Rassie Erasmus & Siya Kolisi — Springbok Press Conference — 20 June 2026

[0:00] yeah obviously those couple of tries that they score very quickly after each other [0:06] again a yellow card is not a nice thing that discipline there um but i think we have to [0:12] remind ourselves that it's been months you know seven six months that we've since we've played [0:16] together and it was kind of puzzling guys into the mix not knowing when the storm was really [0:21] available when the bulls will be available so um i think we have to keep that in our back of our [0:27] minds um so i think cohesion was 100 to be honest with you and then yeah we scored 80 points which [0:33] is nice but we also know the barbarians are a team that were flanced together they had three training [0:38] sessions so um also makes difficult to analyze them and know what they're going to bring to the [0:43] party and they certainly score four or five really great try so we'd like to eliminate that and be [0:49] better as a unit when we play england no i was i was i was fine i was finally just the later the game [1:03] goes if we when we allow the other team to do let them play they want to play it actually it becomes [1:08] a bit harder but i felt good um in the game i don't know coach will tell me after when we watch the [1:14] game but yeah um i thought i thought we played you know then when at the beginning when the way we [1:20] wanted to play you could see and then we had weak moments or as soon as we got up a little bit higher [1:24] you know so yeah um but as in general i feel good in the game yeah yeah funnily enough i think one [1:43] of kin's strengths is his defense and the first try was the guy just who ran over him and obviously [1:48] conceded right there but the nice thing was he didn't take him off of focus and and in the game [1:53] he certainly had some wonderful passes creating tries for guys kicked really well to touch and i want [1:58] know the one boy did that kick over the dead ball line for for touch uh but this is what this game [2:02] was for to to sort out a few problems to get some answers and more problems that that that we got [2:09] in the game so overall i thought he did really well i think voosie also is a really calm guy and i think [2:14] he's really impressive um so yeah i think he impressed us as well so happy with kieran a guy like riley 19 20 [2:20] years old playing a full match against crown man uh that's not easy i think pulled it well when he came on so [2:27] uh ivan was good um who's the other guys uh you know i thought thought faf was was decent when he [2:33] got back into the mix um on the sa side um obviously stocker ran the show there but i really thought they [2:40] they did really well uh it's difficult to gauge how good zimbabwe really are um but they really i [2:46] thought they stood really well to their structures the whole game i thought they were really impressive [2:50] and it's now for us to to cut the squad to 40 45 um and that's going to be done tonight so yeah [2:58] overall i think boxes stick um can't moan about the attack when you get 80 points so obviously the [3:04] thing to have to moan about is defense that we will have to sort out hello uh no no there isn't i'm [3:16] worried about his ankle so uh it's the old story he's going for the scans tomorrow and hopefully it's not [3:22] too bad so it doesn't normally come off the field if it's not too serious just speaking about uh this [3:32] opportunity for confidence of the likes of a riding motor and mostly to be a part of the springbok uh [3:39] squad before they go out to the under 20 world championships and also what does it mean for the [3:44] south african rugby pipeline to be able to have these guys coming in and integrating with the springboks [3:50] no look the positive is that uh last night for the bulls there was probably between 15 and 17 [3:55] players that's in our mix i think that's my my math is correct 15 players that could have played for [4:01] us you know thomas the toy wasn't here uh who can who can play for us uh and then we played a side [4:08] against zimbabwe and i think there's talent you know a little under fullback uh there's so there's so [4:15] many talent and and the pipeline is really great and it's it's created to essay rugby and the structure [4:20] see because we're really getting a bunch of players at the top level when they come into our system [4:25] it's like they're not not scared they don't sit there with big eyes and they're really calm and [4:29] and uh i think that's a compliment so i think it builds well for the future and certainly [4:35] if we don't do well we can never moan it's essay rugby's fault or the structure's fault you know [4:39] probably a coaching thing or a player thing so i think we we've got a green patch at this stage [4:44] grassy um obviously i mean the judge plays on the single game the goals didn't do very well last [4:50] time but is there concern in individuals like hundred perhaps in some form there that when the [4:56] guys come to camp it's tough to to uh point fingers at somebody when he plays at his franchise [5:03] but and you've worked so much with him i myself since 2018 2017 worked with him uh some guys in some [5:10] structure sharks didn't do really well this year but when we get them here of course we know what we [5:16] have in them and we know how they understand our game plan so it's difficult to sometimes speak [5:22] from franchise form if you know what i'm saying it's it's difficult would you know don't know the [5:27] setup the the team spirit what happened in that week are the guys all in sync are they all happy and [5:33] also and akars is that's a great coach but obviously hundred didn't play didn't shoot the lights out [5:39] but he's never not done it for us you know he's always been solid for us so um it's difficult to [5:44] judge that i mean obviously a lot of people has a lot of comments about that we know what he can [5:48] do he's 31 he's not an old guy uh why would