Siya Kolisi and South Africa ready to electrify a troubled nation

PRIVILEGE: Siya Kolisi told Friday’s press conference that it is a huge privilege to play for his country. They begin their campaign on Sunday. Pic: INPHO/SteveHaagSports/Steve Haag

Nigh on four years already since the Springboks won their third World Cup and a fractured nation put all its problems behind it to drink in the moment. However, the situation in their homeland has only continued to spiral.

Corruption and economic mismanagement has fed horrific unemployment numbers that, at close to 33%, are near record levels. Rolling power blackouts are common and an annual kidnapping figure that crests a frightening 15,000 speaks for the crime problem.

Rassie Erasmus spoke after that triumph in Yokohama about how terrible they had been in handling the pressure of their opening game against New Zealand, which they lost, and how it educated and steeled them for what they had to do through the rest of the tournament.

He explained how pressure in South Africa is not having a job, or having a close relative being murdered, and that those players who get to wear that famous jersey shouldn’t feel pressure but privilege. He told them that the Bok jersey was about giving hope.

The scenes that greeted the returning heroes at Tambo International Airport and on into Johannesburg might actually have made more headlines around the world than their defeat of England in the final. Here was sport as social glue, brief though it was.

Many of those, players, coaches and staff, who featured in Japan are here in France now as the defence of their title begins. They have seen what is possible if they can repeat that achievement. That could coalesce as pressure in itself but, not so, said Siya Kolisi.

“Winning in Japan was special, incredible, but when we landed in Joburg… I feel goose bumps now, I had never seen anything like that. The airport was… Everybody left their working stations. They just wanted to see us and that is the kind of energy that drives us and reminds us who we are doing it for.

“When we are tired and we think it is pressure we are lucky to have a coach who can read the room and Coach Rassie knows exactly which buttons to push. Yes, I play for my own reasons and we all do. We have such a diverse group who play and represent different things but the one thing that brings us together is South Africa and the people of South Africa. It is a huge privilege and honour to play for the country.” 

They will face Scotland Sunday with that familiar 6/2 split on the bench, Kolisi back to fitness after his dreadful knee injury in April, and on the back of an impressive run-in that peaked with their evisceration of the All Blacks.

The relaxed air around their La Seyne-sur-Mer base all week has been obvious. They are embracing the challenge of a buoyant Scottish team. That defeat to New Zealand in 2019 was preceded by an opening night loss to Japan in Brighton in 2015 and it took a late strike to account for Wales four years before that when they were last defending champions.

They know this requires the best of them.

“Frans Steyn scored early, I think in the first three minutes,” said head coach Jacques Nienaber. “I was physio then and I thought this was going to be an easy one, but then it didn’t turn out that easy. It was a young Wales side.

“Francois Hougaard scored late with a little bit of magic between him and Fourie de Preez and that was a tough game. And probably, that’s the thing, there are no easy games. Even if you score early there is no easy games in a World Cup.” 

Nienaber dismissed the spying story that circulated around the World Cup circus earlier this week by observing that teams know everything about each other anyway. Will we maul on Sunday, he asked the media rhetorically. Of course they will. And Faf de Klerk will box-kick and their six-strong Bomb Squad will roll off the bench.

Scotland have made no secret of their intentions either. Forwards coach John Dalziel signposted their intentions: play it hard and fast and try to keep those big Bok forwards on their feet. Finn Russell will avoid kicking to touch and the hope is they get enough separation to use that slick back line. They thought about, but didn’t opt for, the same 6/2 split.

The temperatures and humidity in Marseille will be high and heightened by the enclosed microwave that is the temporarily renamed Marseille Stadium – Stade Velodrome to you and me – but it is hard to see a Scotland side declared as their ‘best ever’ imprint enough of a stamp on a side that savaged the All Blacks in London two weeks ago.

“We have to be the best in how we do stuff, and it’s up to us to be able to handle whatever they throw at us,” said Boks forwards coach Deon Davids. Nienaber says they are a more rounded side now than 2019 but the platform and the intention remains simple and damn effective.

A nation expects.