CAPE TOWN – All the talk and videos have been said and done, and now it’s time for action on the field. That was the gist of the message from Springbok captain Siya Kolisi ahead of the third and final Test against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday.
While a lot has been said about the officiating and even styles of play over the last few weeks, the series is locked at 1-1, and for Kolisi, the 6pm kickoff at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday is the last chance for many in this Bok team to knock over the best players from Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland.
So, there is no way that the Boks themselves are going to be side-tracked from their mission of pulling off a second consecutive victory.
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The 30-year-old flank added that he is not upset by comments that the Boks play percentage rugby either, and that his team won’t be swayed by the changes that the Lions have made to their team.
“For us, nothing changes. Our game plan doesn’t change. We focus on what we do. Everybody knows how we play – I don’t think that’s going to change at all. So, there are no changes from our side – we will still play the same way we did last week,” Kolisi said on Friday.
“We play what’s in front of us. So, whatever’s happening in the game, we will be involved. So, set-piece is a set-piece, and even if there are niggles, we will get involved. We can’t leave a man behind – that’s just our system, and that’s what we believe in.
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“To be honest, the on-field stuff is what I care about. There is enough responsibility in me performing and us as a team performing that I can’t worry too much about what’s happening off the field.
“We are still playing the same way we did – that’s who we are. We can’t run away from that. We’re South Africans. It works for us. It’s like us going and looking at another team that’s winning, but we’re complaining about how they are playing. I can’t do that – they are winning. We can’t change who we are.”
It has been a sharp turnaround for the South Africans after a second-half capitulation led to a 22-17 first Test defeat, as they kept mistakes to a minimum and combined their renowned physicality with a bit more creativity to secure a 27-9 victory in the second Test.
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Assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, though, was clear in his sentiment that the Boks aren’t concerned about what the Lions or overseas media think of their approach to the game.
Asked by a British journalist if it was a deliberate part of the Bok tactics to slow the game down – after last week’s second Test stretched to about two hours long, when a number of refereeing decisions was thoroughly checked by the TMO – Stick said: “I’m not too sure when you say we were slowing the game down, but once again, remember that the person in charge of the whistle is the ref.
“So, when the TMO calls and the ref needs a bit more time to make a decision according to what they see on the screen, that’s got nothing to do with us.
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“I don’t recall one of our players doing anything intentional to slow the game down.
“If they want to lift the tempo up, that is their plan… If we want to slow the ball down and make it boring, we’ll do that – as other people are saying we are playing boring rugby.
“But from our side, we don’t go into a game intentionally to say we want to slow things down. And if the British and Irish Lions want to play touch rugby, jeez, that would be nice for us. So, they’re more than welcome to do so.
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“We are not going to decide what they must do. Also, they are not going to tell us how to play the game. We will just play according to our strengths.”
Kolisi was reluctant to equate Saturday’s decider to the 2019 World Cup final. That was understandable, as the Lions only visit Mzansi every 12 years, compared to the four-yearly World Cup.
“It is definitely similar, but I think at the same time, it’s different because this opportunity for a whole lot of us will not come again. Mentally, we also did as much preparation as we could get on the field and we trained as hard as we could. And we worked on stuff that we could get better on from the last game,” the skipper said.
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“Mentally, I think we are there. We know that most of the team won’t get this opportunity again. I think it was the second week together as a group last week – the full group – so that helped a lot.
“This is our final, and it does give us confidence – the way we played last week. But this is the one that matters, more than anything else.”
IOL Sport