he all of a sudden play badly you know is there injury [5:54] no there's not an injury so maybe it's just one of those one or two weeks that it wasn't great [6:16] well at hooker you've got i'll rather name it to you then then we decide together you know so like [6:23] malcolm we have we have grovis we have um uh setu uh which we think is the bright future with andre [6:30] hugo we had jj here we can mark off and start and can play uh so that's six um uh that was in the [6:37] mix this this weekend so uh malcolm is fine uh grovis is fine and then jane hendrik can play hooker for [6:45] us so i think our stocks at hooker is okay uh obviously bongi is a guy that that that moved out of the [6:50] system now purely because he hasn't played for four months we haven't seen him in the rugby field so [6:58] the moment he's fit and can play and can do the fitness test again it would be lovely to do a [7:03] fitness test with him and see how he goes but so if you count only bongi out uh since the last three [7:09] years bongi is the only hooker that's out of the system uh and an hendrik can play there and marco can [7:14] play there and uh which is named andre hugo can play there so if you take when we played in the world cup [7:20] final it was 2023 we dion fourree we had only dion fourree and marco bongi went off in the first five [7:27] minutes and and we were okay so our hooker stocks at this stage is better than it was in 23 and 24 and [7:35] in 2019 locks certainly i think it's a well documented or spoken about uh what rally came through the whole [7:43] game and he played against men today and he trains again against springbok players uh now so is hopefully [7:49] not too bad ruan uh played for the bulls last night because visa is still there um and then within our [7:56] group loot is is in the group um so even even is ready to play so uh when you see it lots of injuries [8:04] uh you don't always look at the backup that comes through because they they're not settled and they [8:08] haven't played a lot so i think we're okay uh i think we're in better position than many other countries [8:13] so i can't learn well they did obviously i understand the people of the country where [8:32] it was it was a tough first loss you know they weren't really happy but the way they answered [8:37] the second game i mean the amount of attacking they did but they just couldn't get the opportunity and [8:42] fought till the end and obviously got the penalty i really believe they have it in them and um i think [8:47] um like we we don't always get it right like our first game in the world cup we we lost against the [8:54] new zealand so we just need to get behind them because i know for a fact that ronman and his team [9:00] are giving their best at all times so let's just be as positive as we can skate behind them and for [9:06] them yeah they i can't tell them what to do in soccer but what coach always tells us the other team [9:11] can't outwork you the intensity of the game that's really important and i'm sure um they know because i know [9:17] as africans like coach will tell us like we they want to see you work out they don't want to see [9:23] you give up you know it must always look like it must be a fight it mustn't look like a fight so [9:27] that's all um i can say from my side but i can't talk anything technically and then obviously [9:33] all the best to the women's cricket team as well who came back and won their second game and they're [9:38] also doing they think they're laura and the girls i mean they also do well no thoughts on today [9:44] um and you feel that uh this game kind of got you i mean the rules weren't with you but you guys are [9:51] sort of that already as you would like to be um after this game yeah no i thought yeah the a lot of [9:58] this stuff that we wanted to get through i think we did a lot of it but also when things didn't work [10:04] well you know when we went against the plan we also got got some lessons there you know on what when [10:11] the plan doesn't work or when you don't do the plan like these are the things that you know happens to [10:15] us as a team so um yeah there's i always have to watch the game but i already know like some of the [10:22] mistakes or some of the fix-up we we have to do as a team but a lot of what we wanted to do we saw [10:27] there and i think the opportunities that that they had i felt we could have controlled it a little bit [10:33] better as a group oh speed uh agility uh lively they you know when you're 19 18 years old you fast [10:54] and you're nippy um but and that's impressive and that helps um uh and there's even other younger guys [11:01] like paul uh who really did well uh so there's a lot of guys who did well but i think the thing that [11:07] surprised me the most because we've tried a lot of things with alignment camps you know uh there's so [11:11] many guys that from different competitions which we have tested and they haven't made it but this [11:16] bunch of guys uh apart from youth and exuberant and busy and fast and nippy uh there's a calmness [11:24] around this group which i know i've said it already this week which i'm not talking about [11:28] the springbok group i'm talking of the junior springbok guys who's with us there's a maturity [11:33] about them that i haven't seen a lot in 18 19 20 year old guys and i think the senior players could [11:39] feel that uh or maybe they they fed off of one another but there's certainly hell of a solid [11:45] matureness about them and uh not intimidated by game plans and sitting in lecture sessions and [11:50] being on the field with all the players uh and i think that dropped off to the senior players because [11:55] there's a circle of life you know some guys go out of the system and young guys come in and [12:00] when i was a young player young young players struggled to get into the springbok setup calm and [12:05] and then and i think these guys uh well dave and kevin the epd structure certainly has done something right there