Boks make call on Kolisi

Rassie Erasmus has revealed whether in-doubt Springbok captain Siya Kolisi will feature in the second Test against the All Blacks in Cape Town. CLINTON VAN DER BERG reports.

Speaking to the media at the team’s base in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Erasmus said, “He’s good to go”, adding that it took the pressure off recent captain Pieter-Steph du Toit in the same week he plays his 100th Test match.

Erasmus also said that Cheslin Kolbe, forced to leave the field on Saturday, was “looking good”.

“A grade-two hamstring takes a little bit longer to heal, so we were just being cautious,” said the coach of Kolisi. “Last week it was maybe touch and go, but on Sunday when he did some rehab he said he was a bit sore going over the ground, but OK.”

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Explaining why Du Toit was provisionally named as captain on Monday, Erasmus explained the practical dimension.

“If a guy has to go through a medical process on Monday and he’s also captain, it throws us into the middle of everything if his hamstring hasn’t cleared. So Pieter-Steph took the captaincy for us on Monday, and that let Siya fully concentrate on his own job and his own work.

“Today, Pieter-Steph and I had a chat, and in a match like this, you probably don’t want to be dealing with captaincy things and a hundred other matters around you. You really want to just play well.

“What Siya means for us, for South Africa, means a lot. Siya is our long-term captain. It’s not just his game, it’s also that he’s a very inspirational person, and a guy that means a lot to us on and off the field, in tough times and good times.”

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A chastened Erasmus also copped much of the blame for Saturday’s defeat.

“I think this game was very much about decisions I made during the week, trying to change things up … maybe being too clever. It was definitely not an easy review.

“A review of a loss is never good, but it creates learnings. The All Blacks put us under pressure and made us do things that led to the yellow card. Credit to them for that. Now it’s for us to look at how we defend that better, or make a different plan. As long as we learn as a team and grow as a team and get our game better, we’re in a good place.

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“The plan we made was one we made together as a coaching team, but then in the game, for the first time in a long time, we were caught out by an early injury to Kurt-Lee [Arendse], which disrupted things. Our backline cover wasn’t good enough, and when Kurt-Lee went down in the first five minutes, suddenly everyone was playing out of position.

“That’s maybe on the plan more than on the players.”

SPRINGBOKS – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Bench: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 André Esterhuizen, 21 Cameron Hanekom, 22 Morné van den Berg, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

Photo: Floris van Schouwenburg/Gallo Images