CHESLIN KOLBE KEPT it short and sweet when asked how his teammate Manie Libbok was feeling after his role in last night’s breathless World Cup clash between Ireland and South Africa in Paris, grouping the squad’s pain with that of the Springbok out-half.
“I don’t think anybody is okay after it,” said Kolbe, who crossed for South Africa in the 51st minute.
After a ferociously intense encounter at the Stade de France Ireland came out on top with a 13-8 win, but the feeling in both camps was that on another night, the result may have been different.
There is very little between these two heavyweights. Ireland were frustrated by a malfunctioning lineout in the opening quarter. Libbok left five points behind him from the tee while scrum-half Faf de Klerk missed his two kicks at goal. Small margins, and that’s before going into the countless moments which felt like potential momentum swings.
A massive game to win, a painful one to lose.
“We knew it was going to be a lot of intensity and a lot of physicality up until the end of the game,” Kolbe continued.
“Both teams did that from the beginning and you can’t fault the commitment every player showed out there on the field. It’s disappointing for us and hopefully it can just make us stronger as a team ahead of the next match against Tonga.”
The Libbok issue is becoming a growing concern for the Springboks. There is no doubting the out-half’s ability with ball in hand but his unreliability off the tee is a problem the defending need to address. It will be interesting to see how they select going forward, with Handre Pollard surely set to come back into the side imminently.
“Obviously gutted for him,” Kolbe added.
“He is professional enough and he doesn’t go out there to miss kicks. No player goes out to make mistakes but we back each other and we just focus on the next opportunity in the next game. We can only learn and grow from this and my advice is just to keep backing each other and believe in each other.
“We have a good group culture, it is just incredible in this team. We can keep our heads high. We are disappointed but we can learn a lot from this.”
Lock RG Snyman pointed to Ireland’s work at the breakdown as a key area of the contest. The Munster player, who made a huge impact following his introduction early in the second half, offered his thoughts after swapping jerseys with his club teammate, Tadhg Beirne.
“I don’t really think they brought anything different to what we had seen, they just really stuck to their guns tonight,” Snyman said.
“I think they were probably the better team tonight because every opportunity they got, they used it.
They have great guys who can get over the ball, so we definitely expected that, but I don’t think we expected it to that extent.
“I don’t think there was a lack of effort from our side. I just think opportunities in their 22, we should have done much better on that. I guess on the night they were a bit better than us.
“We should probably look after the ball a bit better in the 22 and just stick to what we do.”
Ireland can now look forward to a 7 October clash with Scotland while South Africa will expect to get back to winning ways against Tonga.
The two teams remain favourites to advance from the pool and given what we saw on Saturday night, there’s a strong chance this World Cup will see a rematch further down the line.
“As far as Test matches go, that really was up there,” Snyman added.
“It was a good contest between number one and number two in the world. We probably could have used our opportunities better, so that’s what we’ve got to work on.
“I must say, in the 30 Tests I’ve had that’s definitely up there. It was definitely a physical battle and they really stuck in there tonight.”
Might meet again in the final dont think we all can go through that again beat scotland first then new zealand who still scare me
@Sèan: NZ are always capable of bearing anyone. I agree, I don’t want to play SA again but I think they might struggle against France. France are more than a match for them up front and better behind the scrum. I fancy France to win that one, even without Dupont.
@rayridge….if there was an award for bellend of the weekend you would undoubtedly have it on your mantlepiece
The IRFU are writing a letter asking can’t we be the 33rd team, oh sorry that was the FAI. The IRFU are writing a letter can’t New Zealander Ben O’ Keefe be the referee if we get to play New Zealand in the quarter finals. #benyoubeauty
@Ray Ridge: Good man Ray
@Ray Ridge: he was a great ref for SA , gave them a lot of soft penalties in that second half
@Ray Ridge: what do you get from this BS.
@chris mcdonnell: if he called if for SA he gets an excuse?
@Owen ODonoghue: and as the over head camera showed a few times, they were the first to engage..
Delighted rassie was on the losing side,with his ridiculous shining lights at his team.he almost ruined a good Munster team when he was in charge of them…s.a rugby is terrible to watch with bash bosh up the middle ,dreadful stuff altogether. I hope France wind up meeting them and send them home ! And I hope the stamp on jvdf’s hand is being looked at and consequences dished out.nasty stuff
Can see us getting close to a final with that lineout.
@tom o neill: The lineout will be fixed. Remember Kelleher has only a small amount of game time this season and Sheenan looked good when he came on.
@tom o neill: we just beat the world champions with that lineout, we won a grand slam with the same lineout. We have some of the URC champions and the champions cup finalist in that lineout. We don’t seem to have lost too many games so far with that lineout.
@chris mcdonnell: I’d say we beat them in spite of that lineout might be more constructive?
Whatever happened to jamrag?