{"id":95666,"date":"2025-05-12T15:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/95666\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T15:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:33:10","slug":"siya-kolisis-ultimate-respect-for-jac-morgan-emerges-with-impromptu-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/95666\/","title":{"rendered":"Siya Kolisi’s ultimate respect for Jac Morgan emerges with impromptu tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘He is a hard player,’ explained Springboks captain Siya Kolisi.<\/p>\n

15:55, 12 May 2025Updated 15:55, 12 May 2025<\/p>\n

\"JacJac Morgan of Wales and Siya Kolisi of South Africa(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)<\/p>\n

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi showed his true colours after going out of his way to pay tribute to Jac Morgan.<\/p>\n

Morgan’s Ospreys<\/a> faced Kolisi’s Sharks in the United Rugby Championship over the weekend, with the South African outfit winning 29-10. The fixture came just a few days after the British and Irish Lions squad was announced, with Morgan named in the collective alongside international teammate Tomos Williams.<\/p>\n

Speaking after his side defeated Ospreys, Kolisi took the opportunity to comment on Morgan’s inclusion in the iconic touring side.<\/p>\n

“On behalf of the team, we want to say congratulations to Jac. He is a true warrior and he really deserves his spot,” began Kolisi.<\/p>\n

“With the last couple of years Wales have been going through as a nation, he has always stood out, he has always fought.<\/p>\n

“He is a hard player and it was hard to get him off the ball.”<\/p>\n

Kolisi’s comments are testament to his sportsmanship and class as a human being, and it isn’t the first time the double World Cup-winner has spoken openly about Wales or its players either. Get the latest breaking Welsh rugby news stories sent straight to your inbox with our FREE daily newsletter. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

After beating New Zealand in the World Cup final in 2023, Kolisi took the opportunity to speak to S4C and offer words of encouragement.<\/p>\n

“I must say for the Welsh people honestly, I know how hard Welsh people work,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I knew the team was going through a tough run and I knew they would pull it together. They made it to the quarter-finals after everything they have been through and they’ve still got a way to go.<\/p>\n

“Jac Morgan will lead the team into the next [World Cup].”<\/p>\n

Despite a superb effort from Mark Jones to rally the troops after Toby Booth left his role in the middle of the season, it seems that the Swansea<\/a> region’s season is disappointingly over.<\/p>\n

Ospreys had made the EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-finals against Lyon, but were beaten by their French opposition at home last month.<\/p>\n

They had hopes of qualifying for the URC play-offs but that dream is now over as they are mathematically unable to reach the top eight.<\/p>\n

With the signings of Queensland Reds captain Ryan Smith and former Wales backrower Ross Moriarty from Brive, Jones will have more top class players to work with next season and a full campaign for him to go at.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘He is a hard player,’ explained Springboks captain Siya Kolisi. 15:55, 12 May 2025Updated 15:55, 12 May 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[23126,15032,4151,44812,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-95666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-jac-morgan","9":"tag-ospreys","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-south-africa-rugby-team","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114495593152927165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95666","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=95666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}