NEW BEGINNING
Inspirational Kolisi leads country to a memorable victory at SA’s home of rugby
Siya Kolisi leads his men onto the field to face England in his first match as captain of the Springboks. The Boks marked the historic occasion with a 42-39 victory at Ellis Park Stadium last night.
● If you believe in celestial influences, the conclusion will be that it sided with the Springboks led by inspirational Siya Kolisi at the grand venue of South African rugby.
On this historic day when a black African captained the side for the first time, other blacks in the form of S’busiso Nkosi and Aphiwe Dyantyi introduced themselves to international rugby in style in front of a passionate near-capacity crowd.
Debutant Nkosi returned with two welltaken tries and Dyantyi scored one in the second half to help the Boks preserve their impressive record of not having lost to England in South Africa since 2000.
Nkosi was joined by Dyantyi and RG Snyman in their first international in a Springboks side with an average age of 26 years and 240 days and managed to hold their own against an experienced England side.
The Boks overcame a stuttering start as England rattled them with three unanswered tries from Mike Brown, Elliot Daly and Owen Farrell inside 17 minutes.
When Faf de Klerk scored South Africa’s first try in the 20th minute, it proved to be the tonic for the hosts and they never looked back as they went on to score four more tries that secured victory.
In many ways England, who strangely decided to set up camp in Durban for this series, suffered to keep up with the pace and high work rate of the Springboks in the second half as they clearly struggled with altitude and a similar fate awaits them in the second test in Bloemfontein this weekend.
Barring the opening 17 minutes when they were stunned by their visitors, it was an all-round solid team performance by the Boks with Nkosi shining the brightest as a result of his two tries in the first half that dragged his team back into the game.
Kolisi, who wore the same No 6 jersey at the same venue where former president Nelson Mandela handed Francois Pienaar the Webb Ellis Cup in 1995, led from the front with a solid shift and notable mentions go to Nkosi, Dyantyi, Willie le Roux, Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard.
The other tries for the Springboks in the first half were scored by De Klerk and Le Roux with Pollard scoring three conversions and a penalty in the process and they continued to dominate in the second half.
After the break Pollard increased the Boks’ lead with a penalty before Dyantyi scored his first at this level and it was followed by another penalty from Pollard and South Africa’s job was made easier when Billy Vunipola saw red for a dangerous tackle after 63 minutes.
Despite being a man down, England scored two late tries through Maro Itoje and
It was an all-round solid team performance by the Boks with Nkosi shining brightest with his two tries
Jonny May but the damage was already done as England suffered a fifth loss in succession.
They suffered three defeats in the Six Nations where they finished a disappointing fifth and that was followed by a grim ordeal late last month at the hands of the Barbarians, who scored nine tries.
England have their fair share of problems coming into this series following a club-versus-country issue over the injury toll at their training camps and an awkward stand-off with the New Zealand Rugby Union over the recruitment of Kiwi flanker Brad Shields.
To add to the long casualty list there was disruptive news that defence coach Paul Gustard will soon leave to take charge at Harlequins as they arrived in the country after what has been a turbulent few weeks.
The Springboks will win this series with more of the same in Bloemfontein on Saturday, with one match in Cape Town remaining.
Judging by the way they played in Johannesburg it is going to take something special to stop this youthful Bok side.