Ken Borland

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has enjoyed an excellent success rate as skipper of the national side over the last two years, but back-to-back losses have cut into his winning record a bit, if not his positivity.
Kolisi belatedly took over the captaincy in 2018 in one of Rassie Erasmus’s first masterstrokes and his record that year was understandably mixed given the depths to which Springbok rugby had sunk. In that first year South Africa won seven and lost six of their Tests under Kolisi.
But 2019 was nothing short of a triumph as the Springboks only lost one of their seven Tests with the then-Stormers flank at the helm. Five wins from eight Tests this year sees Kolisi’s overall winning ratio slip to 64%, pretty much on level terms with Jean de Villiers.

The last time South Africa lost successive Tests was back in 2018 – against Argentina in Mendoza and Australia in Brisbane, and then versus New Zealand at Loftus Versfeld and England at Twickenham. But with the losses against the Wallabies coming after two years of success and expectation, one might have thought these are the toughest times of Kolisi’s captaincy.

But Kolisi’s attitude is always team first and the 30-year-old is focused on how the team can get better.

“This has not been the most difficult time in my captaincy, although obviously it is very disappointing. But we have faced tougher challenges. I just try to take it week-by week, obviously you don’t want to lose two in a row. So our focus is on what we have done wrong and how we can improve.

“We’ve messed things up ourselves and the things we are normally good at we got wrong. So the focus is on our plan, what we are good at. We want to play our own style at our own pace. The last two weeks have been tough, but the biggest thing is that we get all our stuff right this weekend,” Kolisi said.

Kolisi was at the front of the Springboks again when they ran out to face the All Blacks haka with his usual intense stare. But within those muscular, powerful bodies, as tough and tenacious as a Staffy, beat hearts like the normal human being and the team know how important their success is to millions back at home.

“We can’t lie about it, we know how important rugby is, we know what people at home are expecting and want to see. That’s what we think about in our rooms, and it’s important to us too. We use that energy to focus on our game, it motivates us although we always give everything we can on the field,” Kolisi said.

Captain Siya Kolisi said on Friday that the Springboks have been measured by themselves and they found themselves wanting in last weekend’s defeat to Australia, which is why they will be running out with great determination to rectify that when they meet the Wallabies again in a Rugby Championship Test at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

South Africa went down 26-28 to Australia last weekend in an unfocused, error-strewn and ill-disciplined performance. Kolisi said the world champions and the team clinging on to the number one ranking under pressure from the All Blacks know they are much better than what they showed on the Gold Coast.

“We know exactly where we went wrong, it was very upsetting to lose like that. The mistakes we made with things that are normally a given, it was so tough to see that on the review. They were simple errors. Just on the day, we were not at our best in the physical part. We have our standards, but we made fewer tackles and especially less dominant tackles, Australia dominated their hits with ball-in-hand.

“We compared ourselves to how we played against Argentina and the British and Irish Lions and the standard was definitely not the same. We need to make that better first before we complain about anything else. So we are going to be more determined on Saturday to bring what we did not show on the field last weekend,” Kolisi said.

To make matters tougher, the Springboks have a very disappointing record in Brisbane. Since the return from isolation, South Africa have won just once there in 12 attempts against Australia. Kolisi, along with Willie le Roux, Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermeulen, is one of the players who featured in that memorable 38-12 hammering of the Wallabies in 2013.

“We’ve only won once at Suncorp and we want to change that, but the most important thing is for us to stay in the competition and defend the Rugby Championship. So we are going to throw everything into this game. We’ve spent the week asking ourselves why we did not get to where we are meant to be in the previous game and I’m confident we will pitch up this weekend.

“Winning is what we care about, that’s the only way we can maintain our number one ranking. But the ranking is not our focus, we want to get back into the competition and give ourselves a chance of winning it again. But if we’re not disciplined then we won’t get the result we want,” Kolisi said.

