Durban — Springbok captain Siya Kolisi made the sanest comment about Saturday's final round of the Rugby Championship when he said that the Boks have booted all the permutations into touch and will have just one thing on their minds against Argentina at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
“Forget about who wins in Auckland (between the All Blacks and the Wallabies) and how many tries and points are scored... The only definite is that we have to win and that we will have to play well to do that against a very good Pumas team.”
Of course, the Boks will be watching the game at Eden Park (Saturday morning at 9am) with keen interest — if Australia shock the Kiwis then all the Boks have to do is beat the Pumas to secure the Rugby Championship) but Kolisi is so right when he stresses that if the Boks lose focus on their primary task — winning the game — and get caught up in the mathematics, they could lose their way.
“The biggest thing for us is not to forget who we are as a team, our values, and how we play because sometimes teams in pressure situations forget what actually got them to the final and try to force another method,” Kolisi explained.
“But we have been here before, this game is not unlike a knock-out game in a World Cup, so we will play to our strengths while remembering that we have the freedom to have a full go if we see space, which is how it is in any game.”
If the All Blacks do win by a significant margin, thus leaving the Boks with a target of points to achieve to have the points differential that will win them the title, Kolis said that would be a task they embrace in the fourth quarter of the game.
“Our game plan allows us to chase a big score in the second half if that is what is going to be required,” the captain said. “If we need 20 points in 20 minutes, then we can do it if we have our foundations in place.
“We need to have scrummed really well, our lineouts must have been perfect, our mauling will have to have been really good — if all of that is in place then it will have taken a toll on the opposition and that would give us the freedom to go all out as the defence tires.”
And all of this will have been directed by a 35-year-old Frans Steyn, who will be starting his first game at flyhalf for 14 years. Kolisi says it is a case of “cometh the hour cometh the man”.
“The thing with Frans is that he has always been in the background at training as our backup 10 and now his big chance has come — that is why we train for these situations. Frans understands our systems as well as Damian (Willemse) or Handre (Pollard) or any other flyhalf because we prepare for these scenarios.
“Frans will handle it,” his captain said. “He is a special player. You do not play Test rugby for 15 years and move around the backline as he has done if you are not a special player.”
Springbok – 15 Willie le Roux 14 Canan Moodie 13 Jesse Kriel 12 Damian de Allende 11 Makazole Mapimpi 10 Frans Steyn 9 Jaden Hendrikse 8 Jasper Wiese 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit 6 Siya Kolisi (capt) 5 Lood de Jager 4 Eben Etzebeth 3 Frans Malherbe 2 Malcolm Marx 1 Steve Kitshoff
Subs: Bongo Mbonambi, Ox Nche, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Duane Vermeulen, Kwagga Smith, Faf de Klerk, Kurt-Lee Arendse
Argentina – 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Matias Moroni , 12 Jeronimo De La Fuente, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
Subs: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Pedro Rubiolo, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Bautista Delguy.
IOL Sport