'I'm still trying to figure out when I said all those things' - Kolisi baffled by claim

Springboks captain Siya Kolisi says he is puzzled by the claim made by England head coach Eddie Jones that he insinuated England’s pack is “weak” following the 2019 World Cup final, which South Africa clinched 32-12.

Jones says that Kolisi implied that England's forward pack was a weakness following the win in Japan, a slight England are using ahead of what been dubbed a 'revenge mission' by many in the media.

“They said after the World Cup final, when they beat us fair and square, that they knew how to play us, they knew where our weaknesses were and they are implying that our forward pack is weak" Jones said this week. "Well, our forward is not weak and we will have an opportunity on Saturday to show that, so we are looking forward to taking them on in the physicality. We are also looking forward to trying to expose the weaknesses in their game which they do have. 

“It’s just the implication of what they are saying,” added Jones. “They knew how to beat us. (Siya) Kolisi after the World Cup final said he knew how to beat us and their game is obviously based on physicality, so the implication is that they go over our forward pack but our English forward pack won’t be weak on Saturday. We will have 82,000 people supporting that forward pack and we are looking forward to that contest upfront.”

Jones is clearly using the perceived slight to fire up his team but Kolisi has been left scratching his head following the claims, saying: “I’m still trying to figure out when I said all those things.

“I never speak about the other team in that way. I’ve never spoken like that before. I don’t remember saying that.

“We know how we want to play rugby and that’s what we pride ourselves on. We do our research on how they want to play. We want to make sure our plan works against their plan.”

additional reporting RugbyPass