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Cheslin Kolbe is STILL strapped up from the World Cup final, 4 days later
By Grant Constable
The Springbok celebrations have shown no sign of stopping since they beat New Zealand 12-11 in the Rugby World Cup final at the Stade de France on Saturday night.
With the late kick-off of 21:00 in Paris, the celebrations went well into the night, culminating in the likes of Eben Etzebeth getting a new haircut because of teammate RG Snyman at 4:30am the next morning.
“I said 'if we win the world cup, I'll cut my hair the same as yours' and obviously after the win in the final, it was about half past four in the morning... Yeah... the last time I drank water was in the game,” explained Etzebeth upon arrival in South Africa yesterday.
"Obviously I wanted to be a man of my word, and I mean, winning the cup with these guys, I'll do anything, so I decided to cut my hair. He sat me down and Damian Willemse cut my hair."
He writes his family's names on his wrist-strapping, so they are always with him, so perhaps he's planning to keep it on until returning home to them.
A try-scorer in the 2019 final, Kolbe was yellow carded late in the game in Paris, and famously couldn’t watch those last few minutes after he thought he’d let his teammates down.
After the final whistle, the 30th birthday boy was part of a memorable and somewhat unfortunate team celebration when Siya Kolisi lifted the trophy, and the speedy winger got himself in a comical tangle with a South African flag.
Today is Wednesday, and as the celebrations continue, with the players arriving at broadcasting partner Supersport's central offices in Randburg, Johannesburg, Kolbe is still wearing the protective strapping.
He was actually filmed today placing his gold world cup winners medal around the neck of young Desmond Koolen, who recently went viral for singing James Brown's 'I feel good' in a Springbok top. That in itself is an unbelievable story of selflessness and another life-changing moment for the boy.
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So as we can see, Cheslin has decided that the strapping needs to stay on, and with South Africa starting their trophy tour all around the country tomorrow, don’t be surprised if nothing changes over the next few days.
Is that man still wearing Saturday's strapping 😂😂
— Twak_Praat (@NotFromHereToo) November 1, 2023
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Latest Comments
Let’s make them both Capt. I think we'd get the best of both of them and it would help alleviate some of the pressures of the role. They'd have to confer over on field decisions which should lead to “ learnings “ for both. They are our two best consistent performers.
Go to commentsForget what was said or how many players said it. TONY BROWN IS THE NEW ATTACK COACH. That’s the only story worth freaking out over. The springboks are going to grow their game an awful lot over the next cycle and it’s not just the 19 disgustingly arrogant Irish players who refused to shake Ebens hand and said “see you in the final if you can cheat your way past France” who will find that out first hand.
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