Titans’ bowling to balance scales

QUOTAS: BATTING OPTIONS FOR NEXT SEASON LIMITED

Ken Borland

The absence of a single fully-contracted black African batsman in the Titans squad for next season could limit their options when it comes to fulfilling the quota of three in every starting line-up, but CEO Jacques Faul said they had decided to beef up their bowling.

Grant Mokoena, who averaged just 26 in eight Sunfoil Series games and scored 49 runs at a strike-rate of only 89 in his three T20 appearances, has joined the Knights, while Daniel Sincuba played one four-day game, scoring 32 and 0, and has been released.

Former SA Under-19 Junior World Cup captain Tony de Zorzi showed glimpses of promise in a few opportunities he was given towards the end of the season, and he has been given a rookie contract, and the inside lane in terms of black African batsmen.

Mokoena and Sincuba’s contracts have gone to a pair of fast bowlers who excelled for Northerns in their triumphant season – Eldred Hawken and Alfred Mothoa, while former SA Under-19 batsman Andrea Agathangelou, who has played county cricket for Lancashire and Leicestershire, has been signed from SWD.

“It’s probably not ideal, but we still have a lot of batting depth and we have decided to run with Tony, simply because whoever we bring in needs to be on the same sort of level as a Henry Davids or Aiden Markram, and there’s probably nobody close to that.

“We’ve beefed up the bowling and we have three quality pacemen in Lungi Ngidi, Malusi Siboto and Junior Dala, plus Alfred Mothoa is a banker and we’re excited about left-arm spinner Gregory Mahlokwana,” Faul said.

Nevertheless, readers of the Titans squad list will be struck by the tremendous depth at their disposal – eight current nationally-contracted players, four former Proteas and three players with bright international futures in Heinrich Klaasen, Markram and Ngidi.

IHeinz Schenk

f there’s one issue that doesn’t want to disappear in this Super Rugby campaign, it’s the doubts over South Africa’s coaching depth. Virtually every week now, some local coach is under the microscope.

Over the past few days, it’s been Stormers defence coach Paul Treu. The former Blitzbok mentor has been hammered in certain circles for the Stormers’ poor tackling on their tour to New Zealand.

And yes, the results have been rather horrific. The Stormers leaked 24 tries on their trip and shattered a fairly proud defensive record this season.

Treu, who was appointed in his portfolio before 2015’s Super Rugby tournament, needs to shoulder some of the blame. But before Treu gets lynched, it’s important to have some perspective.

Defence is one of rugby’s most complicated aspects, but one that fans try to make seem simple. If a team concedes many tries, there’s something terribly wrong with the system and the relevant coach needs to be replaced.

Now in certain instances that’s justified. But not necessarily in the Stormers’ case.

Firstly, they defended well at times yesterday against the Hurricanes. It illustrated that the system isn’t as poorly conceived as people think it is.

More importantly, New Zealand sides show us that certain attacking movements simply can’t be defended.

Yesterday, Canes flyhalf Beauden Barrett twice found wing Cory Jane and younger brother fullback Jordie Barrett with delightful cross kicks that led to their tries.

They were two moments of brilliance that will catch any defending side – who’s lined up for a few passes down the line – off guard. If you look at those incidents critically, you’ll see no defending side can truly prepare for that.

This isn’t supposed to absolve Treu from his mistakes.

But it also shows it’s not just his fault.