Confident Kolisi to give everything against All Blacks: ‘No holding back’

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi is hoping to get as much as possible out of their final World Cup warm-up match against the All Blacks at Twickenham on Friday night (kick-off 8:30pm), for both himself and the team.

Kolisi made a stunning return to action with a 40 minute first half cameo in the Boks’ record drubbing of Wales in Cardiff last weekend and this weekend he will be aiming to build on that performance.

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Coach Jacques Nienaber said earlier in the week that the team management would look to get 50 or 60 minutes out of the captain against the All Blacks, but Kolisi said on Thursday that he would again be emptying the tank and whenever that happens he will be taken off.

“Last week (against Wales) I felt good, I have felt good this week as well and I haven’t had any problems with my knee. For this game the plan is for me to go as far as I can go and hopefully I can get through about 60 minutes at minimum,” said Kolisi.

“But obviously I am going to give everything that I can. If it happens to be 40 minutes and I am taken out then so be it. So that’s my mentality going into this game.”

Gained confidence

Kolisi also gained a lot of confidence out of his showing against Wales, where he was involved in a number of big contact situations, including making a superb tracking back run and tackle which would have pushed his knee to its limits.

“I am definitely much more confident than I was last week. All the things that I was wondering about I got to experience them (against Wales),” explained Kolisi.

“In the end it doesn’t matter whether I am confident or not, what is meant to happen will happen. So I am not going to hold back anything. I will be going in with the same mindset as last week. To give everything I can, go flat out, not hold back and see where that takes me.

“But I am definitely more confident because before the (Welsh) game the only tackles I took were in training which is controlled, whereas last week it wasn’t controlled. People can fall in a certain way and stuff like that, so it definitely did give me confidence.”

Final outing

With this the Boks’ final outing before the World Cup kicks off in France early next month, Kolisi is hoping to get a few more answers out of the match so that the team is perfectly prepared for the showpiece event.

“We just want to see what works and what doesn’t work for us as a group so we are prepared going forward. There is definitely no holding back in what we want to do. This is the perfect game for us to go all out in,” said Kolisi.

“There is no better opposition to Test ourselves against to see what works and what doesn’t work, than against the All Blacks.”