Kolisi surely no example

When a referee has to reprimand a team’s captain on his personal ill-discipline a red flag has to go up. This is what transpired last weekend at Newlands in the sometimes ill-tempered Super Rugby clash between the Lions and the Stormers.

But what is more alarming is that it is by the looks of it becoming a feature in the Stormers game after the same group-pushing flared up in the Chiefs game the week before.

Referee Jaco Peyper had to call Stormers captain Siya Kolisi to one side after he picked up Lions wing Courtnall Skosan and threw him to the ground and then drove his elbow into Skosan’s face.

This is not the only incident where Kolisi was guilty of dirty antics as he also pushed his finger into the eye of Lions scrumhalf Ross Cronje.

The frustrated Stormers obviously found it tough that they were being bullied – in rugby terms.

It’s beyond me that both these incidents went by unpunished, but Peyper did have a chat with Kolisi, reminding him it was not the kind of behaviour one expects from a captain who is expected to be an example – almost like the clean-cut image of Lions skipper Warren Whiteley.

To the Lions’ credit they didn’t allow these incidents to influence their focus and just after the Kolisi-Skosan incident, they pushed the Stormers off the ball in a scrum to make a massive statement – they are here to play rugby.

Stormers lock Eben Etzebeth also made himself guilty by storming into an incident where it was just handbag stuff to push Lions flank Ruan Ackermann in his face.

Wild guess? Yes, correct. It also went by unpunished.

Earlier Kolisi’s name was mentioned as a possible new Springbok captain, but after this game his shares must have dropped quite a few notches.