Kolisi keen to wrap up season with Wales win, confident in Gatland / Photo: Paul ELLIS - AFP/File
Kolisi keen to wrap up season with Wales win, confident in Gatland
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi says his side want to wrap up their strong season with victory over Wales on Saturday, adding he is confident Warren Gatland is the coach to turn Welsh woes around.
The Springboks go into their 13th and final match of 2024 with 10 wins and two losses, both single-point defeats to Argentina and Ireland respectively.
After leading the Boks to back-to-back Rugby World Cup glory, Kolisi then steered them to the Rugby Championship title.
A victory on Saturday would also be the first time they've won all their matches on their November tour since 2013.
It has been a different story for Wales, without a victory in a record 11 Tests since the World Cup in France and strong favourites to lose again come the clash at the Principality Stadium.
"We know what Wales are experiencing at the moment and we all saw their score last week," Kolisi said of their 52-20 thrashing by Australia.
"But if one looks at their forwards in particular, they won over five scrum penalties, and they have a pack that can lay a good foundation."
While Wales' forwards did have the front foot against the Wallabies, the same could not be said for the inexperienced backline.
However, Kolisi insisted Gatland -- who led Wales to four Six Nations titles and two World Cup semi-finals in his first stint in charge -- was the man to right the ship.
"No player or coaches train to lose and I feel for them," the flanker said.
"I know they will get out of it. If anybody can get them out of it, it's coach Gatland.
"He has given a lot of new guys opportunities. It's a new team. I don't think we have seen a Welsh team with so few caps.
"Things like that take time and the more they play, the better they will get because it's giving them lots of experience.
"I am not too stressed for them because we have been in that situation and you just pull tighter."
- Focus on ourselves -
Kolisi added, however, that within the Springbok camp, "the focus is on ourselves".
"We want to ensure that we deliver a better performance than we did in the last two games and finish the season properly," he said in reference to victories over Scotland (35-12) and England (29-20).
"We've faced Wales many times and playing against them in Cardiff is a different story. In fact, many of us have lost against them here before," said the Bok captain.
Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick warned what the coaching staff expected of their players.
"We are looking for a complete team performance for 80 minutes," he said.
"We were not as effective in our execution and discipline as we would have liked to be against England and that's not the way we want to play, so we are determined to improve on that performance.
"We take pride in the way we do things, so we want to finish the season on a strong note and see the forwards and backs complement one another until the final whistle."
Stick added there would be no underestimating Wales.
"The motivation is high in the team to finish the tour with three wins out of three. It's been a tough season with two matches against the All Blacks and Ireland, so we want to make sure we finish it strongly," he said.
"Wales may be going through a tough time as a team, but we've also been there before and turned things around, and they'll feel exactly the same in their changing room tomorrow."
S.Martin--RTC
