Ben Youngs and Dan Cole can’t stop waxing lyrical about Cheslin Kolbe’s magic feet, after the Springbok flyer left England wing Cadan Murley for dead at Ellis Park.
Kolbe starred for the Boks in their Nations Championship opener, slotting five conversions in a 45-21 win over the English. But it was his footwork in scoring a try that had Youngs and Cole in fits of sympathy for Murley.
Speaking on the For The Love Of Rugby podcast, the former England duo couldn’t help but offer a candid admission after watching Kolbe jink his way past their countryman.
Cheslin Kolbe sends Cadan Murley back to the airport
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“You feel for Cadan Murley. We’ve all been stepped by Cheslin,” ex-prop Cole said.
“Coley, you just said we’ve all been stepped by Cheslin Kolbe [laughs]. When were you skinned?” Youngs asked.
“Sorry. I was just trying to be empathetic with fellow former England players and stuff like that – I never got close to blokes who never stepped me,” Cole replied.
“I reckon in that situation, one-on-one, there’s possibly a 1% chance you tackle him. That’s either you guess right or he slips over. The other 99 times out of 100, he’s scoring.”
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Youngs agreed there was little any defender could do: “I think the only way you stop that is if he falls over.”
Cole suggested the smartest option facing Kolbe was damage control.
“In that situation, it’s like just don’t become a meme. Don’t do anything. Just let him score on the outside. ‘Look, mate, there’s the outside. You take it. You score. I save my reputation. Thanks very much. Job done. Move on.’”
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Youngs closed with high praise for Kolbe’s skill set: “Can I just say on that, it’s you know the right foot’s coming. But there is nothing you can do about it. And I generally mean that because we have seen it so many times.
“And there’ll be plenty more victims because I’ll tell you what, he has the most incredible footwork and he should be applauded and celebrated because rugby is still an evasive sport and that man can step anyone. Anyone.”
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Kolbe’s twinkle-toes wasn’t the only thing Youngs and Cole had to discuss after England’s hammering by the world champions.
“The Boks showed they are the No 1 team in the world,” Youngs said. “They ran rampant for the first 15 minutes, and the game was pretty much done by that point. The collisions, the aerial work, the speed, the accuracy. It was one-way traffic.”
The 127-cap scrumhalf singled out the aerial battle as decisive, praising the leap and confidence of Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse.
“The South African [wingers] aren’t exactly blessed with height, but they have a dynamism and ability to leap in the air and make a contest, and that’s probably the massive difference in those back threes.”
Photo: @Springboks/X
The post ‘There’ll be plenty more Cheslin victims’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Ben Youngs and Dan Cole can’t stop waxing lyrical about Cheslin Kolbe’s magic feet, after the Springbok flyer left England wing Cadan Murley for dead at Ellis Park.
The post ‘There’ll be plenty more Cheslin victims’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
