Siya Kolisi proves he's still the Springboks' go-to man

03/24/2025 07:07 AM

There’s been a cloud of uncertainty surrounding Siya Kolisi’s Springbok future as he enters the twilight years of his career.

The World Cup-winning captain was back to his best last Saturday, steering the Sharks to a nail-biting 35-34 victory over Italian side Zebre, which could have gone either way. Kolisi opened the scoring in the 3rd minute before adding another around the half-an-hour mark.

Although Sharks failed to control the game, the Springbok captain’s impressive performance earned him the Man of the Match award, proving why he has every right to be in the conversation for Rassie Erasmus’s starting fifteen.

Plumtree feedback

Along with aiding their playoff contention, Kolisi’s grit was one of the few positives Sharks will take away from the game.

"[We will take] a good honest look at ourselves on Monday", Sharks coach John Plumtree said after the match.

"It's going to take a while to digest that performance and it just shows you that no matter who you play against, if your skill sets are poor and you can't build pressure with the ball, win the aerial battles and dominate the kicking game, it's going to be a long day at the office,

"It doesn't get much uglier than today's performance. We can't take credit away from Zebre, they've been great this season. They were dangerous and their fullback was unreal. You have to be careful, there are no easy games in this competition. In the middle of the park we weren't good enough today,

“The kicking today was poor. We weren't winning our contestable kicks and that hurt us. We made it easy for them. Our skills were terrible and that nearly cost us the game."

Does Kolisi deserve to be a Springbok starter?

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