Kolisi declared fit to captain Springboks against All Blacks after hamstring scare

Siya Kolisi will start and captain South Africa against New Zealand in Cape Town on Saturday, with Rassie Erasmus confirming the 104-cap flanker has come through the final stages of his hamstring rehabilitation without any setbacks.

Kolisi missed the Springboks’ 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks at Ellis Park last weekend — the opening match of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series — after picking up the injury during South Africa’s 17-10 victory over Argentina earlier this month. The 35-year-old has now completed consecutive days of full-intensity running with no discomfort, clearing him to return for the second Test.

When Erasmus named his squad on Monday, Kolisi was listed alongside Paul de Villiers pending a fitness assessment, and Pieter-Steph du Toit was announced as captain in the interim. Erasmus was clear that the move was a precautionary measure to avoid a mid-week captaincy change if Kolisi had been forced to withdraw, rather than any signal of a shift in the team’s leadership structure.

“Siya is 100 percent, he will be starting and he will be captain,” Erasmus confirmed. “We told him he needs to be able to run full-out on Monday, and he did that yesterday and today without any discomfort, so he is good to go.”

Erasmus also noted that relieving Du Toit of the captaincy allowed the back-rower to focus entirely on what will be his 100th Test cap. “It is his 100th match, and in such a match you probably don’t want to have captaincy and a lot of other things around you — you really want to play well,” he said.

Du Toit remains in the starting XV, lining up alongside Kolisi and Jasper Wiese in the back row. De Villiers drops out of the matchday squad entirely as a result of Kolisi’s return.

Kolisi’s inclusion is one of four changes to the starting XV from Johannesburg, with Ethan Hooker, Cobus Reinach and Handré Pollard also coming into the side. The Springboks trail the two-Test series 1-0 and must win in Cape Town to level the contest.

“For us and for South Africa, Siya means a lot,” Erasmus added. “Pietie was excellent as captain, but Siya is our captain at this stage. He is a very inspirational person and a guy that means a lot to us on and off the field.”