Cape Town – Springbok Sevens speedster Rosko Specman should set his sights on making the 15-a-side Springbok team.

That is the view of Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse, who coached Specman when he played on the wing for the Mpumalanga outfit between 2013 and 2015.

“His work ethic and positive attitude is something that caught my eye back then. People say he is maybe too small (at 1.76m), but look at Cheslin Kolbe (1.71m). People like saying that small players are supposedly not capable of tackling big players like the All Blacks,” Stonehouse said in an interview with Netwerk24.

Stonehouse also used scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies (1.67m) as an example of a small player who has excelled for the Springboks.

“He is probably one of the smallest scrumhalves the Springboks have ever had. So, it’s a perception that exists,” Stonehouse added.

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Specman was on fire for the Blitzboks in the season-opening Dubai Sevens last week, scoring four tries in the tournament as South Africa beat New Zealand 15-0 to win the title.

The 30-year-old was named Player of the Final against the All Blacks Sevens and also made the Dream Team named by organisers.

He will again feature for the Blitzboks at this weekend’s Cape Town Sevens before returning to the Bulls as they prepare for the 2020 Super Rugby campaign.

Specman also featured in Super Rugby for the Bulls during the 2019 season.

READ: Blitzboks in ‘Pool of Death’ at Cape Town Sevens

– Compiled by Herman Mostert

Cape Town – Nail a fall guy and everything will be all right … or at least hope like hell that will be the case.

That seems to have been the almost unashamed strategy of the surviving Cricket South Africa bigwigs – and most prominently the president, Chris Nenzani – in the wake of the suspension of CEO Thabang Moroe.

Moroe’s side-lining was the most forceful action of a dramatic couple of days for the crisis-torn organisation, although another step in at least some sort of remedial direction seems relatively imminent if, as indicated at Saturday’s CSA media briefing, distinguished former national captain Graeme Smith finally puts pen to paper in midweek as director of cricket.

Experienced cricket-specific administrator Jacques Faul (who took over from the much-respected, late Elize Lombard as Titans franchise chief executive in 2013, maintained high standards, and has already had a prior acting stint in the CSA hotseat) has been tasked with a fresh bout of stability-fostering responsibility.

In economic parlance, it might be termed the equivalent of mercifully halting a currency’s freefall … but with a mightily formidable climb back upward to be undertaken and no guarantees at all of that happening at a gratifying pace.

Perhaps the most sobering, cutting reminder of that came in a tweet on Saturday from Tony Irish, outgoing chief of the SA Cricketers’ Association (@TonyIrishZA): “Appalled that the president and Board of CSA have taken no responsibility for cricket’s biggest crisis. Now clinging to power.”

SACA had already made it clear – before Moroe became the highest-profile CSA casualty on Friday – that they sought the resignation also of the entire Board, saying in a media statement: “It is abundantly clear that there is no confidence, from any quarter amongst cricket stakeholders, in the CSA Board.”

Those sentiments have subsequently been endorsed, often with some stridency and vigour, by many commentators, scribes, prominent past national players and – no less importantly at all – cricket supporters.

Against that backdrop, the Board defiantly dropping anchor commands anything but widespread approval in the extremely “gatvol” cricket fraternity.

Its ranks did thin a little last week with the resignations of three (the majority) of their five independent directors: Shirley Zinn, Iqbal Khan and Dawn Mokhobo.

Controversially still in play, however, are the remaining two independents, Prof Steve Cornelius and Marius Schoeman, and the full non-independent corps comprising Nenzani, Beresford Williams, Zola Thamae, Tebogo Siko, Donovan May, Jack Madiseng and Angelo Carolissen.

But they are swimming against a seriously strong tide if they assume the status quo, in their cases, is simply going to resume seamlessly.

For one thing, Nenzani pledging to try to mend relations with SACA – as he said on Saturday was the intention – must be seen in the context the players’ body’s stated disapproval of the very Board involved in that process, if it is even to start at all.

How on earth, too, is acting CEO Faul to set about a desperate, difficult quest for fresh sponsorships, knowing full well that the CSA Board, as presently constituted, is so widely being perceived as tainted by the damaging, corrosive multitude of events in the last couple of years?

The loss of Standard Bank as headline sponsors of the Proteas men’s team (they reportedly committed almost R100 million a year in the latest agreement cycle, over four years) is being rightly, widely lamented: what if they, for example, were to insist on a total or near-total dismantling of the present Board as a precondition for any change of heart?

Nenzani being at pains in Saturday’s press conference to absolve the Board of responsibility for the organisation’s parlous position is unlikely to wash with many influential stakeholders.

