South Africa and New Zealand won't "hold anything back" in Twickenham warm-up
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi says this isn't the time for the Springboks 'to hold anything back' with the World Cup just around the corner
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Friday night’s match against New Zealand in front of an expectant Twickenham crowd will be South Africa’s final World Cup warm-up fixture before heading to France.
It’s labelled as a friendly but having seen the team selections from both sides, as well as hearing All Blacks head coach Ian Foster claim "the only way to go is full throttle", it is set to be anything but.
The Boks have picked a ferocious, possibly full-strength pack, with Siya Kolisi at six, for his second outing since returning from his ACL injury last weekend against Wales.
The selection "shows what the intent is," according to the South Africa captain: "We’ve never had any friendlies against the All Blacks but I think it’s a good thing. We’re all excited and it will be a physical game as usual.
"We’re not going to hold anything back. 82,000 people have paid to come and see us so there’s no time to hold back. I don’t know if we’ll ever get this opportunity again to play outside the World Cup in the northern hemisphere.
"It’s one of the biggest rivalries in sporting history. There’s a lot of people from South Africa who live in the UK who would never get to see us play against the All Blacks. I hope it’s an ugly, tough game but also beautiful at the same time."
Earlier this summer in The Rugby Championship, the All Blacks despatched South Africa with relative ease with a comfortable 35-20 win in Auckland. Kolisi says that the match has been reviewed thoroughly and they are eager to put it right.
"We looked at the game and saw what they did well and we saw what we need to do in this game to make sure that the repeat of that does not happen. We weren’t ourselves at the beginning of the game and they came out hard and we were on the back foot. I’m sure we’ve learned from that."
During the last two weeks, the on-field rugby has made way somewhat and the headlines have been dominated by the unprecedented off-field drama of Owen Farrell’s red card saga.
Tackle technique is more prominent than it has ever been in rugby and Kolisi said that it is an area South Africa continuously focus on whilst also maintaining physical dominance.
"When we review after training, you get told that ‘this is too high’ or on the border. We train over and over with our technique and we work as hard as we can. This is why when we go out onto the field, we can be as physical as we can. The muscle memory is so on it. We know how important it is because, at the end of the day, World Rugby are trying to protect us so that’s why we work so hard on it."
Within all of this, World Rugby’s new bunker system has come under fire but Kolisi has backed its introduction and is pleased to see it be part of international rugby.
He said: "World Rugby don’t want to slow down the game. They want to make the game fast. They want to grow the game and have it be entertaining instead of waiting and watching the decision over and over when you know something is foul play. It’s better to let someone outside decide if it is red because people get bored if the game is stopped. We understand because it is a business after all and we want more people watching the game."
The Springbok captain returned to action last weekend having been on the sidelines since April with a knee injury. He was pulled off after 40 minutes in Cardiff and he is looking to gradually build up back to Test match level intensity with "60 minutes minimum" his target for this week.
"Last week felt good and I’ve felt good in the week. For this week, I’m hoping to go as long as possible but I think 60 minutes minimum. I’m going to give everything I can and if I get taken off at 40 minutes then so be it. There’s definitely no holding back and no better opposition to test yourself against."
