{"id":828918,"date":"2026-07-28T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828918\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:08:18","slug":"victor-matfields-verdict-on-siya-kolisis-springboks-future-with-rassie-everyone-is-under-pressure-to-perform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828918\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Matfield’s verdict on Siya Kolisi’s Springboks future: ‘With Rassie, everyone is under pressure to perform’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Matfield believes that Siya Kolisi will still be a crucial figure in the Springboks<\/a> team for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n

The legendary lock has backed the current Bok skipper to feature in South Africa\u2019s bid for a third successive title, despite suggestions that he could be falling down the pecking order following the rise of Paul de Villiers in July.<\/p>\n

De Villiers was thrown into the starting line-up at the eleventh hour ahead of the Springboks\u2019 opening Nations Championship fixture against England at Ellis Park, earning his Test debut after Kolisi withdrew from the starting XV due to injury.<\/p>\n

Questions raised over Siya Kolisi\u2019s future<\/p>\n

The former Junior Bok went on to impress in all three matches in South Africa and earned the man-of-the-match award for his performance against Wales in Durban.<\/p>\n

De Villiers\u2019 first three caps earned him plaudits from all across the globe and most notably from ex-England fly-half Stuart Barnes, who has become a renowned pundit and commentator on the game. Barnes likened the young flanker to two greats of the Green and Gold jersey and questioned whether he could squeeze Kolisi<\/a> out of the starting role.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave we seen the end of Siya Kolisi as Springboks<\/a> captain? A giant of the game, an all-time great, but all good things come to pass,\u201d he said on The Times\u2019 The Ruck podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas Rassie Erasmus found the man to take South Africa to the next level in Paul de Villiers? We haven\u2019t seen Kolisi; what we have seen is his replacement, a young man, come on and be as good as Ruben Kruger and Heinrich Brussow were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments<\/a> were picked up by legendary All Blacks winger and ex-Blues head coach Sir John Kirwan, who appeared on the Rivals Podcast along with Matfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All Blacks to find \u2018genuine\u2019 World Cup options in South Africa as Dave Rennie answers Richie Mo\u2019unga and Rieko Ioane questions<\/a><\/p>\n

Victor Matfield: Everyone is under pressure to perform for Rassie Erasmus<\/p>\n

He posed the following question to ex-Bok skipper: \u201cAre there a few guys in the team, some of the veterans of the team, that are under pressure, do you think that, or you think he\u2019s just been resting them to get the best for the Test matches against the All Blacks?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with Rassie is that everyone is under pressure,\u201d Matfield replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t perform, you won\u2019t play the next week. Doesn\u2019t matter who you are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why we see some of our senior players really performing well every week. Back in our days, there were a lot of games that weren\u2019t maybe as big as some of the other games, and then your performance dropped a little bit, whereas with Rassie, if you don\u2019t perform on the Saturday, you might not play again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst Erasmus has kept a core of the 2019 Rugby World Cup-winning team in the mix, several players have fallen out of favour in recent seasons including Faf de Klerk, Vincent Koch, Bongi Mbonambi, and Willie le Roux.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie dubs Rassie Erasmus as the \u2018most innovative coach\u2019 and hails the \u2018unbelievable job\u2019 done with \u2018phenomenal\u2019 Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n

Kolisi and Etzebeth are still important to the Springboks<\/p>\n

Matfield has backed Kolisi and fellow Springboks veteran Eben Etzebeth to remain key members of the team, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is under pressure to perform, even if you are Siya Kolisi or Eben Etzebeth, but I still believe they will both go to the World Cup,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one year away; they mean a lot to the team. When Eben is in form, he is in a class of his own. Siya is just keeping that team together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it all over the years: there was Sean Fitzpatrick, Francois Pienaar and John Smit; a lot of them came under pressure- are they the best players in the team? But sometimes one man can make 15 guys play better. I think Siya is still very important for our squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Matfield says that Kolisi and De Villiers are stylistically different flankers and pointed to the former\u2019s defensive brilliance as a real asset to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is different; he\u2019s not an out-and-out fetcher playing to the ball, but you look at his work rate, his defence is really good. Think back to the British and Irish Lions, and that tackle that he made over the try line, it\u2019s just unbelievable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s actually a very good ball carrier for a smaller guy as well. So, I still think he\u2019ll be there; maybe he\u2019s there as captain of the squad, and he doesn\u2019t play as much. We don\u2019t know. Rassie will do whatever is best for the team. I still believe he\u2019s important for our team going to the next World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All Blacks squad: Five takeaways as Dave Rennie \u2018bulks up\u2019 for Springboks showdown and leaves room for \u2018experimentation\u2019 in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Matfield believes that Siya Kolisi will still be a crucial figure in the Springboks team for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,44,760,10672,1183,85,1185],"class_list":["post-828918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-siya-kolisi","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-victor-matfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}