Springbok star Cheslin Kolbe stands on the brink of a massive milestone for his country as he closes in on 100 points in the Green and Gold.
Kolbe scored his 15th Test try against Ireland at Loftus Versfeld to move within four points of cracking the 100 points mark.
Will Cheslin Kolbe bring 100 points against Ireland?
On top of his try-scoring, Kolbe has also scored some points off the boot, kicking three conversions and five penalties in his career to date.
Kolbe is unlikely to be given the kicking duties on Saturday with Handre Pollard starting as the chief goal-kicker. The Springboks also have Faf de Klerk as backup in that department and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu on the bench.
However, in his current form you wouldn’t bet against Kolbe getting onto the scoreboard as a tryscorer in the second Test against Ireland.
Springboks must improve
Rassie Erasmus believes the Springboks have to improve on their Loftus performance if they are to win the series against Ireland.
“It’s always tough facing Ireland,” said Erasmus. “They are a quality team, they are ranked second in the world, and as we saw last week, they never stop fighting, so we know the magnitude of the challenge that awaits us this weekend.
“We have no doubt they’ll come out even stronger this week, but we also identified the areas of the game that we need to improve on, and it’s vital for us to build on our performance in our quest to win both matches.”
Erasmus claimed that no attention was paid to records when it comes to caps when naming his team.
“We don’t really look at such things when we select the team, but this shows how blessed we are with the depth in the squad and the quality of the players we have.
“While it may be an impressive statistic, it will by no means guarantee us a victory. We know we must go out there and play good rugby for the full 80 minutes to get the desired result.”
Team to face Ireland
15 – Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls) – 94 caps, 75 pts (15t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 32 caps, 96 points (15t, 3c, 5p)
13 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 70 caps, 80 points (16t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 80 caps, 55 points (11t)
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 16 caps, 70 points (14t)
10 – Handré Pollard (Leicester Tigers) – 70 caps, 708 points (7t, 98c, 154p, 5dg)
9 – Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles) – 57 caps, 50 points (5t, 5c, 5pg)
8 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 42 caps, 35 pts (7t)
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 79 caps, 40 points (8t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Racing 92) – 84 caps, 50 points (10t)
5 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 75 caps, 15 points (3t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 121 caps, 30 points (6t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 71 caps, 5 points (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 70 caps, 70 points (14t)
1 – Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 29 caps, 0 pts
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 66 caps, 85 points (17t)
17 – Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 2 caps, 0 points
18 – Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 51 caps, 0 points
19 – Salmaan Moerat (DHL Stormers) – 5 caps, 0 points
20 – RG Snyman (Leinster) – 35 caps, 10 points (2t)
21 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 19 caps, 0 pts
22 – Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 10 caps, 10 points (2t)
23 – Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers) – 2 caps, 7 points (2c, 1p)
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