At very, very least they could justifiably be accused of not being nearly vigilant enough over the widespread, ever-mushrooming, sorry state of affairs in the CSA corridors.

It may take a long time for the Board to rid itself of a perception that it is very much part of what might be described in Britain as a “rotten borough”, with Moroe hardly sole culprit in the mess.

Yet time is an indulgence the embattled body – hamstrung by the image problem of its key custodians in the form of the Board – simply may not have.

Watch this space, I’d recommend.

Thick skins sometimes only take you so far …

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

Cape Town – Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) former acting chief financial officer (CFO), Ziyanda Nkuta, has been suspended. 

Sport24 can confirm that Nkuta, who had served as acting as CFO since October 2017 and had served as the organisation’s financial manager since mid-2015, was given news of her suspension on Thursday. 

She had, however, previously stepped down from her post as acting CFO in June this year, CSA says, and was serving in another capacity at the time of hearing of her suspension in her final month’s notice period. 

Nkuta last spoke publicly in April on CSA’s projected four-year R654 million loss, insisting that the organisation was not in a financial crisis. 

Details surrounding her suspension are yet to be confirmed, but at least two other employees were suspended on Thursday. 

They are procurement manager Lundi Maja and administrator Dalene Nolan.

Two independent board directors – Iqbal Khan and Shirley Zinn – also resigned from their posts this week.

This comes at a time where CSA CEO Thabang Moroe and his leadership have came in for heavy criticism following what has been a disastrous few days for the organisation. 

TIMELINE | CSA’s troubled times under Moroe leadership

Also on Thursday, the Central Gauteng Lions Cricket Board called for the resignation of Moroe and the entire CSA board. 

An ongoing legal battle with the South African Cricketers Association (SACA), the suspension of senior officials Clive Eksteen, Corrie van Zyl and Naasei Appiah without any detailed explanation, losing an arbitration hearing against the Western Province Cricket Association after having placed the union under administration and the absence of any permanent staff in charge of the national Proteas just three weeks out from the start of a home Test series against England have all contributed towards a national outcry against the current administration from the cricket fraternity. 

Things reached boiling point over the weekend when Moroe and CSA revoked the accreditation of five local cricket journalists because of how they were covering ongoing events at the organisation. 

That decision was then overturned 24 hours later, but it fuelled criticism from all corners with major sponsors Standard Bank expressing their “grave concern” at CSA’s administration. 

Since then, former CSA (previously UCB) bosses Norman Arendse, Ali Bacher and Haroon Lorgat have all publicly criticised the current regime.

CSA confirmed the suspensions to Sport24 on Friday morning.

A special CSA board meeting has been called for Saturday, where Moroe’s future is believed to be hanging in the balance. 

Details on the suspensions, CSA added, would emerge after that meeting.

** Sport24 had previously reported incorrectly that Nkuta was suspended while acting CFO. That is not the case as she had stepped down from that post at the time of her suspension. Sport24 apologises for the error …

Cape Town – The big squeeze is already on for places in the Proteas’ all-important top three at Twenty20 international level.

While the first-up Test series against England undoubtedly represents the premier business of their looming tour here, the two white-ball formats (three ODIs and three T20 internationals) immediately afterwards will also be of extra interest with next year’s ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in mind.

In that respect, the race has certainly begun for berths in the Proteas’ plans – and especially in the top-order batting slots.

They are critical positions in the game’s shortest international version, given how often the top three are the likeliest to be able to play suitably lengthy innings: it is very common for all batsmen from No 4 down in a line-up to effectively have to play roles as finishers rather than have any luxury of playing themselves in to a meaningful extent.

Getting selection right at one, two and three, then, is a vital element of a successful team brew: they are the players tasked with not only setting a strong platform but also ensuring a suitably rollicking tempo in the first-six-overs powerplay.

As things stand, and with the ongoing Mzansi Super League a clear illustration, South Africa have increasingly fierce competition for those berths.

Of the leading runs-scorers in the competition so far, five of the top six performers statistically (Englishman Liam Livingstone the odd man out, as he has more regularly batted at four for the Cape Town Blitz) can be branded specialists in top-three positions in the order.

The pile is headed by Janneman Malan, the crisp-striking right-hander with the Cape Town Blitz, pleasingly only 23 years old and the sort of relatively new face South African cricket badly needs.

Already blooded in two T20 internationals against Pakistan last season, in which he made a promising 33 on debut at the Wanderers, the Nelspruit-born customer has amassed 298 runs from eight MSL innings at an average of 42.57.

Renowned for his ability to play assertive, usually safely lofted drives over the infield, Malan is also striking at a rosy rate of 150 – the best of the top five run-scorers so far.

