Springbok captain Siya Kolisi made an impressive return from injury and needed just 40 minutes to confirm his value and hopefully satisfy even the biggest cynics that he is good to go to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Despite suffering a knee injury that threatened to end his Rugby World Cup, Kolisi produced a sublime 40 minutes, making the off-load for the opening try by Malcolm Marx and showing no fear in defence. He chased back hard to make a cover tackle and had a few good carries.
“It felt amazing,” said Kolisi. “I didn’t have any fear going into the game. Our training sessions prepared me a lot.
“I remember I asked the guys to come at me a little bit softer, but Pieter-Steph came to me and said, "trust me, you’re fine". Those kinds of things you can’t buy, having a guy who has come through things like that.
“As a team, we did well; I thought our discipline could be a lot better, especially in the first half, but we wanted to stay disciplined in the system and I think we did that well. But next week is a different challenge and we’re going to have to get up again.”
