Time for Kolisi to evolve

18 July 2014 - 02:01 By Simnikiwe Xabanisa
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Watching Sharks flanker Marcell Coetzee win yet another man of the match award at Newlands at the weekend, one couldn't help but think of his Stormers counterpart Siya Kolisi.

It sounds like quite a tangent to take but the two will be inextricably linked for pretty much their whole careers.

We all have that guy in our lives whose presence makes us think our achievements might have been more pronounced had it not been for their existence. The same guy can be responsible for pushing us to be our best.

Rafael Nadal has two in his life in Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. In rugby, Hennie le Roux had Joel Stransky; Tiaan Strauss had Francois Pienaar; Kolisi has Coetzee.

They wouldn't have thought so at the time, but the two officially became an odd couple when they were selected to the Springbok squad in 2012, having done particularly well in their Super rugby rookie seasons for the Sharks and the Stormers.

When confronted with choosing between two young men of the same age, similar ability, build and playing style, Bok coach Heyneke Meyer went for the slightly bigger one (Coetzee) and sent Kolisi on a bridging course.

But Kolisi got his turn last year when Coetzee's Duracell batteries went pap under the sheer strain of his appetite for work, making an emotional debut against the Scots in Nelspruit.

Coetzee's man of the match award on Saturday was a sign that he has edged ahead in the two's personal race to make next year's World Cup squad (you get the feeling Meyer will choose one of them, not both).

Kolisi had started the game from the bench, as he had the previous week, and also appeared to have fallen behind Oupa Mohoje in the Bok pecking order by last month's Test against Scotland.

Where he has really fallen behind is in the reinvention stakes, because Coetzee has supplemented his hard-running and hard-tackling ways with openside flank duties.

Kolisi, on the other hand, appears to be married to the old virtues he shares with Coetzee, which in time might see him slide out of the World Cup squad and Bok team altogether.

Next to PR for the Presidency, playing flank is one of the hardest professions in South Africa due to the vast number of big, powerful and fast men this country produces.

To survive, especially in the Bok squad, you have to work hard at the bits and pieces that make up your talents.

If you don't buy that, consider that an outrageously talented flanker like Heinrich Brussow barely rates a mention these days when it comes to the national team because he is "only" a fetcher.

Meyer likes his flankers to tick two out of three boxes: playing to the ball, carrying the ball and being one of five lineout options.

Up until this season, both Kolisi and Coetzee were ball-carriers who weren't particularly bankable lineout options.

Coetzee has added playing to the ball to his contribution, Kolisi - who simply has to follow suit if he wants to remain relevant - is still a ball carrier and little else.

Fortunately for Kolisi, a naturally tough bruiser owing to his upbringing in Port Elizabeth, he already has the requisite qualities to succeed at it. At 1.86m and 101kg, the 23-year-old has the perfect physique for an openside flanker.

There might be more broken fingers in his future, but Wikus van Heerden and Francois Louw are examples of the rewards of making the change.

Kolisi finds himself at that stage in a man's life when he has to do what he doesn't want to do to get what he wants.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now