GLuvsMtb

I think its easy to think that 'its not your day' when you lose your best bowler, a ball rattles the stumps, but they stay on and you miss a solid run-out chance. We could easily have been 300/6 at the close. A couple of quick wickets early on will lift them. We have to be circumspect for the first hour or so and if we manage to not lose more than 2 wickets, look to take the game away from them. I am looking forward to see van Zyl bat. I watched a few SS 4 day games last year at Newlands and the guy oozed class.

Sorry to hear.

Good news for all SA rugby when corporate sponsorships like this returns.

I see that Border was not able to come out of their financial / administrative / performance crisis unaided. SARU is now in charge at Border http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/SARU-steps-in-to-help-Border-20141210 Am I the only one wondering how sustainable it is to have 14 rugby unions?

Its slim pickings when that is the only award a SA player received. We probably would only have 2 or 3 players in a Super Rugby combined team.

My starting line-up: 1 Elgar 2 Amla 3 du Plessis 4 de Villiers 5 van Zyl 6 De Kock 7 Peterson 8 Philander 9 Steyn 10 Morkel 11 Abbott

I think you are right, but perhaps it is a bit too subtle. I only noticed it when you pointed it out to me.

He's probably asking Naas to lace up too... Just in case...

There was not one area where we excelled or dominated on this tour. We keep on kicking away good possession and if we cannot score from a driving mall, we simply play for a penalty. I think HM is leaving Europe with much more questions than answers. Hopefully he solicits some help with his one dimensional game plan before the World Cup.

RIP Phil Hughes.

It seems like without JP there the middle order is seriously compromised. Rossouw is also struggling. 9 games with an average of only 11, but we don't really have another option at 4 who is on tour. Behardien only averages 18 after 14 games. Possible starting 11 for the next game: 1. Amla 2. De Kock 3. Du Plessis 4. Rossouw 5. De Villiers 6. Miller 7. Robin Peterson 8. Philander 9. Steyn 10. Abbot 11. Morkel

It is more a case of bigger pools of contracted players for Northern Hemisphere sides and better player management as a result. An England national playing for say Saracens that ends up playing all club and international games will end up with a similar number of games played as a WP / Stormers Springbok playing all his WP / Stormers and Springbok games. The North has worked out that they can shop for relatively cheaply in the South to top up their club stock and have big player pools. The South still shop internally and have not yet realized that they could potentially shop in places like Canada, Georgia, the South Sea, Japan, Russia etc. The long term upside for the South is that there is a better conveyor belt of young talent, but the downside is increased workload on player pools that is simply not big enough.

D

Nice 50 for Rilee Rossouw. De Kock showing maturity beyond his years to know when to go hammer and tongs and when to play the support role. Should be a doddle from here on.

I guess next up they'll get spin bowling as a whole outlawed.

AFAIK it is due to gambling laws. I must agree that it was poor communication from the organizers and sponsors though. Perhaps the answer would have been something like "if you are under 18 years of age you will win a R100 000 bursary for tertiary education when you turn 18" or something of the sort.

RIP Tinus Linee... http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Tributes-flock-in-for-Tinus-Linee-20141103 Am I the only one wondering what the rugby players were "spuiting" in the 90's? So many of that era that contracted some very rare conditions and illnesses.

Great! So if I enter say Knysna 300(R3 960), Gravel and Grape (R2 400), Dr Evil Classic (R2 850) and Berg and Bush (R4 400) I stand to get back R5 625 for the year? Now to start planning my leave for 2015!

and the Pakis have a handy 151 run 1st innings lead with about 12 overs left in the day. Lets hope they can get to about 350 runs ahead with at least 40 overs and the final day to try and get a win. I would like to see some daylight appear on the ICC test rankings between us and Aus.

It IS important. if we want young talent to take up the sport and represent SA on the world stage we need events with proper prize money. Having the riders from Europe here to compete for the prize money also elevates the event status and makes for good, interesting racing. We won't see these guys on the Adventure, which is a bit of a shame, as I found on races like Pioneer that they are often just regular guys that like a beer or 2 after a stage.

meanwhile the WI tour was cut short due to a pay dispute between the players and WICB. BCCI is now considering a damages claim in excess of $65 million. Lets hope this does not affect the WI schedule later this year in SA or that they end up sending a second string side. We could do with some stiff competition from a passionate and talented group of West Indies players before the ICC world cup next year.

Another that seems to get better with age is McKensie. There will always be the one or 2 that never quite cracked the nod for international cricket. Puttick would have been a good call as he can do duty as a backup keeper too, but with both AB and QdK in the side it seems like he will have to be content to play franchise cricket until he calls it a day.

Yes, pity about "Die Leeu". I liked the informal manner and family friendliness of the event. We actually decided to give this year a miss before it was cancelled. With a 6 month old in the house it would have meant that we would have to plan very carefully. You are right about the hydration factor, and I recall a flash flood a few years back the day before Die Leeu. It made day 1 interesting and the mosquitoes were something else. Unless you are using a marked route it becomes much like a Cape to Rio in terms of tactics. Often the shortest line to the next checkpoint is not necessarily the fastest. I love the Freedom Challenge for this very reason, but find it hard to follow at the best of times. A world stage with sophisticated tracking and extensive media coverage would beat any reality show that is currently on TV IMHO.

The Karoo would actually be a fascinating place to race. The temperature varies greatly from location to location and from day to night. Further there are pockets where the wind howls and 1 or 2 km either side it is dead quiet. No one would actually have "home ground advantage" and there will be very little IP to draw on with regards to going over or around certain obstacles. Furthermore the Karoo is not as flat as we are lead to believe. The fact that our national road was carved through the flattest section is a testimony to good planning and engineering and does not reflect the Karoo landscape. Once you get Laingsburg the landscape changes for the second 500km and this is probably where the tactical racers would come to the fore. I have done some riding East of Touws River (there used to be an annual race / ride called the Leeuwenboschfontein 3day which I have done a couple of times). The landscape is dramatic and the terrain varies from kloof to kloof. From the Hex valley to the Cape may take longer than the 650km preceding it and assuming that a strong field enters it would have had many glued to their seats. Long story short: The route can be very fascinating if access to private land and other logistics are planned properly. Thinking of the route makes one realise how much AH have invested here in time (and probably money too). Lets hope we see a Munga soon, all be it with a slightly watered down / wider spread pot and lower entry fee. .

I hope that the event will be well supported by the Freestaters. Well done to PPA for stepping up.