‘Siya Kolisi gained weight, lost shape and was transparent’ – Racing 92 president
Siya Kolisi on side of Racing 92 scrum.
Racing 92 president Jacky Lorenzetti has slammed his club’s performances in what he has described as a “waste of a season” while he also criticised Springboks captain Siya Kolisi.
The Parisian club bowed out of the Top 14 this weekend, falling to a 31-17 defeat to Bordeaux in the Barrage play-off match.
While Lorenzetti was brutal in his assessment of the season, he remained optimistic for the future and rubbished any talk of sacking head coach Stuart Lancaster after a trophy-less debut campaign in charge.
Scathing review
Reacting after the defeat to Bordeaux, the Racing boss said that his side had no excuse and were “largely dominated” by their opponents, adding that it was just part of their limp to the end of the season.
“We must be able to do better, right?,” he told French publication Midi Olympique.
“We must not invoke misfortune, weather or spirits. We only have ourselves to blame. This team, despite some spasms, completely collapsed over the course of the season. It’s a year that some might call a ‘transition’.
The Parisian club has a star-studded line-up but failed to perform to their promise, with Lorenzetti looking back at the team that lost to Bayonne in December, which included Kolisi, Henry Arundell, Gael Fickou, Nolann Le Garrec, Will Rowlands and Cameron Woki.
“It was the Galacticos, as they say. But no, we were beaten miserably. We can clearly talk about a waste this season,” he added.
“But if I want to look at the glass half full, then I would say that we limited the damage after the departures of Vakatawa, the injuries of Lauret and Le Roux, the club still qualified for the play-offs.”
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Kolisi and Tuisova
Still, Lorenzetti was not pleased with the performances of his two star recruits for the season in Bok skipper Kolisi and Fijian powerhouse Josua Tuisova, the latter only playing a handful of games after sustaining a long-term injury at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Kolisi joined the club after captaining the Springboks to successive Rugby World Cup titles but his debut season in France was hampered by an injury and his performance throughout the season and particularly in the loss to Bordeaux did not impress Lorenzetti, who compared him to club legend Wenceslas Lauret.
“Kolisi had a remarkable start to the season, where he was a unifier off the field,” he noted.
“The injury layoff was harmful to him. He gained weight, lost shape and yesterday [against Bordeaux] he was transparent. In the back-row, we used to have an ultra-present warrior, a warrior called Wenceslas Lauret. For the moment, Siya is not making us forget Wenceslas. But we think that next year, that will change.”
On Tuisiova, he added: “He didn’t bring anything, we must be clear. It was not the impact player we expected.”
Racing now begin preparations for the 2024/25 season with Lorenzetti confirming that Owen Farrell is “hungry” to get going at his new club and had medical examinations last week.
He added that he is eager to see what the new signings will bring next season as he remains calm about their future.
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