‘Don’t have to worry, Siya’s always delivered’

Rassie Erasmus has confidence in Siya Kolisi’s fitness for Saturday’s clash in Argentina, but doesn’t expect the Springbok skipper or lock Eben Etzebeth to play the full match.

Kolisi, who last played on 20 June against the Barbarians, is back to lead the Boks after Erasmus recalled seven stalwarts including fellow two-time World Cup winner Etzebeth and Lood de Jager.

Speaking on Tuesday from Buenos Aires ahead of this week’s clash at Estadio José Amalfitani, Erasmus explained why the 35-year-old Kolisi’s return from a hamstring injury holds little concern within camp.

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“The one guy that we don’t have to worry about coming back from injury [is Kolisi],” the Bok boss said. “Prior to the 2023 World Cup, Siya had a long-term knee injury and it was always a race against time to see if he would be ready.

“Probably because of his age and his experience of injuries – a guy like Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] is probably new to a big injury like he had – you learn how to deal with injuries, how to rehab and handle the pressure and the frustrations that you go through.

“Siya’s very diligent with that, and from our experiences, we’ve never been unsure when we’ve selected him. He’s always delivered.

“We’ve got Marco van Staden on the bench, who can go on for him,” he added. “Same as with Eben and Lood; as long as he’s productive and delivers on the field, we want to get maximum minutes out of him.

“But probably that will also be like a half or a little bit more than a half.”

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Erasmus also outlined his plans for Etzebeth and De Jager, who start together in the second row and both feature in the green and gold for the first time this year.

“Ben-Jason Dixon will go on for Eben and Cobus Wiese will go on for Lood, because Eben is coming back from a concussion and a long time that he hasn’t played and he won’t last 80 minutes,” he said.

“Lood hasn’t played for a long time and we’ll see how long they last in the game and then Cobus will come on and call the lineout. It will be straight swaps for four and five.”

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With so many changes and returning players, Erasmus tempered expectations heading into the Los Pumas clash.

“If you take out winning, and you take out guys getting game time, then we’d like the tactics and the plan that we’re going into the game with to function.

“We want to be on the winning side on the scoreboard, but I don’t think the margin of victory, if we do win, is the important thing.

“The thing that will happen on Saturday is, it won’t be perfect.”

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Photo: Floris van Schouwenburg/Gallo Images