Springbok captain Siya Kolisi’s miraculous recovery from a facial fracture may have the All Blacks scratching their heads, but Kolisi decided himself to rather wait to fix a nose fracture until after this weekend’s match against the All Blacks in Cape Town.
Coach Rassie Erasmus explained that Kolisi, who looked battered after the win at Ellis Park, had a nose fracture and not a cheek fracture as initially feared, and that the medical advice was that he could either play on, or get it reset.
Kolisi chose to try and help his side this weekend in their quest to sew up the Castle Lager Rugby Championship if they can inflict defeat on the All Blacks for a second week in a row.
“I don’t want to sound like a medical doctor because I’m not. But he has two options - one is to get it fixed straight away - it has to be reset - it is a nose fracture. But he can either get it placed back now, and he is out for three weeks, or the doc said he can wait two weeks and then put it back,” Erasmus explained.
“The massive game we are facing, not just for the Rugby Championship, but playing the All Blacks here in Cape Town is a big one, and everyone wants to play there. I must say I saw a few faces when we announced the team on Monday. A guy like Marco (van Staden) must be desperately disappointed, not because he didn’t play in Siya’s place, but because we didn’t go for a six-two bench.
“Siya wanted the option to play now and be reset in two weeks time.”
NO SAM CITE
While it has been the source of disbelief that Sam Cane - the same player who was red carded in the World Cup final, was not disciplined for the hit on Kolisi that left him in the state, Erasmus shrugged it off, pointing to the team decision not to cite Cane for the hit.
Erasmus pointed to a deeper understanding between the two sides that motivated that decision.
“Siya’s injury was obvious when Sam hit him,” Erasmus said.
“I will never forget when Sam broke his neck during a game against us at Ellis Park. I visited him on Monday morning. The All Blacks had already flown back to New Zealand. I broke my jaw while playing in Sydney. I know how lonely it gets in a foreign country. You are alone, you don’t know how the medical aid works or how good the doctors are.
“So we know each other a little bit closer than the other All Blacks. I had a coffee and chatted with him. You could see he was going through a tough time. A neck injury can stop your whole career.
NOT ON PURPOSE
“To be honest with you, I don’t think he did that tackle on purpose. A yellow card might have been appropriate or a penalty. But I told him afterwards that we weren’t going to cite him. You have 12 hours after a game to cite a player. If the Citing Commissioner picked it up and thought it met the red card threshold, then he would investigate, but they went through everything and it didn’t come up.
“Sam came over and apologised. When you look at the action, yes, he could go a bit lower, but it was just a head-on-head. It wasn’t the shoulder. Sometimes it goes for you and against you. The poor guy was red carded in a World Cup final. It wouldn’t have been nice to see him get a red card again.”