South Africa skipper Siya Kolisi ruled out of Rugby Championship opener against Australia

South Africa will miss the experience of skipper Siya Kolisi for the upcoming Rugby Championship opening game against Australia in Johannesburg on 21st July after the Stormers flanker failed to recover from a knee injury.

His participation for the second game of the tournament against New Zealand is also in doubt with head coach Erasmus insisting that the 28-year-old get some game time in Currie Cup to be fit and fresh for the World Cup.

“We will probably a bit conservative with Siya to make sure he is ready for the Rugby World Cup, which is the most important part of the year.

“We will wait for the results of his scans on Friday, and then we will take it from there and see what the return to play protocol will be.

“Siya will be training with us until we leave for New Zealand and then he will probably stay behind to play one or two Currie Cup games. Thereafter, we plan to get him back into playing Test match rugby, hopefully in the match against Argentina (in Pretoria on 17 August), and then it’s on the plane with us to Japan.

“I think if we push him now to go with us to New Zealand, we might end up with more than a 50 percent chance that he won’t go with us to the World Cup".

Kolisi has played 41 Tests for South Africa since his debut in 2013 and last played during the November internationals in 2018. He also made two appearances for the Springboks in 2015 World Cup.