Bok wing Cheslin Kolbe expects an authentic finals battle against Wales with plenty of kicking.
SPRINGBOK wing Cheslin Kolbe is expecting an aerial assault from Wales in Saturday’s 5.05pm series decider at Cape Town Stadium.
With the series tied at 1-1, the winner-takes-all clash in the Mother City will be a historic battle, as it will be the first international rugby match played in front of fans at the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium.
Kapenaar Kolbe wants to make it a special one, but he expects an authentic finals battle – a fight for dominance up front, with loads of kicking.
🇿🇦 The Springbok team for tomorrow's #CastleIncomingSeries decider against Wales in Cape Town. #StrongerTogether #StrongerForever pic.twitter.com/SEIjUCg8Ht
— Springboks (@Springboks) July 15, 2022
Of the aerial battle with the Welsh, the winger says: “Whenever kicks need to be kicked, we [the wingers] must make sure we chase hard and get into that aerial battle.
“Wales and the Boks have a similar plan and [Josh] Adams and Louis [Reece-Zammit] are amazing players with a lot of experience. It will be a good challenge to come up against them again.”
Kolbe, though, knows winning the aerial battle is only one part of the battle and with the Boks having failed to cross the whitewash in last week’s 13-12 defeat in Bloemfontein, he says they will go all-out to score tries again.
Kolbe scored one of their four touchdowns in the 32-29 first-Test win at Loftus Versfeld and says: “We’ve got amazing backline players and forwards …
“We all love to run with the ball and get one on ones, those moments will come. But mainly all the hard work is done up front.”
Wales, meanwhile, have made only one change to their starting XV with Adams replacing the injured Alex Cuthbert on the wing, as they chase a historic first series win in SA.
