Siya Kolisi post-game interview says it all about Boks
Siya Kolisi gave an unbelievably gracious response to the loss to England this afternoon, giving credit to the hosts and refusing to make excuses.
It was a hard week for the Springboks with the Rassie Erasmus saga and it comes at the end of what has been a six month bubble for the team.
“We never make excuses,” that summed it up from Kolisi, who gave it all the credit to England for a brilliant performance.
Watch the vision here.
This was arguably the most challenging season for a Springbok team yet due to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to finish off the year with a victory against England would have been a fantastic reward for the team.
As with most of the northern hemisphere teams, Nienaber expected a monstrous forward battle, but he said England had the players and ability to mix things up on the day.
“England have traditionally had a strong pack of forwards and backs that can trigger action on attack, but they have a number of new players and coaches this season, who will want to make their mark, so there may be a different dynamic in their style of play,” he said.
“We’ve been doing our homework and we’ve been putting in the hard yards both on and off the field, so we need to make sure we are mentally and physically sharp on Saturday and convert the opportunities we create on attack into points because in a Test match such as this there are generally only a few of them.”
Springbok team recap:
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 71 caps, 60 pts (12t)
14 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 50 caps, 60 pts (12t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 25 caps, 25 pts (5t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Munster) – 57 caps, 35 pts (7t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 24 caps, 95 pts (19t)
10 – Handré Pollard (Montpellier) – 59 caps, 586 pts (6t, 83c, 126p, 4d)
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 20 caps, 40pts (8t)
8 – Duane Vermeulen (Ulster) – 60 caps, 15 pts (3t)
7 – Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo) – 18 caps, 5 pts (1t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 62 caps, 30 pts (6t)
5 – Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks) – 55 caps, 25 pts (5t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) – 96 caps, 15 pts (3t)
3 – Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) – 53 caps, 5pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 47 caps, 45 pts (9t)
1 – Ox Nché (Cell C Sharks) – 8 caps, 0pts
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 45 caps, 50 pts (10t)
17 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 58 caps, 5pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Saracens) – 30 caps, 0 pts
19 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 50 caps, 5pts (1t)
20 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 10 caps, 0 pts
21 – Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers) – 20 caps, 25 pts (5t)
22 – Elton Jantjies (NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes) – 43 caps, 323 pts (2t, 65c, 60p, 1d)
23 – Frans Steyn (Toyota Cheetahs) – 73 caps, 147pts (11t, 7c, 23p, 3d)
TAGS: Siya Kolisi, Siya Kolisi, Siya Kolisi
