Jacques van der Westhuyzen

Compiled by Jacques van der Westhuyzen

Head of Sport


WATCH: Kolisi defends Libbok’s goal-kicking

The Boks won their opening game 18-3 despite the flyhalf missing a few kicks at goal.


Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has defended his flyhalf Manie Libbok following the No 10’s erratic goal-kicking display against Scotland in the teams’ World Cup opener in Marseille on Sunday.

Libbok missed two penalty shots and a conversion as the Boks turned a 6-3 half-time lead into an 18-3 Pool B win.

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The Bok No 10 enjoyed a good game in general play and set up wing Kurt-Lee Arendse for a spectacular second half try, after a pinpoint perfect cross-field kick, but his goal-kicking was a big talking point after the match.

‘He’s a general’

Kolisi touched on the subject at the post-match press conference.

“This question gets asked quite a lot when he misses kicks. We play as a team … sometimes you’re not good at one thing on the day but the way he (Libbok) attacked today, the way he took control of the team, how he’s a general among us, people forget that,” said Kolisi.

“Faf (de Klerk) can kick, Cheslin (Kolbe) can kick, there are a lot of guys we can call upon.

“If someone is lacking in some way, someone else takes over.

“It’s the same with me, sometimes I don’t know what to call, (then) Duane (Vermeulen) will call, Eben (Etzebeth) will call, or Manie makes a call.

“If someone is lacking somewhere, someone else will pick up for them. He’s (Libbok) not going to be good at everything every single day … you can’t have everything on the day, you can’t stress about it, that’s why we work together. It’s the same as a skew throw, it’s not intentional, you go again the next time.”

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