By Lucky Vince Pienaar
The media conference about the Springbok team on Wednesday night ended on a high.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus had generally spoken about the 39-man squad that would face Ireland, but he was very specific when it came to Siya Kolisi.
“Siya is not fat and he is not transparent,” said Erasmus.
“He will play flank and he will be the captain.”
Erasmus was, of course, referring to comments by President Jacky Lorenzetti of Racing 92 where Kolisi is playing his European rugby.
Lorenzetti was speaking about the French team’s lacklustre performance and said that Kolisi had been a unifier off the field, but then he also said Kolisi’s injury lay-off had done him no good.
“Kolisi gained weight, lost shape and in the match against Bordeaux he was transparent,” said the president.
In fairness, Lorenzetti also added that he thought Siya would have a better season next year, but that part of the statement was immediately ignored, of course.
Rassie’s decision to make Kolisi captain was made easier by Pieter-Steph du Toit’s less-than-impressive performance as captain against Wales.
Erasmus has always said that everything he and the coaching team are working on is to win the World Cup in 2027, but that may not be the complete truth.
The 39-man squad to play Ireland next month shows very few signs of developing a team for the future. Expect a team selection that has one objective: to beat Ireland.
World Rugby’s rankings show that South Africa (94.54) is the number one team in the world and Ireland (90.69) is second by some margin. New Zealand is third (89.80).
But New Zealand don’t claim that they are the number one team in the world as the Irish do – a claim they make presumably because they beat South Africa in the pool match at World Cup 2023.
There will probably be more experiments in the match against Portugal. There is enormous depth in South African rugby and many players, including Siya Masuku, will probably get a chance in the green and gold.
But for now, expect Rassie Erasmus and his coaching team to pick the very best players for the most important match since the World Cup – the match against Ireland on Saturday, 6 July, at Loftus Versveld.
Pictured above: Siya Kolisi.
Source: X
