Rassie Erasmus revealed that Siya Kolisi deferred a tournament-ending procedure to reset his fractured nose in order to lead the Springboks this week. DYLAN JACK reports.
Kolisi, who took a blow to the face during the win against New Zealand at Ellis Park, will captain a rejigged Bok lineup on Saturday.
TEAM: Siya cleared to tackle All Blacks
The Bok skipper was doubtful for the match, but has been cleared after taking full part in the training sessions this week.
After naming the team on Thursday morning, Erasmus said that Kolisi has a fractured nose, but opted to delay getting it reset to face the All Blacks. However, what that does mean is that Kolisi could miss the final two games of the tournament against Argentina.
“Siya had two options. It’s a nose fracture and it has to be reset. He could get it closed up now, but then he’s out for the next three weeks. The doc said he could wait two weeks and then put it back in place,” Erasmus said.
“The massiveness of this game, not just for the Rugby Championship, but for us playing against the All Blacks in Cape Town. It’s a big one and everybody wants to play.
“I must say, I saw a few sad faces when I announced the team on Monday. I think Marco [van Staden] must be very disappointed, not only because he didn’t play in Siya’s place, but also because we didn’t go with a 6-2 split. The guys have handled it really well.
“Siya himself wanted the option to play now and get it reset in two weeks time.
“I asked Siya on Sunday, ‘Will you be half-hearted going into contact?’, because his nose is sore, it was swelled up. That’s why I didn’t announce the team on Tuesday, because Siya had to get through training. Internally, we announced the team with him starting but slashed with Marco. On Monday, he did all the contact sessions, on Tuesday he went right through.
“The only problem would’ve been if he was hesitant about it breaking further. So yeah, he might end up looking like Kwagga [Smith].”
Erasmus said that the Springboks opted not to cite Sam Cane, whose high tackle resulted in Kolisi suffering the fracture.
“Siya’s injury was obviously when Sam hit him,” Erasmus said.
“I will never forget when Sam broke his neck during a game against us at Ellis Park. I visited him on the Monday morning. The All Blacks had already flown back to New Zealand. I broke my jaw while playing in Sydney. I know how lonely it gets in a foreign country. You are alone, you don’t know how the medical aid works or how good the doctors are.
“So we know each other a little bit closer than the other All Blacks. I had a coffee and chat with him. You could see he was going through a tough time. A neck injury can stop your whole career.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think he did that tackle on purpose. A yellow card might have been appropriate or a penalty. But I told him afterwards that we weren’t going to cite him. You have 12 hours after a game to cite a player. If the Citing Commissioner picked it up and thought it met the red card threshold, then he would investigate, but they went through everything and it didn’t come up.
“Sam came over and apologised. When you look at the action, yes, he could go a bit lower, but it was just a head-on-head. It wasn’t the shoulder. Sometimes it goes for you and against you. The poor guy was red carded in a World Cup final. It wouldn’t have been nice to see him get a red card again.”
Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
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