and 200m, he graduated to 400m years later. He now drops down to improve his speed work, which suggests his 400m time will get quicker. Given perfect conditions, and perhaps with someone to chase for 200m, the South African could crack Johnson’s record.
(He famously works with a 74-year-old coach, “Tannie Ans”, whose results have been remarkable).
Van Niekerk’s blistering 9,98 sec time last weekend came out of the blue, but in the context of SA sprinting, we shouldn’t have been surprised. Van Niekerk emerged as a teen alongside the blitsvinnig trio of Akani Simbine, Anaso Jabodwana and Heinricho Bruintjies. They were rivals and friends. They fed off each other’s success and even now encourage one another.
Simbine’s recent 9,96 sec run gave him the record outright, having jointly held it with Bruintjies until earlier this month. Not forgetting Jabodwana, who cracked a bronze racing alongside Bolt at last year’s 200m world championship final in Beijing.
It was at the same championship where Van Niekerk so memorably ran the race of his life, collapsing in a heap at the end before being stretchered off the track.
It was one of the striking images of Beijing and thrust Van Niekerk into the public consciousness.
His gold medal never quite translated into untold riches, a fact we were reminded of this week when corporate South Africa was criticised for not coming to the party with sponsorship.
It’s an easy stone to throw their way, but the truth is that athletics in this country is dogged by controversy. The sport is poorly served by administrators who don’t exactly charm sponsors with their behaviour.
The other reality is that with few exceptions corporates are loath to sponsor individual athletes given the damage wrought by recent scandals. Think Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Oscar Pistorius, Michael Vick and, yes, Maria Sharapova.
Van Niekerk’s profile could enter a new realm if he wins gold in Rio later this year. Despite a compelling claim for a place in the 4x100m relay team, his focus will be entirely on the 400m. He’s not a relay specialist and anything that takes his eyes off the big prize must be shut down.
He has a plan and will soon hit the tracks of Rome, Jamaica and Boston before heading back to Europe for two Diamond League meets.
Van Niekerk already ranks among the best track athletes produced by South Africa. Former world record holders Paul Nash and Marcello Fiasconaro are up there, plus the 800m pair of Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Hezekiel Sepeng.
SA has had a 400m Olympic champion – Bevil Rudd won in Antwerp in 1920 – but if Van Niekerk equals the feat, he would have a sound argument to being SA’s best track athlete of all time.
Matching world gold with Olympic gold is unprecedented in SA history, plus he has stellar 100m and 200m times that qualify him as a very special talent.
Meanwhile, watch that 400m world record. Van Niekerk is chasing it down. – © Sunday Tribune
For pure athletic excellence, few compare to Hekkie Budler
Might I suggest a treat this weekend?
You need not be a boxing fan, but if athletic excellence impresses you, I recommend you watch Hekkie Budler fight.
(The tournament is live on SS Select, ch 210, from 7.30pm).
At Emperors Palace on Saturday he boxes as a professional for the 31st time. If you don’t know anything about Budler, these are the pertinent facts:
- He is by common consent the best boxer at his weight in the world.
- He’s tiny – around 47kg – and fights in the lightest division.
- He’s lost just one fight in the last 10 years (by split decision).
- He is Brian Mitchell’s favourite local fighter.
Despite having held a version of the world championship since 2011, only now is he moving beyond the boxing realm into the public consciousness at large. This is no doubt on account of his size – fans tend to have a greater appreciation of bigger fighters – and the understanding that he is a genuine world beater.
As his promoter Rodney Berman says, “If he was a heavyweight, he’d be a superstar.”
Budler isn’t a devastating puncher; he tends to win his bouts by simply overwhelming his opponents through his high workrate. He’s busy and accurate and has the ability to slip through the gears when he needs to.
He can also adjust, as he did in Monte Carlo two years ago when Chinese challenger Chao Zhong Xiong dumped him on his backside in the second round.
It was unfamiliar territory for the West Rand fighter – he had never been down as a pro – but he battled on, recalibrated his game and put Xiong over in the next round before riding out a comfortable points win.
