STADE DE FRANCE – Cheslin Kolbe’s father, Andrew, said before the World Cup kicked off that his son’s intimate knowledge of some of the French players would be to the advantage of the Springboks.
And that is exactly what happened in Sunday night’s quarterfinal when Kolbe charged down a crucial conversion of fullback Thomas Ramos.
This denied the France the extra two points which ultimately cost them a place in the semifinals because they lost by 28-29 against South Africa.
The defending World Champions will now play England the second semi-final on Saturday at 21:00 in Saint-Denis.
“I’ve played with Thomas for six years at Toulouse and one tends to pick up cues of certain players and their processes when they kick,” Kolbe said.
“I think it helped tonight and I was by the book and by the law from being onside and behind the line.
“I just went out there, ran as fast as I could to try and block the kick and make him feel some pressure.
“I was hoping that they didn’t refer the kick, but I was sure that I was onside.”
Kolbe said what he did was part of the team’s ethos of selflessness, where everything was about the team and not the individual.
“When you pull on the jersey and you get onto the field, you want to leave everything out there and not have any regrets,” Kolbe said.
“It’s not about me, to be honest, and it’s wonderful that it came off, but everything goes for the team.
“Certain players did certain things for the team, and I was fortunate enough to be in a position to get the charge-down.”
In a game where the Boks were usually bullied physically, they had three opportunities to score in the first half and converted all of them.
France’s slick handling only allowed for four scrums in the first half, while their long kicking game only allotted the Boks four line-out throws the entire game.
The pocket rocket was obviously chuffed that the Boks could force a win despite being well matched in all ddepartments He admitted they could’ve been better.
“It was in the defence, it was in the discipline in certain parts of the game, and winning certain mini battles,” Kolbe said about what the difference was between the two sides.
“It was about us hunting together on defence and on attack, while also being options on the inside and the outside.
“A game like this is always about the opportunities and who makes the most of them. We got a few out there and we did quite well.
“We could’ve been better.”
