mens
international
Siya Kolisi dismissed the hype surrounding him South Africa ahead of their series finale against All black peopleinsisting the Springboks know exactly who they are, stressing their game plan is “not rigid”.
The Boks head into Saturday’s fourth Test at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium with a 2-1 series lead, meaning a win or draw will secure rugby’s biggest rivalry, while an All Blacks win would leave the inaugural series level.
Kolisi expects another significant challenge from the much-changed New Zealand side, especially with Richie Mo’unga returning at fly-half, but believes South Africa’s priority must be to impose themselves physically rather than be distracted by their opponents or any criticism that has surfaced over the past three weeks about their style of play.
While measures such as tries and points scored may favor the All Blacks in this series, those in the South African camp have pointed out that Rassie Erasmus’ side lead the most important statistic of all – matches won. Their tussle and maul proved decisive, with Kolisi insisting ahead of the fourth Test that “we do what works for us”.
The 107-cap captain likened the intensity of facing the All Blacks four weeks in a row to playing “four Rugby World Cup finals,” with both teams having the opportunity to study each other and look for new weaknesses as the series unfolded.
“We definitely want to win the series,” Kolisi said. “We don’t want to draw it, and that’s been our mindset this week.
“But the key thing for us will be to make sure we impose our game on them and rise physically on the day.
“In my experience, it doesn’t get any harder than this. It’s like playing four Rugby World Cup finals in as many weeks given the quality of both teams. We both want to impose our style of play on the game.”
“What matters in our circle is what we want from each other. What is said outside doesn’t really matter because we do what works for us, we know who we are and we want to stick to the way we play.”
“Our system is not rigid. We can play rugby and footy. We don’t have a system that says we have to play a certain way. It’s one that creates opportunities for us to play, so as long as it works we’ll stick to it and if it doesn’t we’ll find a better way to do things.”
