{"id":374117,"date":"2025-08-26T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374117\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:12:14","slug":"why-the-likes-of-kolbe-and-ardie-savea-are-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374117\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the likes of Kolbe and Ardie Savea are thriving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Jones has praised the qualities of Springboks superstar Cheslin Kolbe, who continues to show his world-class talents at the highest level.<\/b><\/p>\n

The 31-year-old made his return from injury in South Africa\u2019s 30-22 victory over the Wallabies in Cape Town on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kolbe<\/a> is renowned for his pace, footwork and balance but he has also improved his fundamentals, which are crucial for a modern day wing.<\/p>\n

The speedster is excellent defensively and just as good under the high ball, and it was the latter which helped the Boks<\/a> to overcome Australia in the second round of the Rugby Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Handre Pollard was named man of the match for his performance in the triumph, but Jones<\/a> thought the work of Kolbe elevated the fly-half\u2019s display.<\/p>\n

Kolbe\u2019s influence on the Springboks<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you remember when you were a kid, those compressed elastic balls called \u2018Powerballs\u2019 that bounced almost to the moon and back? I\u2019m sure Cheslin\u2019s made from the same elastic, as his ability to bounce off tackles and get off the floor into the air is quite remarkable,\u201d he wrote in his Planet Rugby column.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work rate is something sensational; he\u2019s always looking for an intervention, a moment of innovation, a chance to change the course of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all of Pollard\u2019s brilliance with his tactical kicking, Kolbe made so many of his marginal kicks into winning moments due to incredible chasing and that unreal standing leap that defines his athleticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Jones: Plaudits go to \u2018sensational\u2019 Cheslin Kolbe and the \u2018basic Springboks\u2019 while Wallabies fall to \u2018scoreboard pressure\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Standing at 5ft 7in and almost 12st, Kolbe shows that you don\u2019t have to be a gargantuan unit to be effective in the sport.<\/p>\n

In fact, Jones believes that he has spotted a trend of some lighter wings being preferred by current international coaches due to the importance of the kicking and aerial battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSides are desperate to score with as few passes as possible \u2013 transition attack is now the key to winning at Test level, and teams are playing to achieve this with as few rucks as possible to prevent the defensive reset,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does this affect players? Well, we\u2019re seeing a move back from the flat track power wings of Duhan van der Merwe, George North and co. and we\u2019re seeing them replaced by \u2018aerialists\u2019 and \u2018evaders\u2019, players like Cheslin Kolbe, Edwill van der Merwe, Rodrigo Isgro and Max Jorgensen thrive, athletes with phenomenal standing jumps, able to challenge much bigger men than themselves and win the contest \u2018upstairs\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Dynamic number eights\u2019<\/p>\n

The current Japan boss also believes that supposedly \u2018smaller\u2019 forwards are excelling, too, especially in the back-row where dynamism and athleticism is being preferred to sheer size in some positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also seeing a move to smaller, more dynamic number eights; I\u2019m often amused by people suggesting that Ben Earl, Ardie Savea, Kwagga Smith or even our own Japanese star, Kazuki Himeno, are too small and not \u2018real eights\u2019,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe simple fact is the back-row is changing, with many sides playing hybrid locks on the blindside and real fast \u2018double\u2019 sevens at eight and openside.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt scrum time, there\u2019s more attacking space than at any other moment in the game, so having a pacy and elusive eight like those I\u2019ve mentioned are absolutely vital to get impetus off the base \u2013 fast and hard into the 10\/12 channel when numbers in D are at their lowest.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springboks squad: Sparkling scrum-capped wings to miss All Blacks Tests as Rassie Erasmus selects 36-man group ahead of Eden Park showdown<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Jones has praised the qualities of Springboks superstar Cheslin Kolbe, who continues to show his world-class talents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[80120,74021,225,90462,704,12,4151,33131,2196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-374117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-cheslin-kolbe","9":"tag-eddie-jones","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-rugby","15":"tag-rugby-championship","16":"tag-south-africa","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115093356246456371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}