Despite beating a global cast of challengers from places such as the Philippines, Columbia, Thailand and Argentina, his best fights have been against local rivals. Former world champion Nkosinathi Joyi tore into him in a memorable 12-rounder in 2013, but Budler showed smooth skills on his way to a famous points win.
In his last defence, against the Eastern Cape’s Simphiwe Khonco six months ago, he conceded the early rounds before dominating the second half in a rousing fight of the year contender. Ironically, he and Khonco are now stablemates and give each other first-class sparring.
These were fights Budler could easily have lost, but from his early days as a rough-and-tumble operator, Budler has matured under trainer Colin Nathan’s careful hand. The two biggest changes have come in his defence, which has tightened up, and his fight management. Not only does he know how to win, he knows how to execute the required game plan. His inner will is also unmatched. He grew up tough on the mean streets of Newlands. he also fights tough.
As accomplished as Budler is, his finest quality is his sense of humanity. He is the kindest, most accommodating fighter I have known. His patience, friendliness and attitude make him one of boxing’s supreme ambassadors.
He is one of the gems of South African sport.
Go on, see for yourself.
Fight game back on the boil
Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin.
It’s a great time to be a fight fan.
This reality was driven home recently when Las Vegas saw two massive upsets in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the biggest mixed martial arts organisation in the world.
Elsewhere, boxing’s heavyweights have kicked into life and a slew of fighters in lower weight divisions are looking to replace Floyd Mayweather as the sport’s main man.
Claims that boxing is dead, a common refrain every few years, are more than a little exaggerated.
In America, Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions promotions have shaken up the boxing game and in Europe record crowds are packing out cities in Germany and Britain.
Former champion Tommy Oosthuizen may have blown his chances, having recently spent a weekend in jail on an attempted murder charge and been turfed out by his promoter, but there are half a dozen outstanding prospects ready to take his place in South Africa.
UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
UFC had long enjoyed Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life persona. He was the poster boy for MMA and came closer than anyone to transcending the sport thanks to his charisma and fighting style. The trash-talking Irishman is a fierce competitor and was on a formidable winning streak, but his decision to jump up two divisions was a brutal mistake which he paid for heavily. He was crushed in three rounds by Nate Diaz, a workaday pro who was just doing his job.
The suggestion that McGregor is an overblown hype job has some validity, but the fight itself and the frenzied aftermath painted the sport in a vibrant light. New York still has a ban on UFC in the state, but the rampart will soon come down.
Last week’s excitement was elevated by the defeat of Holly Holm by Miesha Tate, who choked her out to the point of unconsciousness. Holm herself had been lauded a few months ago after ripping off Ronda Rousey’s cloak of invincibility. That’s a hype job if you’ve ever seen one, but America adores its homegrown heroes and the narrative played well until Holm punctured it with a savage knockout.
We never knew it at the time, but [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Tyson Fury’s defeat of boredom merchant Wladimir Klitschko last year was the best thing that could have happened to the heavyweights[/pullquote]
Tyson Fury’s defeat of boredom merchant Wladimir Klitschko last year was the best thing that could have happened to the heavyweights
Fury’s vulnerability ironically adds to his appeal. Big punchers like Deontay Wilder, Alexander Povetkin and even Anthony Joshua, the Olympic champion, would fancy their chances, but they would have to negotiate their way past his long arms and 2,06m frame.
Post-Fury versus Klitschko we’ve seen a number of excellent heavyweight fights. The buzz is emphatically back.
The muscle-bound Wilder’s one-shot power gives him a shot against anyone, although his skills are rudimentary and he’s likely to be exposed before long. The coming man is Joshua, who boasts a perfect 15 knockout wins in as many fights, but hulking Luis Ortiz of Cuba, who fights like an American, and even Joe Parker, the fast-handed prospect from New Zealand, are threatening to win one of the many belts on offer.
If heavyweights aren’t your thing, the lighter divisions are packed with outstanding talents, three of whom hail from Eastern Europe. The region used to produce robotic, one-dimensional fighters, but exposure in North America has changed this. Gennady Golovkin is the best puncher in world boxing, a vicious banger who rules at middleweight.
Russia’s Sergey Kovalev holds the light-heavyweight crown, doing so through a mixture of deadly-sharp punching and crippling power. He’s as bad as they come.
