Cape Town – It’s looking all the more likely that AB de Villiers will represent South Africa at the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher told Netwerk24 that he had discussions with De Villiers about returning to the international fray and is eager to include him in the squad.

For that to happen, De Villiers must make himself available for a period prior to the announcement of the Proteas squad.

De Villiers was not included in the Proteas T20 squad named earlier this week for a series against Australia and it is believed that he will make his return after the completion of the Indian Premier League, which runs from March 29-May 24.

De Villiers could make his return in the five-game T20 series against the West Indies in August, while there is also the possibility of him playing on a tour to Sri Lanka in June, however the fixtures are yet to be confirmed.

De Villiers, who retired from international cricket in May 2018, said last month he would like to return to the international arena at the T20 World Cup.

Boucher added: “Like I said from the beginning, I want to have the best players available. If AB is willing, his form is good and he makes himself available when we want him, then he has to go to the T20 World Cup if he’s the best player in his position. It’s not about egos, it’s about sending your best team to the T20 World Cup to give yourself a chance to win the tournament.”

The 2020 T20 World Cup will be held in Australia between October 18 and November 15.

South Africa will play in Group 2 alongside India, England, Afghanistan and two yet-to-be-determined nations.

– Compiled by Herman Mostert

Cape Town – An uplifting little exercise … can you say that even when talking about the series-losing team?

Yes, of course you can.

South Africa and England slugged out one of the most enthralling Twenty20 international bilateral mini-rosters imaginable before the tourists emerged 2-1 winners on the strength of their wonderful run chase of a lofty target at jam-packed SuperSport Park on Sunday.

The quality of the combat was succinctly summed up on Twitter by retired English broadsheet scribe and Test-capped fast bowler Mike Selvey (@selvecricket), who also once played for Free State: “Not seen a better T20 series than that.”

The five-wicket triumph with five balls to spare, in a contest marked by a seemingly never-ending clattering of sixes across the board on a sublime batting surface, only underlined the calibre of England’s current white-ball resources.

But chew also on this: that all three matches went to the wire – Sunday’s to the start of the final over, and the previous two to the last possible ball – also said plenty about the Proteas’ ongoing claw-back of general cricketing respect after a stormy, shambolic start to the domestic summer for all manner of reasons.

The more astute, suitably temperate of South African supporters will know full well that the notably experiment-conscious host nation gave as good as they got over the last few days, against opponents considerably more “first-team” in their selection policy.

Stretch that a tad further … the earlier 50-overs portion of the limited-overs itinerary had similarly revealed the Proteas’ potential for meaningful regeneration.

Although curtailed to two completed games, the 1-1 outcome there had already been a heartening development, considering that South Africa were playing the defending World Cup champions in that format, crowned only a few months ago after that heart-stopping final against New Zealand at Lord’s.

While plenty of hard yards lie ahead for the Proteas to rekindle their credentials as a Test force after their 3-1 battering in the first part of England’s tour and other big setbacks in the five-day arena ahead of it, there are quite clear-cut signs that a fresh pool of high-calibre talent is being created in the more abbreviated forms of the game.

England fielded the nucleus of their CWC 2019-winning resources in both one-day landscapes here over the last few weeks, including seven of the trophy-hoisting side against the Black Caps in mid-July just in Sunday’s decisive T20 duel with the Proteas: dual-format captain Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood.

Their XI at Centurion also vastly eclipsed the Proteas for experience, something amplified by the fact that Morgan – named player of the series against South Africa after respective innings of 52, 27 and Sunday’s definitive 57 not out, off just 22 balls – holds a tally of 89 T20 caps to go with his especially vast 236 at ODI level.

He is a survivor of England’s now distant, maiden title success in the ICC World Twenty20, back in 2010 in the Caribbean, and again among seven players who turned out on Sunday to have been in the English team beaten in the final of the last World T20 (in Kolkata, 2016).

That automatically gave the visitors a key edge in street wisdom over a Proteas squad featuring several players still very much in blooding stages of their international development; that they were so hard pressed by the broadly more youthful SA side must be considered a significant feather in local caps.

Quinton de Kock and company now go almost immediately into another usefully challenging series of home limited-overs matches (again three T20, three ODI) against arch-rivals Australia, starting on Friday at the Wanderers (18:00).

Those skirmishes will help further in clarifying which batch of players to entrust faith in for the Aussie-staged ICC T20 World Cup in October.

The Proteas rested some massively proven personnel against the English, so a return for the likes of Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Kagiso Rabada and possibly even global pin-up favourite AB de Villiers could be imminent.

