As Super Rugby preparations are underway by all franchises early in January, a quick peek at some of the things popping out at the Cell C Sharks.
We take a quick look at Brendan Venter’s role while Gary Gold is still in Japan. Renaldo Bothma tells of his tremendous growth at the Sharks in pre-season and Giant Mtyanda is drafted in to train with the Sharks as extra lock cover.
Brendan Venter takes charge:
Brendan Venter has taken charge of the Sharks in pre-season with Director or Rugby Gary Gold still tied up with his commitments in Japan.
Gold was named Sharks Director of Rugby in October last year after the departure of Jake White.
But he still has commitments in Japan where he is finishing his stint as coach of the Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers. Gold will join the Sharks early next month when they tackle French and European champions Toulon in a friendly clash.
In the meantime, Venter will prepare the team for this year’s Super Rugby competition. Venter helped coach the Sharks to Currie Cup glory in 2013 before White was given the head coaching job in Durban.
Throughout the year, Venter will offer insights to the Sharks in an advisory capacity.
Assistant coaches Brad MacLeod-Henderson, Sean Everitt and Paul Anthony are also on hand as the Sharks prepare for a training game against a team made up of various Durban clubs in two weeks, before heading off to France.
Renaldo Bothma:
New Sharks recruit Renaldo Bothma says his game has grown in leaps and bounds since coming under the pupilage of the Sharks and their technical director, Brendan Venter.
Bothma, who joined the Sharks in November last year after a stellar season with the Pumas in the Currie Cup, says he has developed at a rapid pace as a player since pre-season began at the Sharks mid-November.
The Sharks coaching set-up has a very different shape to the usual three-coach system that most teams adopt with Gary Gold heading up the team as Director of Rugby surrounded by a number of other men.
Brendan Venter is acting as an advisor for the season, but at present he is taking the lead in Gold’s absence, Currie cup coaches Brad Mcleod-Henderson (head coach), Sean Everitt (backline coach) and Paul Anthony (forwards caoch) as well as Michael Horack (defence coach) and Brad Mooar (specialist attack advisor) are all there in assistance.
“I have been enjoying it a lot and I have learned plenty form Brendan and all of the other guys,” Bothma said.
“I am growing as a player and I am looking forward to the season.
“I am feeling a lot more confident at the beginning of this season in comparison to this time last year, the time with Brendan, Brad, Sean Everitt and all the guys coaching us has helped me grow.
“I have developed so much in the last couple of weeks.”
Bothma puts his growth down to the Sharks multitude of coaches as well as the famed ‘Venter factor’
“Brendan is leading everything at the moment until Gary returns from Japan,” he continued.
“It makes it a bit easier having all these coaches around, every coach has a role to play and it makes the job a lot easier for Brendan and especially for the players.
“There are a lot of coaches looking at everything that we are doing so we are getting a lot of personal attention in the smaller details.
“If you are doing something wrong in defence for instance, there are a number of coaches who will come up to you and explain things further after training, it makes a huge difference to have a lot of coaches like that.”
Bothma is unsurprisingly looking to make an impact and to get as much game time as possible with the 2014 South African conference winners, as such he is willing to play anywhere to get on the park.
“I am quite mobile so I can play any position in the loose trio and for me, at this moment, as long as I get game time and get on the field I don’t care what position I play,” Bothma said
“I have enough belief in the coaches that they will put me in the right position for the benefit of the team.
“I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks and the start of the season so I can see where I am skills-wise and to see how much I have learnt in my short time with the Sharks.”
Giant Mtyanda:
Pumas lock Lubabalo “Giant” Mtyanda is training with the Sharks as they prepare for the Super Rugby competition.
The Sharks returned for pre-season training earlier this week, where a number of new faces were on show.
With Stephan Lewies still on the sidelines and Pieter-Steph du Toit still working his way back to fitness after a long injury lay-off, Mtyanda has been drafted into the Sharks squad as extra cover in the second row.
Mtyanda, 28, performed adequately for the Pumas in last year’s Currie Cup Premier Division and now has an opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the Sharks’ Super Rugby squad.
Assistant coach Sean Everitt said that Mtyanda was drafted in as back-up and that he’s done well in training. He also said the lock was thriving in their environment and settled in very well in Durban.
The Sharks will start their pre-season with a training game against a team made up of various Durban clubs in two weeks, before heading overseas to face the French and European champions, Toulon on 5 February.
They start their Super Rugby campaign at home against the Cheetahs on 14 February.
Sharks to again easily take the SA conference, no other SA even close to them in playing personnel and Brendon’s groundwork will lay the perfect platform.
Will once again come short in the playoffs
All new recruits, regardless of franchise, say the same things.
“I’ve grown as a player”
“This franchise is so professional”
“I’m enjoying myself in the new surroundings”
Wonder how the management at the previous franchises take this?
2 @ Charo:
Don’t know why the system did the Moderation thingy on this comment of yours… I had to bloody manually approve the comment (fark, it’s not as if I have time for that type of kak anyway).
Try again, I have gone and checked and refreshed Rugby-Talk’s SQL DB tables… should be fine.
@ grootblousmile:
Boet, I have no idea what SQL DB tables are but thanks.
@ Charo:
Fixed!
5 @ Charo:
OK, so it was just some little glitch in cyberspace…
Damn, apart from doing Articles and comments myself (the lekker stuff), I have to attend to the behind the scenes stuff too… part of the experience, I suppose.
Where are all of the debaters of yesterday re Faf’s position in the World Order of Cricketing Greats?
A good individual batting performance well and truly put into perspective by the absolutely SHYTE bowling dished up by the Protea “attack”.
Protea Fire once again urinated upon by one Christopher Henry Gayle?
7 @ Scrumdown:
One has to somehow contain Gayle, and the only way to do it is with absolute precision bowling… exact line and length – to the areas where he’s unsure.
Not one of our 2nd choice bowlers managed that and I suspect only chaps like Dale Steyn and maybe Morne Morkel would have been able to do it, between great whacks by Gayle.
So, what did the Blomme do – they willingly chose to go with mostly spin against the Windies, as far as possible… and let’s be fair, South Africa has never really been known to have the world’s best spinners (due to our pitches and batting conditions in SA).
There just was’nt the solidity by any of the Blomme T20 bowlers yesterday or in the previous T20. Lines and lenghts were absolutely terrible, specially by Abbott.
Another thing, if in any way possible during a T20 game, I would want to chase and not bat first… OK, so the toss does not always favour you, so it is not always possible to have the luxury to choose.
ODI’s even… I’d like to chase a target, rather than bat first, unless the wicket really, really, really has something special at the backend for the bowlers, which would not be there to start with.
It is just easier to manage to cope with a target and then to pace yourself accordingly, chasing it down according to a plan. South Africans are good at structure and method, not great on pure gut feel… generally.
The Windies are instictive and flair batsmen, almost all of them… big brute athletes who hit the ball hard off the bat… not always too technically astute, but great eye on ball-type players – Island Style (which often indicate a far more laid back type of attitude).
In addition, Windies bowling dicipline is often a lacking factor… making it easier to chase.
Soon as Gayle feels hemmed in or contained, then he (like many, many flair players) makes mistakes and wants to force the pace…
That’s where you stand a chance against him, not when he’s just hit you for 52 off 11 consecutive balls
8 @ grootblousmile:
So you are basically saying that the Proteas are only 2 bowling injuries away from being consigned to the “also rans” department of world cricket in ALL formats?
We dont have a bowling attack at all in t20 cricket.
Rankings
18. Tahir
19. Dale
28. Tsotsobe
33. Parnell
56. Morkel
We dont have a 1st choice attack.
10 @ Scrumdown:
Maybe I am… but then again I suppose most of the front ranking cricket nations are just as vulnerable.
