Africa-Press – South-Africa. Apart from lacking a coat of lotion and a fresh scar running down his left shin, there was little wrong with the legs Springbok captain Siya Kolisi presented at his final media briefing before the team departed for the final phase of its Rugby World Cup defence on Saturday.
Most importantly, said legs also had no strapping on a knee that has been the topic of discussion for months now.
Even more encouraging was the Bok skipper’s declaration that he was now at a stage where he was no longer even thinking about the injury, which has kept him out of the initial preparations and build-up of the world champions’ Rugby World Cup defence thus far, when he went into contact.
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Kolisi, who was declared as being fit enough to play in the first of the Boks’ World Cup warm-up games – against Wales on August 19 – when he was announced as captain of the 33-man squad on Tuesday, has been exposed to rigorous training in recent weeks.
First, he joined the Sharks’ pre-season in the week when the Boks were in Buenos Aires for their first World Cup warm-up match against Argentina, then he participated fully in what he described as the Boks’ charged up final training sessions before Saturday’s departure.
Asked if he was physically where he wanted to be ahead of the Welsh friendly, Kolisi sounded positive.
“You can only know that when you get on the field,” he explained.
“Our training sessions help a lot because they’re like rugby club rugby games. The most important thing for me is I’m not thinking about the knee at the moment. The fitness will come. We had a session on Thursday where it got heated a little bit, but in a good way, and I forgot about my knee and just got stuck in.
“That’s a good sign. Getting over that [flinching in contact] is all I care about right now. I just need to get as many minutes on the field and in training as possible. The coaches are making sure that I don’t swap in during training and I stay on the whole time, which is tough on the fitness.”
Koilisi said he hadn’t struggled with the twin burden of his private injury woes and trying to be there for the team in his capacity as their leader.
“Right now I’m not worried about the knee. If something happens, it happens. If I go in there with those small voices in my head, I won’t be able to lead the group. That’s why training and what I do in the week have been so important … there’s no ways I’m playing and having doubts in my head.
“Also, what I enjoy about the leaders in the group, I can tell them ‘just take charge for a bit of time so I can focus on me’ because I’m always at my best when I’m playing and playing well.
“That’s why I rely on the other leaders, when we came back from the World Cup, I’d say to Handre [Pollard]: ‘Listen, for the next few minutes can you make decisions? I just need to play a little bit’. And then later in the game I’d tell them I’m good again.
“I can be open and honest about that because it’s not about me, it’s about what the team needs at that time.”
After the Wales game, the Boks’ final World Cup warm-up match is a blockbuster affair against New Zealand at Twickenham on 25 August.
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