Infuse their rich experience, for balancing purposes in the squad, and South Africa will instantly become a force to be reckoned with against virtually any white-ball opponents.

Warts and all, the Proteas have been encouragingly competitive without them, of late …

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

Cape Town – The Stormers are expecting to lose their perfect defensive record in Super Rugby this season when they travel to Ellis Park for a clash against the Lions on Saturday. 

Two wins from two – against the Hurricanes (27-0) and then Bulls (13-0) at home – left the Stormers on top of the South African Conference and overall log heading into round three of fixtures. More impressive than that, however, is the fact that they have not conceded a point along the way. 

With this the final season at Newlands before an almost certain move to Cape Town Stadium in 2021, the Stormers are more motivated than ever to turn the iconic stadium into a fortress one last time and that mentality is reflecting in their defensive efforts.

An undeniably physical pack has helped, while defence coach Norman Laker is receiving the necessary plaudits. 

Head coach John Dobson knows, however, that his side’s defensive lines will be breached at some point and he believes that it could happen on Saturday at what he considers a historically high-scoring venue. 

The Lions, having gone down to the Jaguares (38-8) in Buenos Aires before edging the Reds (27-20) at home last weekend, are a new-look side and appear some way off the title-challengers they were under Johan Ackerman and Swys de Bruin from 2016-2018. 

There is still enough quality there to suggest that they can hurt sides when they get it right, though, and Dobson is expecting there to be more disruption to the scoreboard this weekend.

“There is going to be a ‘wooh-wooh-wooh’ moment from the first team that scores against us and of course it’s going to happen,” Dobson told media at Newlands on Thursday.

“I’m interested in the tries column. I accept that they’re going to kick penalties.

“It’s going to happen, and we expect that, but we’ve got a certain standard.

“Ellis Park, by nature, is where you’d have an All Blacks game there 15 years ago and it was 44-40 where at Newlands it’s 12-3.

“I think if you go to Ellis Park and concede one or two tries, you’ve won the game.

“I definitely want to see the same standard defensively, because I think we can set a competition marker down there.”

While keeping up that intensity and clinical effectiveness of defence is obviously high up on Dobson’s list of priorities, he also wants to see an improved and more ruthless attacking display. 

“I want to see us attack with a bit more rhythm,” he said.

The Stormers go into the match without injured Springbok scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, who is replaced by Godlen Masimla, while the Lions have selected the returning Willem Alberts on their bench. 

“I’m very excited about Godlen,” Dobson added.

“He’s a guy who has been through the trials and tribulations.

“Physically and in terms of his kicking game, he’s a different person to what he was so I’m really excited for this opportunity for him.”

Kick-off is at 15:05 on Saturday.

Teams:

Lions

15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Tyrone Green, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies (captain), 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Len Massyn, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Pieter Jansen, 1 Dylan Smith

Substitutes: 16 Jan-Henning Campher, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Dillon Smit, 23 Wandisile Simelane

Stormers

15 Dillyn Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Johan du Toit, 5 Chris van Zyl, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain)

Substitutes: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Cobus Wiese, 21 Ernst van Rhyn, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis

Cape Town – All Blacks coach Ian Foster has come out strongly against the idea that the Springboks could leave SANZAAR to join a newly-expanded Six Nations.

Register your interest for the British & Irish Lions tickets in South Africa 2021

A bombshell report published in the Daily Mail on Saturday claimed talks were already ongoing for the Boks to join a newly formatted ‘Seven Nations’ in 2024.

However, Six Nations tournament organisers have moved quickly to dispel the rumours, saying that no such talks are in the pipeline, while New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Nick Robinson also refuted the claims, saying that the South African Rugby Union has television agreements in place with SANZAAR until 2025.

And now new All Blacks coach Ian Foster, who replaced Steve Hansen after the World Cup, believes it would be a travesty if the Boks and All Blacks’ rivalry was lost.

“My initial reaction was thank goodness it was written in an English newspaper because I don’t believe most of that stuff,” Foster said.

“There’s been a little bit of smoke around this for a while – the reality is our board has to make sure it has a strong relationship with South Africa and is talking, which I know they have been.

“If you take the politics out of it I can’t imagine an All Black year not playing the South Africans. If you just think about it, historically they are our greatest foe.

“We need them in our competition, they are a fantastic group of people, fantastic country, and we need them to play here. We know they are committed to do that for the next cycle, we’ve just got to make sure we’ve got a working relationship with them and deal with things.

