It wasn’t spoken about much but it was no doubt an understandable fear - sometimes it takes a while for a player returning from injury to get back his momentum and hit his straps, and it could well have been the case with the returning Springbok captain Siya Kolisi.
Full marks then to Kolisi for wasting no time in putting South African fans out of any agony as they waited. The game was just four minutes old when he produced what if he was watching his beloved Liverpool he would have referred to as an assist as he drove up strongly to release the pass that put Malcolm Marx in for the first Bok try.
Wisely the 2019 World Cup winning captain did not come out for the second half of his team’s 52-16 rout of a young and inexperienced Wales team at the Principality Stadium. But he had already made his point, perhaps in the process exceeding most expectations. His high work rate and strength in the carry did not make it look as though Kolisi had been away from rugby since he was injured in the Cell C Sharks’ final Vodacom United Rugby Championship league game against Munster in Durban in late April.
That was in fact just a few days less than four months ago, and yet Kolisi sustained a knee ligament injury that normally requires nine months of rehabilitation. There’s been talk of a miraculous recovery but in Cardiff Kolisi brought the confirmation. And afterwards he was quick to attribute much of his success on the comeback trail to his teammates and the contact preparation he went through towards the end of the rehab phase.
“It felt amazing,” said Kolisi. “I didn’t have any fear going into the game. Our training sessions prepared me a lot.
“I remember I asked the guys to come at me a little bit softer, but Pieter-Steph (du Toit) came to me and said, ‘trust me, you’re fine’. Those kinds of things you can’t buy – having a guy who has come through things like that.”
Kolisi’s confidence and obvious readiness for action was the highlight of an afternoon that also saw Jesse Kriel shine in the No 13 jersey and Canan Moodie produce a man of the match performance. But while the skipper was pleased being back on the field and with his team’s overall performance, he joined coach Jacques Nienaber in stressing that there’s work still to be done before the Boks can go into their opening World Cup game against Scotland in three weeks from now in a confident mood.
He also didn’t duck the fact that everyone will know far more about the Bok capabilities and their chances of retaining the World Cup trophy they won in Japan in 2019 once they have clashed with the old traditional enemy, the New Zealand All Blacks, in the final warmup game for France at Twickenham on Friday night.
“As a team we did well; I thought our discipline could be a lot better especially in the first half, but we wanted to stay disciplined in the system and I think we did that well. But next week is a different challenge and we’re going to have to get up again.”
Indeed, but with Kolisi’s impressive return, the jigsaw pieces appear to be coming together quite nicely. And while injuries can happen at any time, right now the minds of supporters should be at rest - the skipper looks ready to bring his A game at the World Cup. In fact, he doesn't look like he's been away.