For pure boxing ability, there’s none better than former two-time Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine. The featherweight has only fought pro five times, but his skills are world class and his technical ability is remarkable. He’s become must-see TV.
Others who rank in the mythical pound-for-pound top 10 include Kell Brook of England and the unbeaten Americans Terence Crawford and Keith Thurman. Between the three they have 89 wins and no losses.
So much for the imaginary void left by Mayweather. For all of his excellence, he never got pulses racing and was no knockout artist. Fans looking for power and excitement are well served by the new wave who bring it hard and heavy.
Long may it last. – © Sunday Tribune
Easily the best sports clip you’ll see today
Cleanouts in world sport have lessons for SA
Among the many reforms put in place by FIFA recently, the biggest, most important change of the lot was getting a new man at the helm.
The FIFA vote swept in a president named Gianni Infantino, a dapper Swiss-Italian attorney who pressed all the right buttons on his way to assuming the top job. Reports from Switzerland paint him as an honourable man who wants to get on quickly with the job of cleaning up the mess. He has much work to do.
Despite Sepp Blatter’s protestations, FIFA became a bywork for cronyism and self-enrichment under his flawed presidency. Scores of officials have been suspended, banned and arrested while the FBI continues to look into the warped machinations of soccer’s governing body. Blatter himself is yesterday’s man, put out to pasture by an eight-year ban that effectively ends his dark influence.
He pointedly ignored the warnings. As sports minister Fikile Mbalula once said of no-one in particular, “Listen to the whispers and you won’t have to hear the screams.”
Blatter, who once had the gall to compare himself to Nelson Mandela, citing “our [collective] work for the good of the world’s young people”, ignored the whispers.
The most significant reforms include limiting presidential stays to three terms of four years. Blatter, remarkably, had five, which was around four terms too many.
Infantino and other senior executives will have to disclose their salaries, unlike Blatter whose official pay remains a closely-guarded secret even now.
Six women must occupy senior jobs, a solid push towards gender equality, particularly in light of the explosion in popularity of the women’s game.
One of Infantino’s own ideas is to expand the World Cup to 40 teams. The idea of making the game more inclusive has merit, but unsurprisingly his idea of swelling the World Cup tournament has been met with doubt and derision. It must be underpinned by excellence. Forty teams is too many.
Infantino would be better off getting started on implementing the reforms, and quickly. FIFA’s biggest problem is its public image. The cleanout of dirty officials has helped appease fans and sponsors, but it isn’t enough.
FIFA needs to embrace change from top to bottom and show that it has the means of self-cleansing.
It won’t be easy.
It is understood that investigators are still sniffing around HQ. One point of enquiry remains the suspicious $10-million payment to Jack Warner from South Africa’s 2010 LOC.
There hasn’t been much enthusiasm to get to the bottom of the matter locally, but you can bet international investigators will be more dogged. They won’t go away quietly, and nor should they.
The selfsame investigators are also looking at World Cup ticket allocations and the 2006 World Cup vote.
While these cases remain open, FIFA won’t be able to function with full support. But the reforms are a bold start at cleaning the mess. Infantino best have energy and a thick skin.
In a parallel recent development, the Association of Summer Olympic Federations met last week and announced plans to apply a new and comprehensive set of governance principles. Five key doctrines – transparency, integrity, democracy, sport development and solidarity and control mechanisms – are to be implemented by international federations, many of which have endured scandals. This is designed to improve governance of sport at an international level, which has been pitifully poor in recent years with athletics and soccer being prime examples.
Among the new requirements, salaries of top officials would be disclosed, there would be term limits, tenders would be open for marketing and procurement contracts and whistle-blowers would be protected.
After years of dirty play, these moves offer a powerful ray of light and signal a broad intolerance of past behaviour where anything went. Blatter and his ilk operated as untouchables from the day they took office, but the new zeitgeist of openness and honesty compels their successors to function in a different environment.
The cleanouts of world athletics and soccer must resonate here at home too. Many of South Africa’s major federations are trapped in their own self-importance, blind to the wider view and ignorant of good governance.
They, too, will have their day of reckoning. Just ask Blatter and his cronies. – © Sunday Tribune