Boasting a top score of 99 not out in the opening round against the Jozi Stars in the Bullring, Malan has been a bastion of consistency and not yet fallen in single figures.

Running neck and neck against each other as they have done all campaign – and despite the Jozi Stars’ broader, still-winless troubles – are Reeza Hendricks in second place (275 runs at 39.28) and captain Temba Bavuma in third (232 runs at 38.66, from one less knock).

Bavuma had an especially good mini-series (drawn 1-1) for the Proteas against India away at the start of the summer, too, with his whippet-like fielding an extra asset to the cause.

While 31-year-old Jon-Jon Smuts may have a more difficult task now to crack the SA T20 squad – he averages 15.75 after eight prior opportunities – the all-rounder from the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants is nevertheless the fourth-highest tournament scorer at the moment with 205 runs at 41.00 (strike rate 140) so he remains thereabouts in a Proteas context with his ability to chip in slow left-arm fare as well.

But the SA top-order race is spiced up further by the fact that two proven stalwarts at the highest level remain right in the frame: regular captain Faf du Plessis (though he sat out the Indian T20s) and wicketkeeper/opener Quinton de Kock.

Neither has set the MSL alight yet – there is still a bit of time for that – but their international T20 credentials are entirely beyond doubt.

Remember that Du Plessis has played all but seven of his 44 T20 knocks for the Proteas in the No 3 berth he so clearly relishes, and averages a touch under 39 there (strike rate 137).

The X-factor-laden De Kock, meanwhile, was a majestic SA figure in the decent series outcome in India, blasting 52 in Mohali and 79 not out in Bangalore, while his glove-work remains right up on the premier tier worldwide.

South Africa’s one, two and three in T20s over the next few months? It’s a pleasantly tough ask for the selectors.

Well, when we actually have a panel, of course …

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

Cape Town – Once a spring in the step … always a spring in the step.

Schalk Brits may be well into his 39th year but his natural exuberance, mobility and wide range of rugby skills have stayed undimmed to the very last.

You could state that with conviction after he made his international swansong – on a day when there were several poignant ones, whether on field or in the booth – as a genuinely impact-bearing substitute for the Barbarians against Wales on Saturday.

An impressive crowd of some 62 000 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium witnessed the hosts repel the tradition-steeped, much loved cosmopolitan outfit 43-33 in a fittingly up-tempo match.

The hooker’s role for the Baa-Baas was in especially auspicious hands on the day, with gnarly Irish veteran Rory Best (124 Test matches) leading the side out on his own last international appearance at age 37 – you might cheekily say almost a spring chicken compared to his deputy – and remaining on the park for 52 minutes.

But then the more traditional old mongrel at close quarters – a distinguished icon of the Six Nations and European club culture – made way for Brits, to generous mutually-aimed applause from the Welsh audience, and it was no coincidence that the South African’s infusion simultaneously saw the match become a more hotly-contested affair in the last half-hour or so.

From a situation of 33-7 down when Best came off, the Barbarians found a notable second wind … aided in no small way by Brits giving them an extra prong to their attacking arsenal with his fleet-footedness and constant proximity to the ball.

Things even got interesting with some 12 minutes to go, the Baa-Baas having clawed back to 40-33, Brits stepping and linking like a young buck in several of the moves that led to their salvo of dot-downs.

He was responsible for a brilliant, double-handed final pass to the inside from near the touchline to tee up Wallabies flanker Pete Samu for one of them – a television commentator rightly observed that it was a classy score “with Barbarian DNA written all over it”.

Albeit in overwhelmingly light-hearted vein, popular Springbok RWC 2019 “dirt-tracker” dynamo Brits later led the protests from the Baa-Baas ranks, raising his arms theatrically as if in disbelief when Wales opted – in defiance of the dominant tradition on these occasions of not aiming penalties at the posts – to bank three points through Leigh Halfpenny in the 77th minute to effectively close out the contest, as a 10-point gap took effect on the scoreboard.

In its own way, the decision to bank the points off the tee was a tribute to the way Brits and several others around him had made for a nervy finish for the Welsh cause, in a match where their new head coach Wayne Pivac had named a not far off full-strength line-up and clearly would not have wished to begin his tenure with a home defeat.

Former Lions and Stormers favourite Brits may be retiring with considerably fewer Test caps (15, widely scattered between 2008 and 2019) than the Baa-Baas’ starting No 2 on Saturday, Best, but he had a highly productive decade or so on the books of Saracens in high-level northern-hemisphere competition, so is well acquainted with UK audiences and his own send-off was an unreservedly warm one.

Empangeni-born Brits will live long in rugby-watchers’ memories, as much for his infectious smile as his rare, bamboozling footwork for a tight forward.

Saturday was absolutely no different.

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing