Siya Kolisi promises Springboks will make amends in Australia rematch

South Africa's Siya Kolisi speaks at a press conference. Photo: Patrick Hamilton/AFP

South Africa's Siya Kolisi speaks at a press conference. Photo: Patrick Hamilton/AFP

Published Sep 17, 2021

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Springbok captain Siya Kolisi is confident that they will “be better” in their second Rugby Championship meeting with Australia in Brisbane on Saturday (kick-off 9.05 AM SA time).

The Boks produced a disappointing and uncharacteristic outing, which they lost 26-28,against the Wallabies in Gold Coast in their first Test abroad since the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Speaking during a Captain’s press conference on the eve of the Test alongside assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, Kolisi said that they had worked hard at fixing their mistakes in the build-up to the Test.

“We knew where we went wrong and it was obviously very upsetting to lose the game like that, especially looking at some of the mistakes we made…some of those were things that’s normally a given for us, things that we normally bring on the day. So, that was difficult to see,” he said.

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“We are more determined this week. Not that we weren’t determined last week, we were, we just didn’t show that on the field, but we are (determined). We worked hard on the field to do what we need to do this week. We sat and watched the game and saw simple errors that we usually wouldn’t make, but I have to tell you; Australia played well. I want to give credit to them, but I think we can be much better this weekend, and we will be.”

If South Africa lose to Australia again and New Zealand beat Argentina by more than 15 points, the All Blacks will return to number one in the world. The Kiwis can also move up to top spot on the rankings with a smaller winning margin if the Wallabies beat the Boks by more than 15.

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Admitting that he wasn’t aware of the risk of losing the No 1 tag, the Bok skipper said that winning the competition remained the main goal.

“Winning is what we care about, it’s not all we care about, but we know it’s the only way we can maintain the No 1 spot. I didn’t know we could lose the No 1 spot, to be honest, but we won’t focus on that, we just want to win this weekend so that we have a chance to win the competition."

“We weren’t at our best on the day. Physically and defensively – we missed 21 tackles – we weren’t good. The standards we hold ourselves to weren’t met. It was one of the worst defensive games we have had. Australia did really well when they had the ball in hand.

Reuters