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Mack Hansen on playing 'arguably one of the best wingers of all time'

Cheslin Kolbe with ball in hand for the Springboks. Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

The Springboks’ infamous physicality poses an immense threat to the world’s No 1 ranked team in this weekend’s potentially decisive Pool B fixture, everywhere but on the wings.

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While the Springbok pack is overflowing with elite size and strength, their back three offer a very different but just as damaging threat through their speed and footwork.

Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-lee Arendse have been named to start in the No 11 and 14 jerseys respectively for the match. The pair combined weigh in at the same total as Tongan prop Ben Tameifuna.

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What the two lack in size they more than make up for in agility. With electric footwork, the duo often make dismantling one-on-one situations look effortless.

The challenge of stopping Kolbe this weekend rests upon the shoulders of Ireland’s Mack Hansen, who is under no illusions of the danger the men opposite him pose.

“Look they’re arguably two of the best wingers in the world,” Hansen told reporters ahead of the match. “Kolbe, arguably one of the best wingers of all time.

“I was lucky enough to have a game against Kolbe in the Autumn and same with Kurt-Lee as well – played against him for the Bulls and whatnot.

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“You can’t really get used to playing these two lads at all but I’ve played them a couple of times which is nice and I have my thing that I try to do before a game to get ready for it and kind of get my mindset ready and the rest will just come down to how I perform.

“That’s all I’m looking at at the moment, not really what they’re going to bring but what I can bring to stopping them.”

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Kolbe scored one of the most famous tries in World Cup history four years ago in Tokyo. Receiving the ball out wide in the 73rd minute, the winger had five sweeping defenders to beat, his pace saw him lose the three forwards in pursuit and a step brushed aside England’s Owen Farrell.

The try cemented the World Cup win for his nation.

Now, the defending champions must build on their recent form and do what no team in the past 15 months has done: beat the Irish.

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Team Form

Last 5 Games

5
Wins
4
5
Streak
3
19
Tries Scored
9
152
Points Difference
127
2/5
First Try
1/5
2/5
First Points
1/5
2/5
Race To 10 Points
2/5

There is potential for the clash to be a preview of the World Cup final, and while Ireland have historically not found much success in the knockout stages of the tournament, forwards coach Paul O’Connell says this team has proven to be different.

“We’ve had a Test series decider down in New Zealand, we’ve had a Grand Slam decider, we’ve had a tough autumn series against some very tricky opposition and the boys have always found a way and figured it out,” he said.

“It’s a real strength of theirs.

“They’re going to have to play super well but they’re also going to have to figure things out and it’s something I really enjoy watching them do when they have a challenge in front of them, how they manage to figure it out as a group and they’re going to have to do that at the weekend.”

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sorrel 1 hour ago
Jakkie Cilliers: 'Some ugly perceptions about women’s rugby still exist in South Africa'

The whole thing was absolutely delightful from a scrummaging perspective. Both teams were 100% certain they could just push the other team off the ball and both teams scrummed like it. I love the dark arts tactical battles, but there’s something really refreshing about a game where both the teams in the pushing contest just want to push. But, yeah, South Africa were the clear winners of that part of the game.


Scrums went as follows in the first game (I’m going from a handy dandy compilation video I made from screen recordings so I don’t have exact ref calls)

1. Canadian feed - Reset. On second feed, Canada gets the ball away, but South African scrum pushes into them

2. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

3. Canadian feed - Free kick to South Africa

4. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum a few meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

5. Canadian feed - Canada gets the ball away clean.

6. South African feed - South Africa push Canada backwards, but give away a penalty

7. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum maybe 10ish meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

8. South African feed - Free kick to Canada

9. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

10. South African feed - South Africa makes meters in the scrum and gets the ball away clean

11. South African feed - Reset. On second feed, South Africa makes meters in the scrum, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

12. Canadian feed - South Africa push them backwards, but give away a penalty

13. Canadian feed - 75 minutes into the game, Canada pulls the ball forward at the scrum and get advantage


I haven’t done such thorough analysis for the second test, but if you enjoy scrumming at all, you should really watch these games. They’re the sort of games where you look forwards to knock ons because the scrums are so good.

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