Springbok captain Siya Kolisi urged South Africa’s rugby faithful not to give up on the team after two disappointing defeats in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship and vowed that the Boks would give everything this week to bounce back and remain in the title race.
Kolisi said the Boks have been working hard at training and that two of the key focus areas this week would be to convert their point-scoring chances into points and to break out of the blocks quickly after slow starts in their last two matches, against Australia and New Zealand.
“It has been a tough week coming off last weekend’s result, but we’ve prepared as well as possible this week,” said Kolisi.
“We left a lot of opportunities out on the field in Adelaide, and we are hurting as a team, so we know we need to make sure we play better this week. We’ve pointed fingers at ourselves, and it has certainly been an emotional week for us.”
The Springbok flanker added: “As a team, we understand our South African fans’ frustration and we accept that they are upset. We feel the same frustration and we would like to urge them not to give up on us. We’ve worked hard this week at training, and we’ll do our best this weekend.
“We certainly want to be as consistent as possible, and we know that we need to start this match with more intent. We must be better this weekend or else we will be out of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship race.”
Kolisi was thrilled to see talented 19-year-old utility back Canan Moodie named in the side for what will be his Test debut, which will see him become the second-youngest player to become a Springbok since re-admission in 1992.
Kolisi said he has full faith in the young player’s ability to make his presence felt and said: “I helped Canan this week as well and it is great to see how eager he is to learn and to do extras.
“It was great to see what he did against us (the Cell C Sharks) in the quarter-final of the Vodacom URC. A person would not have said he was still at school a little while ago, so I’m definitely not nervous for him.”
