Durban - South Africa is holding its breath that scans taken today on the injured knee of Siya Kolisi reveal no serious damage after the Springbok captain hyper-extended his leg eight minutes into his team’s 22-22 draw with Munster on Saturday night.
If the Springbok captain has torn cruciate ligaments then he will be touch-and-go to lead the Boks at the World Cup in September.
It is encouraging that Kolisi had the knee strapped up and continued to play for a few minutes before calling it a day. Also, after the match, he was seen walking on the field thanking fans. That is a suggestion that the injury is not calamitous.
Director of rugby Neil Powell said: “We’ll have to wait for the doctor to do a proper assessment on Siya’s knee and give the feedback to us.
“It was unfortunate that we lost Siya so early in the game. He is influential as a captain and as a player. But that's why you have 23 players, not just 15, so we had enough quality players to stand in for him and get into the field.
“I think Phepsi is a really good player. There was enough quality to fill Siya's boots.”
The Sharks also had flyhalf Curwin Bosch leaving the field in discomfort. If he cannot play in the United Rugby Champions quarter-final against Leinster on May 6 it would be a major setback given the replacement would be the erratic Boeta Chamberlain.
“Curiwn has a rib injury,” Powell said. “He will also have assessments on Sunday. We should know by Monday afternoon what the extent of the injuries to Siya and Curwin is following feedback from the doctors.”
Regarding the desperately disappointing second-half collapse which saw the Sharks surrender a commanding 22-3 lead, Powell said his players had learned a painful lesson.
“We were so in control at half-time but did not respect the game enough in the ten to fifteen minutes after half-time. They got momentum and belief they could get back into the game. We were simply not clinical enough to put them away.”
The disappointing draw ended the Sharks’ ambitions of playing in next year's Champions Cup because of their 8th-place finish on the URC log.
This is because the four URC Shield winners of the participating countries progress into the Champions Cup plus the next best four on the log. The Sharks, therefore, lose out to 11th-placed Cardiff, who won the Welsh Shield.
“Unfortunately, that is it the situation,” Powell admitted. “We had to beat Munster to give ourselves a chance to make it into the Heineken Cup,” Powell said.
The only way the Sharks can make it to the Champions Cup is if they win the URC, because the competition rules say the winner must go through at the expense of the lowest-ranked team on the log. This year it is Connacht.
For the Sharks to win the URC, they would have to win a quarter-final, semi-final, and final away from home, which is close to a mission impossible.
First up is the competition's best team Leinster at their Dublin fortress.
“We all know about Leinster’s quality and their brand of rugby,” Powell said. “It is a massive challenge to beat them away. But we showed what we can do in that first 40 minutes against Munster. If we can put it together for 80 minutes we can beat anyone.”
IOL Sport