Sport

Springboks' lethargy irks Matfield

South Africa, the world champions, defeated Italy 29-13 despite a disjointed and lethargic performance at the Puma Stadium in Witbank.

South Africa 29 // Italy 13

CAPE TOWN // South Africa, the world champions, defeated Italy 29-13 despite a disjointed and lethargic performance at the Puma Stadium in Witbank yesterday. The Springboks appeared affected by the host of changes to the team who beat France last week, although they still conjured four tries in the first of a two-Test series. The visitors enjoyed greater territory and possession, especially in the opening quarter, but were too limited in their approach to seriously trouble the hosts.

Morne Steyn, the fly-half, scored 14 points for South Africa, while eight of Italy's points came from the boot of Mirco Bergamasco, the winger. But Victor Matfield, the Springboks captain, said he had been frustrated by his team's error-strewn display. "I don't think we played very well and we made too many basic errors," he said. "We'll work on that and next week will definitely be better. It's just the top three inches that we have to get right."

Bergamasco kicked a 13th-minute penalty to give Italy the lead for the first and only time but Steyn equalised two minutes later as his teammates shook off their rust. Bryan Habana, the winger, put the Springboks in front in the 18th minute when a drive by Francois Louw, the flanker, produced quick ball for the backs. Butch James, the recalled centre, made a well-timed pass to Zane Kirchner, the full-back, who grubbered through for Habana to run on to unopposed.

Louw, a late replacement for Schalk Burger, was in the action 10 minutes later when he barged over from a driving maul close to the Italian line. Steyn was unable to convert but the fly-half made amends on the stroke of half-time when he danced over for his side's third try and converted it for a 19-point lead. Kirchner notched the fourth try nine minutes after the restart when Steyn probed the blindside from a ruck and found his Bulls teammate unmarked on the touchline.

The Boks were later dealt a blow when James was yellow carded, which gave Sergio Parisse, the Italy captain and man of the match, the space to dive over in the 63rd minute after a good break by Tito Tebaldi, the scrum-half.

* Reuters

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Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications

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Stage 2 results

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2 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:02

3 Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 00:00:04

4 Diego Ulissi (ITA) UAE Team Emirates

5 Rick Zabel (GER) Israel Start-Up Nation

General Classification

1 Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal 07:47:19

2 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:12

3 Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 00:00:16

4 Nikolai Cherkasov (RUS) Gazprom-Rusvelo 00:00:17

5 Alexey Lutsensko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team 00:00:19

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel