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.”