More to come for Du Toit
ERASMUS: AT 25 HE IS NOT AN OLD GUY AND HE WILL ALWAYS BE IN THE MIX
Pieter-Steph will be part of a core of Springbok leaders.
Lock Pieter-Steph du Toit’s tenure as Springbok captain No 60 could stretch beyond just a single Test. While Du Toit has been named only for tonight’s Welsh Test in Washington and flank Siya Kolisi named for the England series, coach Rassie Erasmus said he might have bigger plans in store for Du Toit.
“We needed more experience in this game and especially with him growing in that leadership role,” said Erasmus.
“At 25 he is not an old guy and he will always be in the mix the way he is playing and the way he is committed.”
Erasmus said with injured former skippers Warren Whiteley and Eben Etzebeth back in the mix for the Rugby Championship it will widen his vision of leadership in the national side.
“If we can build him up as another leader going to the World Cup next year this is the perfect stage for him to start,” he said.
Du Toit, the grandson of former Bok prop Piet “Spiere” du Toit, said his main aim as leader today will be to inspire the team to start Erasmus’ tenure on a high note.
“We have our game plans that coach has given us, we have a certain plan in place how we want to launch on attack with coach Swys (De Bruin, backline attacking consultant) and his plans,” he said.
“But we also want to be clinical with our scrums and lineouts as two of the most vital facets of any team who want to execute their gameplan properly.”
Erasmus said Du Toit might not always play lock as is the case today.
“I will give Pieter-Steph time as a flank, but sometimes people will label a player as Jack of all Trades. He can start at No 5 lock in any Test match as well as flank,” said Erasmus.
“But in this specific Test match with guys like Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager out, we need a steady rock from guys who have Test experience.
“Marvin Orie can definitely also call the lineouts, but we needed Pieter-Steph’s experience.”
Trevor Stevens
And just like that, the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League is over. Yes, 11 editions. It feels like only yesterday when we were introduced to player auctions, outrageous sums of money dished out for the world’s best and trying to come to terms with the strange names of the new franchises and their star-studded line-ups that graced India’s fields in front of thousands of cricket-mad fans in 2008.
South Africa has played a role in the event over the years, even hosting it in 2009. Proteas’ Faf du Plessis and Lungani Ngidi finished the 2018 edition as winners in MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings squad.
Both were on the sidelines as the tournament began, but Du Plessis played a starring role in their win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the play-offs, while everything Ngidi touched turned to gold as he played in the final seven matches, and made a huge impact.
Producing the goods against the best can only augur well for the likeable, talented 22-year-old who took the step up to international competition this season.
A problem a tournament like this usually has, is that it runs out of steam after a few years due to a lack of imagination. Just think Super Rugby. They have had to reinvent themselves from Super 10 to 12 to 15, then to 18 and now back to 15.
And yet there is still talk that South Africa could break away and chase more lucrative deals north, putting the southern hemisphere tournament at threat. Or that teams from the United States could still feature. The changes complicate matters and confuse the hell out of fans. It takes me five weeks just to work out who is playing for which team. So is the IPL still so popular? The packed stadiums would attest to that. A whopping record 872 sixes were hit in 60 matches over 54 days in this year’s competition, equating to 14.53 sixes a match.
Heck, a total of 33 sixes were hit alone in the Chennai Super Kings-Royal Challengers Bangalore match in Bengaluru, beating the previous record of 31 sixes. Over the course of this year’s tournament, 19 901 runs were scored and a total of 720 wickets taken. That takes some doing.
Chaos aside, every night I knew I could come home from work and turn on the telly, and two teams would be fighting it out for honours.
This week there’s been nothing to watch when I get home, so roll on IPL 2019. Long may you continue.