Siya Kolisi pinpoints the crucial factor in the Springboks win over the All Blacks
Siya Kolisi celebrating a victory over the Wallabies in the Rugby Championship
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi has said the ‘cool heads’ of fellow leaders Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit helped his side clinch a comeback win over arch-rivals New Zealand.
Kolisi’s side were behind by 10 points heading into the final 15 minutes, but a late onslaught of 14 unanswered points at the end helped South Africa maintain their perfect start to the Rugby Championship.
“We never panic”
Speaking to the media after the game, Kolisi was quick to praise the composure of his side in the final exchanges.
“Whenever we are behind, we never panic,” he said. “We have been in far worse positions before and have come back.”
“When they scored first in the second-half (Jordie Barrett’s intercept try) we came together and we said ‘cool, amazing, they’ve scored an intercept try, let’s go to the next set.’ Nobody panicked.”
Springboks leave it late to down All Blacks in epic Ellis Park showdown
After a tight first-half, the All Blacks raced into a 27-17 lead thanks to scores from Barrett and Caleb Clarke, but the impact of the infamous ‘bomb squad’ swung the game back towards the Springboks, and tries from Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams secured a bonus point win at Ellis Park.
“We have so many cool heads”
Kolisi is the figurehead leader of this Springboks side, but he is also blessed to have seasoned internationals like Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit alongside him; and he was quick to praise his fellow forwards for keeping the team calm in those tense final minutes.
“We have so many cool heads and leaders; if I’m not talking, Eben’s talking or if it’s not him it’s Pieter-Steph or even the young guys with just a couple of caps.”
“They’re given the license by the coach to speak because rugby knowledge isn’t measured by the number of caps you have – if you see something, say it. And that’s the great thing about this team today: we never panicked.”
Title aspirations?
The win at Ellis Park was the Springboks third in the Rugby Championship, and they sit eight points clear of the All Blacks at the top of the table.
There is still a long way to go if they hope to lift their first title since 2019, and they still have to play New Zealand again next weekend too, but head coach Rassie Erasmus detailed how he would ‘love’ to win it this year.
“Winning the Rugby Championship is very important, and I would definitely love to win it, but we will definitely move players around next week and hopefully they make it, but we won’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Despite having title aspirations, Erasmus is fully focused on securing a win over the All Blacks next weekend first before thinking about that.
“Everything didn’t go right today, and we’ll have a look at why we didn’t get out of our half at stages and why we didn’t capitalise on chances a few times. Our focus is only on next week.”
If the Springboks do claim a victory next weekend in Cape Town, they would also claim their first Freedom Cup since 2009.
