After feeding a scrum against the Wallabies and throwing in at the lineout against the All Blacks, the Springboks’ Jack of all trades Cheslin Kolbe is ready to show off another talent on the rugby field.
Kolbe is set to be the back-up kicker behind flyhalf Manie Libbok for Saturday’s Rugby Championship finale against the Springboks at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit (5pm kickoff).
Libbok has copped a lot of flack since missing the match-winning penalty against Los Pumas in Santiago del Estero.
The Stormers man is a wonderful attacking flyhalf and probably the Boks’ best tactical kicker, as he showed with his no-look cross-kick that resulted in Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try against Scotland at last year’s Rugby World Cup. However, his kicking off tee has always been an issue, while his confidence would have taken a knock after what transpired in Argentina.
The Springboks experimented with Kolbe as a goal-kicker during the 2022 November tour. Kolbe, who has slotted five penalties and two conversions in a Bok jersey, was seen practising his kicking along with Libbok and scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse at the Mbombela Stadium this week.
Cheslin Kolbe, Jaden Hendrikse and Manie Libbok were all spotted today in training taking shots at goal 🦵![CDATA[]]>🎯 pic.twitter.com/xuCTQGSom2
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) September 24, 2024
Kolbe revealed on Wednesday at a press conference that he is ready to do the job for the Springboks if called on to kick on Saturday.
“I’ve been training and working on it [goal-kicking] throughout this season, and getting tips and advice from Handre [Pollard], Manie and coach Tony [Brown], which definitely helps me and gives me confidence,” Kolbe said.
“I’m comfortable, because I’ve been working on it and you never know what can happen on the day. As long I’m conformable and did the work throughout the week, I’m good.”
In the Chasing the Sun 2 — the Springboks “fly on the wall” Rugby World Cup documentary — there was a clip of Kolbe being called in by the coaches Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber during a selection meeting.
The debate was about going with a 7-1 split in favour of the forwards on the bench, which needed Kolbe to cover scrumhalf. The wing then said it will be fine, “as long as I get the reps in”.
It’s that sort of attitude that the Bok coaching staff loves and which has made Kolbe the go-to guy when they experiment.
Against the Wallabies he put the ball into a scrum during an attacking play, while in Cape Town against the All Blacks he threw the ball into the lineout to give the Boks’ an extra forward to maul with.
“Bit of a wildcard!” Kolbe joked when asked about his ability to do anything asked of him on the rugby field.
“The sevens helped me quite a bit, especially with the lineout throwing.I’ll try and do anything to the best of my ability if I’m asked and comfortable to do it.”