‘We can lose the Rugby Championship here,’ says Bok captain Kolisi

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi is fired up for his side to make a run at wining the Rugby Championship, but is very aware that they could be out of the running if they slip up in their opener against the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday morning (kick-off 6:45am).

Kolisi has presided as captain over an unprecedented run of success for the Boks, which has included winning two World Cups, a British and Irish Lions series and the Rugby Championship.

However, that Rugby Championship triumph came before the World Cup in 2019, and in World Cup years the Rugby Championship is a shortened version and isn’t viewed as highly due to it only being a single round of fixtures, while some teams are also preparing for the showpiece event.

Thus the current Bok group have never won a full version of the competition and that will be a motivating factor for them this year, but if they are to win it their best chance will be to walk away from Australia with two wins over the coming days.

“This is a very important match for us, as we haven’t done well in Brisbane in the past. We know that we can’t win the Rugby Championship by winning these two games (in Australia), but we know that we can lose it by not doing well in them,” explained Kolisi at Friday’s pre-match press conference.

“We’ve worked hard since we arrived here and we know what we are up against, so stressing about the record (here in the past) won’t help. Our focus is on what we must do on the field, and we know it’s going to be challenging.”

Previous competitions

The previous three Rugby Championships have all been won by the All Blacks, with them winning all three of their games in 2023’s shortened version.

In the previous two full versions, in 2022 the All Blacks won four out of six games, the same as the Boks, but edged the competition thanks to an extra bonus point, while in 2021 they comfortably won with five wins, with their only loss coming against the Boks that year.

These two games in Australia are thus vitally important for the Boks and they will be desperate to start with a win at a stadium that they have won at only once in 12 attempts.

Despite not being considered a challenger for the Rugby Championship, the Wallabies will be eager to keep improving, after a dismal run of form in recent years, while they will also be keen to keep up their impressive home record against the Boks, in front of a packed home crowd.

“We expect a side that’s going to come out to win. It’s a sold-out stadium, they have the people behind them. We’ve seen how well they did against Wales and Georgia,” said Kolisi.

“We know it will be a huge thing for them if they can get a win over us. That honestly hasn’t been our focus. We’ve done our preparation and watched the players individually. Most important is what we have to do.

“In the past, when we lost, we didn’t deliver on what we needed to do and then they got the upper hand. So the focus is on us, but also respecting them.”