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Siya Kolisi's classy gesture after alleged Jordie Barrett snub
By Grant Constable
The double World Cup winning champion Springboks arrived in South Africa today, touching down at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg to an overwhelming reception of thousands of adoring fans.
After making their way through the crowd, coach Jacques Nienaber and captain Siya Kolisi, joined by the Webb Ellis trophy, addressed the media to reflect on their tournament in general, and various moments in the 12-11 victory over New Zealand.
Just as time was coming to a close, Kolisi showed the kind of class we've come to expect from him, getting the attention of everyone in the room for one final comment.
"Just on a more of a sensitive note... I don't know if you guys have seen, but after the game, there was a video that went out on TikTok about Jordie Barrett, that somebody thinks he didn't shake the president's hand," the skipper explained.
"He's been getting a lot of bad media, people are being hard on him. But obviously, it's tough losing a World Cup final, and obviously getting that kind of negative media is not good, and I know him personally, he's someone that I know very well... He's not that kind of person.
"The video was taken probably after he shook the hand.. he obviously shook the president's hand."
Watch the alleged incident here:
They all shook Pres hand. The camera just cut back after Jordie had already done so and you can see Pres shakes Beauden’s hand as he comes up the stairs. Think we can all relax now. pic.twitter.com/uyfpdGDGhs
— JamesR (@Vlad_Drac77) October 31, 2023
"And we just want to say, we the South African team, I spoke to coach Jacques (Nienaber) about it, we are fully behind him. We respect New Zealand a lot, they respect us a lot, so please just give him some slack. Let's just celebrate.
"There's nothing worse than losing a game and then also being on (social) media and getting all these kind of messages. It's really been tough for him, and obviously the team and his family, but the South African team, we're all behind him.
"So please, if you can.. he did shake the president's hand. Thank you."
The Springboks will now embark on a four-day bus top trophy tour around the country, as they did in 2019, allowing fans to get closer to their heroes.
Starting on Thursday, 2 November, they will visit Pretoria, Johannesburg and Soweto, – concluding at FNB Stadium – and then Cape Town (Friday) and Durban (Saturday) before concluding in the Eastern Cape (East London) on Sunday.
On a related note, it looks as though South African fans have figured out how Barrett missed that all important long-range penalty kick late in the game.
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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