The Springboks have not beaten the Wallabies in Australia since 2013 – a five-game streak – and captain Siya Kolisi said on Saturday that his team are fully focused on rectifying that anomaly when they meet the two-time world champions in a Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

South Africa have beaten Australia in all seven matches back on home turf dating back to 2011, so it is just getting the better of them overseas that is the problem. Kolisi could not put his finger on why that is the case, but he left no doubt as to the current world champions’ desire to claim victory on Sunday.

“You have to give credit to the Wallabies, they don’t lose a lot in Australia, against most teams, especially in Queensland. I don’t know what they do to have that record, but we are 100% focused on what we have to do. Hopefully we will do better than we did in our last game here [the Springboks lost 18-23 in Brisbane in 2018]. This is an important match for us because our record is not good when it comes to winning in Australia.

“The most important thing is for us to stick to our process, we haven’t played in three weeks so we have to make sure we are focused. We take it game-by-game, make sure we pitch up every day and we have to give Australia the respect they deserve. It’s going to be our plan against their plan, bringing that intensity, who tackles the most and who carries the ball the most,” Kolisi said.

As much as the Wallabies will be trying to speed the game up and use their dangerous backline to crack open the Springbok defence, South Africa will also be wanting good, quick ball to make sure their hefty carriers are serviced well.

“Quick ball is important for any team and if we don’t get it then it’s going to be a long day for us,” attack coach Mzwandile Stick said on Saturday. “We want to make sure that we give our big forwards front-foot ball. It’s not only Michael Hooper who slows the ball down, the Wallabies have a lot of players who apply pressure at the breakdown and we know it’s going to be a massive battle, we need to be clinical there so our No.9 is able to give quick service.

“Australia rely on quick ball too, but they are world-class and on a good day they can really punish you. Samu Kerevi is back, they have wings like Marika Koriobete who have lots of pace, and we have to make sure we don’t give Quade Cooper lots of time and space to make decisions. So we have to respect them, make sure we pitch up and play according to our strengths,” Stick said.

Beating the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld has proven to be a precipitous task ever since Jake White arrived in Pretoria, especially for the Sharks, but their captain Phepsi Buthelezi said on Tuesday that they are backing themselves to do it in the Currie Cup final on Saturday by running the home side off their feet.

The only match White’s Bulls have lost at home was in the opening round of the Currie Cup when they fielded a C team on the same day as the Rainbow Cup final and lost 24-48 to Western Province; the Sharks have lost their last four matches at Loftus Versfeld, including last season’s Currie Cup final, although they took that all the way into extra time.

That record has seen the KwaZulu-Natalians determined to change their fortunes by being more true to themselves.

“We want to go up there and play our game, perform to the best of our ability. We know what we are capable of and we’re not going to listen to what other people say. We obviously want to change our record up there and we’ll do that by playing our rugby. In finals, teams tend to play Test rugby, but we want to play Sharks rugby. Obviously the Bulls have a big pack, but we’ll look to move them around.

“As a squad, we have learnt from our mistakes and everyone is feeling confident that we can do this. There’s nothing better than being the underdog and obviously a lot of people are writing us off. But we really want to play our brand of rugby and everyone here believes we can win this. It’s an amazing opportunity to disappoint a lot of people …,” Buthelezi said with a smile on his face.

But as much as the Sharks want to play positive rugby, they know that it is going to be vital for them to stop the Bulls’ big hitters. For at least 80 minutes.

And while the Bulls believe it was their superior fitness that won them the last Currie Cup final, the Sharks are confident that they will not be crocked when it comes to the closing stages of the match.

“We believe we’re the fittest team in the competition and altitude is not an issue because we’ve all played in Pretoria so many times. Obviously the Bulls’ performance against Western Province in the semi-final was really good, but it’s really simple: If we stop their momentum, then after the third phase they don’t really know what to do and they just kick the ball away.

“Discipline is also vital. It starts with penalties, if you give those away then they get into your 22, they maul you and they have such strong runners off that. That’s just giving them momentum on top of momentum,” Buthelezi said.