Kolisi

has been the invisible man missing in action.
He usually plays well in expansive games but goes missing in tight games.
Maybe it was a mirage and he never actually returned from a miracle injury. 

If he is not playing well against France, he will probably be subbed around minute 45. 

Kwagga is needed to replace Kolisi, but if Vermuelen starts as a fetcher - and with a 5/3 split.
Wiese is going to be on the bench which might not leave space for a second loosie. 

He adds voice to the anthem.....can't knock the effort.

Klop.................. the tv crew smaak him as well & inevitably he's on screen at climax time

He plays well in expansive games? Which games would that be? He flatlines in every test. He can pop up for barely a handful of neutral to okay contributions, nothing more. Kolisi has the most anonymous test career I've ever known. 

Biggest loafer in bok history, gets away with a lot. Token captain, probably has 3 meaningful games out of 10. Did up his work rate in his last few seasons. 

That said, according to RasNie, battle stats, kwagga is at number 1, so why is kwagga not ahead at of Kolisi, he has a bigger engine, can play entire game, actually gets over the ball, gets involved in general play and break lines. 

Kolisi does break tackles, does tackle, but often with assistance, hardly ever wins a ball or slow down a ruck. 

If you watch him, he alway shifts away from the ruck to cover the flyhallf channel or can be found between the tram lines amongst the wings. 

Where as Kwagga will bash through he middle. 

Neither would you find him at the bottom of ruck near his goal line and if he is, stop the ruck. 

Think Francious Low, he would come on for Kolisi and turn the game around and be for 15 minute at the bottom of the ruck, putting his body on the line. 

Dave will blow a gasket  

Kwagga is an excellent bench player, but he has never had a good game when starting. He is an impact player when space starts to open up as the defence tires in the second half. 

Got to agree with Saf here.

I think the biggest issue with Kolisi is his skin color.

If he were a pale color, you bunch would be singing his praises.

He has been fantastic.

He brings leadership

He's a wonderful tackler

He carries well

His support play is good too

No he isnt explosive.... he isnt a richie McCaw... but he is able to unite a diverse bunch of people on the field.

He is the skipper of a very well oiled boat. Without the skipper, the boat will crash.

Kolisi has no field presence, and no leadership. If he were white I'd be saying the same things, because his game would still be the same. If the captain had to be black, why not Beast in the first two seasons? Am? Bongi? One of the reasons why Erasputin pressurised refs in 2021 was because Kolisi was a poor leader. Instead of sorting out this issue internally and challenging Kolisi to do better, Erasputin accused them of racism. What then? They were afraid to penalise him or the Boks, and had to pay more attention to him like a disable boy. Kolisi stands around like a boy sheepishly tugging at mommy's dress, trying to get her attention. As for performances? He is not an influential player. He is passive. Too underpowered to be a forward, but not quite skillful enough to be a back. He is a hybrid. More of a big back. Kwagga has had very good tests and those are often ignored. We've seen lies here about him. Kwagga was apparently invisible against the All Blacks in the RC, but when we looked through every ruck, not only was Kwagga the most impactful player at the breakdown, Marx wasn't! A total fabrication. Sarugby is filled with excrement. A total aversion to the truth. This is why the Boks are such a hard team to like. 

Kwagga is one of the few Boks who can reliably defend with force individually. That's important given out flaky defence. We are a linear gang tacking team who struggles with anything more than static phases. Kwagga makes the Boks better. 

If we win, we have to score first, and early. We do a lot better when we have a lead. We aren't built to overcome a deficit, because we can't create. We have speed, but no facilitators. Damian and Kolisi diminish the overall IQ of the team. Kriel is more useful, but if he has a mare you know it's going to be a big one. Dangerous when you know he is surrounded by other useless players. 

Kolisi vs Ireland:

Five runs for 3 metres but  he lost the ball 3 times. So in effect he made 3 metres and lost 75. His tackling stats of 11 made one missed are about in line with other Bok forwards, but decent enough. 

What is very evident is his unwillingness to really contest the ball on the ground. Given we give Dud Toit a fetching passhaving an open sider who can’t/won’t fetch seems risky.

Kolisi is a very good open field ball carrier, but because he can’t be effective in traffic and again Dud Toit is given a running pass, we have no real forward runner, except Wiese.

So that makes the case for Wiese if we emphasize running, for Vermeulen if we emphasize fetching. Pretty unique.

Kolisi has had his day.

Zero to do with his skin colour but everything to do with his play on the field.

He is past his best and is in the squad because the team has to have a captain of colour as enforced by the governments sport policy.

Nothing else.

In a tough game he was not lasted 80 minutes and is regularly replaced around the 60 minute mark after adding little or no play advantage or leadership skills.

Select the best not the REST if you wish to win and is always a good starting point.

I agree completely…given any decent running option at blind side we could happily go with Vermeulen’s smarts. But that has Dud Toit as our primary runner. I’d probably still go with Vermeulen and hope he has 3 more full contact games in him.

"Kolisi has no field presence, and no leadership."

I dont agree at all.

I think he is naturally an inspirational person... his personality and his aura seem to unite our team. On field, he is often seen pulling players together, talking, motivating... giving 'gees'.

I do think we rely less on him to make on field decisions, based on how well drilled the team is.

It looks like decisions are always unanimous.... ie: we have 15 well drilled players who already know what decision will be taken based on current situation.

He has no aura, and he has no assertiveness on the field. I actually think Faf would be our best option in many respects, Eben aside. The team well drilled? On what exactly? They certainly know what Erasputin wants. I'm sure he has his script deeply imbedded into their minds. You can see it whenever they have to make in-game decisions. They malfunction. Kolisi is weak. He has to be the worst captain the Boks have ever had. I have never seen anything quite like it. It certainly fits the Erasputin regime, everything is a distorted version of what should be. A horrid malformation. 

Agree Flash, Siya is a natural and inspirational leader and rugby is a game where gees within the team is more important than individual skills or talent.

We've actually never won a RWC where South Africans didn't bitch about the captain or grumble about him not being worth his place in the team. We saw it in 1995 with Francois Pienaar, then in 2007 with John Smit and again in 2019 when Siya was apparently not good enough.

You go Siya! Come on Bokke!