“One thing we can’t solve is the economy there and I don’t know if South Africa would really want to go north but they’ve got other pressures which are playing with their game.

“Any visit over there in a black jersey is special, simply because of the respect we have for them. It must continue.”

– TEAMTalk Media

Cape Town – Suggestion for new definition of a masochist: someone who resolutely commits South African derbies in Super Rugby to a video archive and then watches them on repeat.

The not so rich tradition of these tussles failing to come up trumps for entertainment value simply surfaced again at Newlands on Saturday, where a combination of the Stormers’ thoroughly admirable defensive blanket and the Bulls’ rank lack of composure and cutting edge on attack made for 80 tough-to-watch minutes in the summer heat.

An all too familiar, uncompromising and mistake-laden arm-wrestle saw the hosts at least show the necessary levels of discipline and herculean resistance as a tackling and scrambling force to grind out a deserved enough 13-0 outcome in their favour.

It was also two tries to nil, one a trademark dot-down – by official player of the match Scarra Ntubeni – off a rumbling lineout drive and the other (thank heavens for small mercies) a smartly-constructed raid involving deft lead-up hand skills from Johan Du Toit and Dillyn Leyds before left wing Seabelo Senatla cracked on the pace to romp over with so-welcome elegance.

This was a second match on the trot in which the Stormers have carried out a “thou shalt not breach our wall” quest with genuinely unerring success – the Hurricanes had similarly registered a fat nil on the scoreboard against them last week.

While the Capetonians will rightly bask in that statistic for the time being, the Bulls have a contrasting quandary: how to find a first try of the campaign after 160 minutes of often honest enough huffing and puffing without one yet.

Pote Human’s charges, also still not sporting a single log point after successive away derbies against the Sharks and Stormers, have a bye next weekend which only means that their status on the overall and conference tables will be made to look even worse for another week.

But the gap of a fortnight before they play the Blues at Loftus does offer the opportunity to pep up their offensive game as earnestly as possible – they botched two or three highly promising moves on Saturday through dreadful option-taking.

Remember that this was the best-performing South African team in Super Rugby 2019, when they ended second in the SA conference behind the Jaguares and were gallant quarter-final losers to the Hurricanes in Wellington; right now the country’s best hopes in 2020 already seem to lie firmly with both, unbeaten coastal outfits.

Pinned to their own territory some two-thirds of the time, and not enjoying the lion’s share of possession either, the Stormers did show great smartness in somehow creating a situation in this contest where Morne Steyn, the Bulls’ veteran flyhalf and metronomic factor off the tee, did not earn a single crack at the posts.

That mere fact alone negated so many of the 35-year-old’s most notable strengths … and will have only cranked up debate around whether his style of play – though far from the only drawback at present, let it be said – is a bit of an impediment to regular activity in the “tries for” column by the Pretoria team.

Significantly, maybe, when the more hard-to-police Manie Libbok took over at pivot in the 63rd minute (all the total match points had already been scored) he made one lovely break that would have led to a Bulls try and made the finish a much more tense one but for Cornal Hendricks’ awful final pass decision: the ball only went into the hands of Stormers reserve prop Ali Vermaak after a three-on-one situation in the visitors’ massive favour.

Ironically, if the Stormers have one fallible area to work on it also surrounds flyhalf play to some extent … or more specifically the relative shakiness of general-play thriller Damian Willemse in the place-kicking role, something that was apparent for a second week in a row.

Their head coach John Dobson did, commendably, acknowledge in a post-match television interview that his own charges hadn’t always played with best fluency or thrust in front of a pretty good audience in the blazing sunshine of 27, 301: “We want to play with more rhythm; spread our wings,” he vowed.

But they will go to the Highveld next weekend with their squad confidence at rosy levels for another derby, against a Lions side looking fallible in an area the Stormers are traditionally forceful at: scrum time.

That area of play kept an earthy Reds team in this Saturday’s soggy-pitch clash at Emirates Airline Park firmly in the contest for longer than the hosts would have liked, before they eked out a 27-20 score-line for their first success of the season.

Next weekend’s fixtures (home teams first, all kick-offs SA time):

Friday: Blues v Crusaders, 08:05; Rebels v Waratahs, 10:15. Saturday: Sunwolves v Chiefs, 05:45; Hurricanes v Sharks, 08:05; Brumbies v Highlanders, 10:15; Lions v Stormers, 15:05. Sunday: Jaguares v Reds, 01:00. Bye: Bulls.

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing