Boks sweat on Kolisi
ERASMUS DID NOT SEE IT BUT IS SURE IT WAS UNINTENTIONAL Coach says they are learning to close out games.
An alleged head-butt by Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has cast a cloud over the South Africans’ gutsy 26-20 win over Scotland at a jam-packed Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday night.
Kolisi was caught on camera striking Scotland centre Pete Horne with his head, seemingly out of frustration after being pinned unlawfully to the ground by the midfielder, but Bok coach Rassie Erasmus did not believe his skipper’s actions were intentional.
“I didn’t see the incident, but I know the type of person he is, so it really would come as a surprise to me,” Erasmus said.
The citing commissioner had 24 hours to cite a player for foul play.
“If Siya was in the wrong we will have to accept what is coming our way,” Erasmus added.
Although not pretty, the result was a seventh victory for Erasmus in 13 matches, with the Boks set to face Wales at the Principality Stadiumin Cardiff this weekend in their final Test of the year.
While Wales had beaten the Boks in their last two outings, Erasmus said they had been boosted by their latest victory.
“To beat a Scotland team that has become a real force in world rugby, a team that is in the middle of a good home run, is satisfying,” he said.
“The current world rankings don’t indicate how tough it is to come and play here and we could have lost the game in the dying minutes.
“We’re definitely not the finished product yet, but we are slowly growing into a better team.”
Though both sides scored two tries, all in the first half, Erasmus was happy the tourists had managed to grind out the win, with flyhalf Handre Pollard contributing 18 points in a Man-of-theMatch performance.
“We’re learning how to close out games. That’s why we won this game, because Scotland were as good as us on the day.”
With fullback Willie le Roux being shown a yellow card five minutes into the second half, Erasmus said the character of the team had come through in that period.
“The maturity of this team is starting to show because we are now winning games from tight situations,” he said.
“We scored three points when Willie was off the field with a yellow card and they didn’t score.”