Kolisi says Green-versus-Gold was never going to be a thrilling try-fest

Saturday’s Springbok Showdown at Newlands was never going to be about an extravaganza of running rugby, according to national skipper Siya Kolisi.

The Green versus Gold match, which saw this country’s best players go up against each other, wasn’t the best advertisement of South African rugby, with the sparkling display of young Sharks scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba the big, and rare, highlight.

Kolisi captained the Green side to a 25-9 win over the Gold side of Lukhanyo Am, with the win built on the domination of the set-pieces and slowing down the Gold team’s ball.

“We decided beforehand to play as close as we could to a Test match,” said Kolisi.

“We wanted to play in the right places on the field and I felt more comfortable than the previous week at Super Fan Saturday,” he said, referring to the Super Fan Saturday double-header in Pretoria last week which was the restart of rugby in South Africa after six months of inactivity due to the coronavirus.

Green coach Mzwandile Stick said he and his coaching team had identified Gold’s fullback Warrick Gelant and wing Rosko Specman as potential game-breakers and wanted to nullify their threat.

“We wanted to manage the game with Elton (Jantjies) at 10 with his good kicking game,” said Stick.

“We also went out to apply pressure in the air against guys likes Warrick and Rosko; we knew that we didn’t want to give them a lot of time and space with ball in hand.”

Stick said the leadership of Kolisi, No 8 Duane Vermeulen and hooker Bongi Mbonambi were crucial in how the Green team managed to put a stranglehold on the match.

“You could see how well the senior guys like Duane and Bongi lead the side alongside Siya,” added Stick.

Stick said his team had gone out to be aggressive with their big and physical pack, because that is what Springbok rugby is all about.

“The first couple of minutes team Gold started well and put us under pressure, but then we managed to regroup and got back into the game,” he said, adding it was also good to see some of the younger players get a chance to show off at Newlands.

“It was also important to give the youngsters an opportunity and a guy like flyhalf Kade Wolhuter, at just 19 years of age, got a chance and that is actually what we wanted to see in this game,” he said.

“It was nice to win the game but we also wanted to give the young guys a chance to experience what it meant to be a Bok,” he said.

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