{"id":549432,"date":"2026-07-29T10:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549432\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T10:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:55:10","slug":"all-blacks-legend-cheslin-kolbe-is-up-there-as-one-of-the-greatest-players-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549432\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend: Cheslin Kolbe is up there as ‘one of the greatest players of all-time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Cane believes that Cheslin Kolbe is \u201cup there as one of the greatest players of all time\u201d after working closely with the Springboks<\/a> star in Japan.<\/p>\n

The former All Blacks captain joined Suntory Sungoliath after the 2023 Rugby World Cup and has been training and playing alongside the double World Cup-winning Bok winger ever since.<\/p>\n

The back-rower has played in teams with incredibly talented outside backs throughout his illustrious career, from the likes of James Lowe and Tim Nanai-Williams at the Chiefs to Will Jordan, Julian Savea, Corey Jane, Waisake Naholo and many more with the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Sam Cane hails phenomenal Cheslin Kolbe<\/p>\n

However, Kolbe\u2019s capabilities and skillset still blew Cane away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould he be the most ridiculous feet you\u2019ve ever come across?\u201d Stephen Donald asked his fellow former All Black<\/a> on The Aftermatch with Kirst & Beav show.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, definitely,\u201d Cane<\/a> confidently replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to watch him play on the weekend and be like, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s a gun player\u2019. But then to see him every week train is just phenomenal. Like he\u2019d be up there with one of the greatest players of all time. Like what he is able to do is just pretty much unmatched.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor his size too, a lot of the good small guys they just throw themselves into everything, and they\u2019re so strong and powerful \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter if he\u2019s affecting a clean out making a tackle but the way he can jink\u2026 he scored tries at training where you just go no one else scores those \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen tries like it. After a couple of years, guys are sort of like, \u2018It\u2019s just another Cheslin<\/a> try at training\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you think, this is amazing; he has just chipped over the line, chipped over the fullback, and scored. He is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eben Etzebeth reveals \u2018probably the worst day of my life\u2019 and the \u2018Prison Break\u2019 description he has for Rassie Erasmus<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Cane reveals his most significant victory over the Springboks which still gives him \u2018goosebumps\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Friendships with Springboks players<\/p>\n

While Cane spoke highly of Kolbe, he also reserved praise for Springbok<\/a> players in general, saying that the South African changing room is one of the most welcoming after Test matches.<\/p>\n

He has also gotten to know Kolbe and fellow Bok Jesse Kriel better during his time in Japan and revealed how Siya Kolisi goes the extra mile.<\/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

\u201cI\u2019ve played with Cheslin Kolbe for a few years at Suntory. They are all just such nice guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bit to do with Jesse Kriel over the years, and he\u2019s at Canon, which is just down the road in Japan. So we\u2019ll go out for a few dinners throughout the year. But even like when we first came on the scene, I think I\u2019m only a year or two older than Jesse, and he made the Springboks quite young also, so naturally, we\u2019re young fellas going into the change rooms, we\u2019d sort of gravitate towards each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiya Kolisi has always been a guy who\u2019s made a lot of effort to form friendships off the field, even back when he was playing Stormers. He started an undie company;\u00a0it can\u2019t have run for very long, but he dropped a few pairs off at the hotel \u2013 they make the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Victor Matfield\u2019s \u2018not a bad idea\u2019 verdict on Ma\u2019a Nonu\u2019s bombshell Sharks move<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Cane believes that Cheslin Kolbe is \u201cup there as one of the greatest players of all time\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[76984,1463,1464,111,43,139,69,6327,1466,213],"class_list":["post-549432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cheslin-kolbe","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}