Siya Kolisi proud of Springboks in French loss

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi was proud of the superb fight shown by the Springboks, after they were just edged 30-26 by France in a brilliantly entertaining end-of-year-tour match at the Stade Velodrome on Saturday night.

A red card to flank Pieter-Steph du Toit in the 10^th minute saw the Boks play with a man down for 38 minutes until a 48^th minute red card to French scrumhalf Antoine Dupont levelled the numbers.

However a yellow card in the 70^th minute to Deon Fourie then saw them finish with 13-men on the field, which proved costly as France produced a late comeback to win.

That was after France had utilised the extra man to take a 13-0 lead after a quarter of the game, before the Boks battled back to go into halftime 16-10 down.

ALSO READ: France pip Springboks in Marseille thriller

Dupont’s red then fired the Boks up to move into a 26-22 lead with 16 minutes to play, only for Fourie’s yellow to galvanise France as they scored eight points in the final five minutes to keep their unbeaten run going with a 12^th win in a row.

Commenting on the Du Toit red, Kolisi admitted that the team were not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task.

“We have obviously planned for scenarios like this in a game. So we didn’t freak out and all we said was that we are going to have to work a little bit harder and make sure that around the field we keep working for one another,” explained Kolisi.

“We said we must not stop playing and I felt that we played a little bit more today, which was the plan from the start. We didn’t waiver away from the plan and I thought the guys showed great fight. 

“It’s horrible to lose, especially like that, but I am proud of them and we are going to keep on fighting. We learn as we go, and I thought France was just a little bit better than us today.”

Kolisi also claimed that the Boks matched up to the physicality of the French very well, but said their kicking game let them down at times, which was one thing he hoped they could improve over the coming week.

“It was a tough game, especially in the set pieces, but we knew that it was going to be like that. I thought we stood our ground in the physical exchanges, but France played well. We could have been better tonight, but I can never fault the guy’s effort,” said Kolisi.

“We will have to look at the game and have a thorough analysis. There are a lot of emotions at the moment. I thought we could have been a bit better in our kicking game if we could have kicked a bit shorter so that we could have contested instead of them being able to claim the mark.

“We need to keep improving and we just want to win. That’s the most important thing, but we also want to continue learning, and keep moving forward.”