For instance, take Gayle away yesterday… where would the Windies have been in the batting department?
What I think the Proteas have done, is to purposely rest their best ODI players in these T20’s… to rather eye the World Cup and accordingly not giving too much regard to these T20 results.
I suppose the merit in that is there… and we could possibly have seen the emergence of another new weapon on the bowling front (which we clearly did not see).
@ grootblousmile:
Abott had a bad day yesterday but he was by far the pick of our bowlers in australia recently.
Our coaches dont take limited overs cricjet seriously anymore, we play second rate players between world cups and then guya lime morkel and dale gets smashed anyway.
11 @ MacroBull:
Where does Abbott, Marchant de Lange and Wiese rank.. have you perhaps got their figures too?
13 @ MacroBull:
Bad day yes… 68 runs!!
I for one am extremely disappointed Miller ran himself out. Jeez the oke was looking in incredible touch.
If he and Faf had stayed together for another 6 or 7 overs, we would have posted 250 plus.
And that six out of the ground makes it now the 4th or 5th stadium he has hit one over the grand stand straight.
@ grootblousmile:
Unfortunately I just can’t take anything that happens in cricket seriously any more.
As soon as anything “out of the ordinary” happens I’m looking for the nearest Pakistani bookmaker.
In my honest opinion, the shenanigans that go on at the ICC, together with the “bloodless coup” that the BCCI. ECB and CA managed to pull off just reinforce my opinion that cricket have no ambition to grow their sport above the fringe status that it now finds itself in in world sport.
Even more poignant is the fact that Rugby Union is only marginally better IMHO.
16 @ John Galt:
Fark, yes… MASSIVE hits by David Miller!
One can teach a youngster technique and stuff like that… but raw timing on a ball when it comes to you at such pace, is a natural attribute… great eyes, fast twitch fire reflexes… and timing!
It is the same with timing on a ball in golf… some okes hit the ball miles and miles… others hit it less far but maybe more accurate. Some of us hit it it all over…. and not far either… hehehe
17 @ Scrumdown:
Ja swaer!
16 @ John Galt:
Cricinfo list Miller’s T20 International average as 28.42, do you know how that compares to the “top” players?
IE is it any good, or is he a “six or nix” player?
18 @ grootblousmile:
IRB / World Rugby is run by a group of people where the 9 founder members have a right of veto on any vote / decision.
How do they ever hope to grow the game in such an enviroment? Olympic 7’s?
19 @ Scrumdown:
Wisden India show his average as 25.94!
21 @ Scrumdown:
What is lying here at my Office for you Mr Kempies?
A huge problem we have is that our bowling attack, even our supposed best one wont be able to defend 200+ with confidence, and if Faf, Miller or Duminy does not score runs we dont have the batting squad to make 200 runs.
14 @ grootblousmile:
64. Robbie P
83. Duminy
91. Mclaren
100. Albie Morkel
the rest are not under the top 100
22 @ grootblousmile:
A dvd writer that you never did send me your banking details for!
Miller is number 51 in world T20 rankings.
25 @ Scrumdown:
Yeah, but you gotta come fetch the bloody thing, man!
24 @ MacroBull:
So, Abbott (who did well in Aussie and that’s about his whole forte of good play), is not in the top 100 and the Proteas want to trust him with DEATH BOWLING in the ODI World Cup (granted ODI’s are slightly different but it is still Limited Overs).
I say fark Abbott!
Lets face it @ grootblousmile:
We played ODI cricket in Aus.
The problem is when last did we have any death bowlers since maybe Charl Langeveldt?
@ Scrumdown:
Well if you consider that the ‘best’ T20 players in the world, Mccullum etc only average 35 then I don’t reckon that’s too bad.
Also, remember this is the first time he has batted 4, where he is more suited. the other times he has come in at 6 or 7 which means he has at best 2 or 3 overs to score runs. And at that stage it does become a bit snix or nix, yes.
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