Nervous Nienaber and Kolisi raise stakes for game of Springboks’ lives

Siya Kolisi describes the World Cup final as the biggest occasion South Africa’s players will face. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.

You could see Siya Kolisi’s foot going underneath the table while his coach Jacques Nienaber was talking. Thump, thump, thump. “We are fortunate in terms of the support we’ve had from our legal team,” Nienaber said. “We were shielded from it, we stayed in our own bubble,” thump, thump, thump. “So for us it was business as usual.” Thump, thump, thump. Nienaber and Kolisi didn’t want to say much more about the decision not to charge Bongi Mbonambi.

On Saturday, South Africa play the biggest game of their lives against New Zealand in the World Cup final. And the captain, Kolisi, thump, thump thump, is impatient to get on with it.