LONDON (Reuters) – South Africa are gunning for a morale-boosting victory ahead of the World Cup when they face old foe New Zealand in a final warm-up at Twickenham on Friday, as captain Siya Kolisi says they will hold nothing back in what he expects to be a “beautiful game”.
The teams are on a potential collision course in the World Cup quarter-finals, but Kolisi maintains his side are only thinking about Friday and how they can avenge a 35-20 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland during the Rugby Championship.
New Zealand are taking no chances either having selected arguably their best available side, and Kolisi has welcomed the challenge.
“That shows what the intent is, this is not a friendly game. It has never been,” the Springbok skipper told reporters on Thursday. “We are looking forward to the battle, it will be a physical game as usual in one of the biggest rivalries in sport.
“We will not hold anything back. There are 82,000 people coming to see us and we don’t want to disappoint those who have paid money to watch this game. We want to give it everything on the field and I think it will be a beautiful game.”
England have been rocked by two red cards in successive matches that will see captain Owen Farrell and number eight Billy Vunipola miss the team’s opening fixture of the World Cup against Argentina.
In what is going to be a fierce physical, fast-paced battle against New Zealand, there is the potential that tackles could get higher, but Kolisi says the Boks are unlikely to make the same mistakes as the England pair.
“We train over and over with our technique. Rugby is played at a certain height now, with the mauling, scrumming, breakdown and tackle,” he said.
“We can be as physical as we are because we have trained for it over and over, and the muscle memory is on it. It is uncomfortable down there, it is not nice when someone so big is running at you and you have to get down low.
“That is why you have to learn how to meet them and react to a level change and all those types of things. It takes a lot of hard work.”
But Kolisi says he has no issue with the strict rules put in place by officials.
“World Rugby is trying to protect us by keeping the game clean, so we are fine when are done playing,” he said.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Toby Davis)
