Kolisi backs Kolbe to produce when Springboks face France

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has full belief in wing Cheslin Kolbe’s goal kicking abilities, as the Springboks prepare to take on France in their end-of-year-tour clash at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille on Saturday night (kick-off 10pm).

A lot has been made of the goal kicking struggles of the Boks in the lead up to the match, after costly misses from Kolbe and flyhalf Damian Willemse against Ireland, saw them just edged in a tight match.

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With France known as a very accurate team from the kicking tee, the match could again come down to the accuracy of the goal kickers, and with Kolbe being backed as the primary kicker, it will be interesting to see if he has improved over the week.

“He works hard on it. He’s got our backing, regardless of what happens. We know he’s going out there to give his ultimate best. But we don’t want to leave the result up to him. We want to play well enough so that doesn’t become the issue,” explained Kolisi.

“Next year, by this time, we would have had so many people who are able to kick at poles, so we would have been in this situation before. There is no pressure on Cheslin’s shoulders from us as a team. We just want him to play well and do what he always does. He will be fine, no matter what happens.”

Physicality key

Kolisi also admitted that physicality is going to be the key aspect of the game and if the Boks want to overcome a French team that is currently on an 11 match winning run, they will need to match them physically in all facets of play.

“Physicality will be the key aspect of the game. It is physicality from both teams because we are also going to bring a physical game. They (France) know what they are good at as a team and they do that very well and they don’t go away from it,” said Kolisi.

“They are able to impose their plan on other teams very well and that’s what we had to study as a team. So we are going to try and meet them in that. But we are generally a physical team as well. So it’s going to be a good test between our tactics and their tactics.

“The mauling and scrumming is going to be direct and it’s going to be about who wants it most.”

It is also going to be a balancing act for the Boks to try and improve their game from the past weekend’s match against Ireland, while also chasing what would be an important win against France, with two more games still to come on their tour.

“I think it goes hand in hand. For us we just want to make sure that we execute the plans that we have prepared in the week. The biggest thing was us creating so many opportunities and not taking them,” said Kolisi.

“This weekend we have a very good plan and it’s a big game. We always want to win in a Springbok jersey. We also want to build momentum going forward, which will make a difference to the team.

“We have been trying to build since last week, even though it didn’t go our way. But it’s going to be important to play them here. It’s going to be the same atmosphere (at the World Cup) next year, so it will be good to test all of us as a group to see if we are able to take the kind of pressure that we are going to feel on Saturday.”

The Boks also made a late change to the their match 23 on Friday, with eighthman Jasper Wiese not recovering from his concussion in time, which sees Kwagga Smith elevated from the bench to starting, and Deon Fourie slots onto the bench.