Rassie Erasmus' droll response to Cheslin Kolbe's 'bizarre' blunder

Rassie Erasmus branded Cheslin Kolbe’s first-half blunder against Argentina in Durban was a “brainfart” but insisted the Springbok winger more than redeemed himself in South Africa’s 67-30 victory.

The bizarre incident came in the 33rd minute when Kolbe grounded the ball in his own in-goal area before attempting to restart play. His kick barely crossed the try line and was pounced on by Santiago Chocobares for one of the strangest scores seen at Kings Park.

Erasmus was quick to put the mistake into perspective afterwards.

“Well, it’s very simple what he did wrong,” Erasmus explained. “He didn’t try and kick a short kick-off. He just wanted to kick the ball to the guy who was kicking off. But it’s a legal try. He drop-goaled, they were five metres away and they caught it. Bit of a brain fart.”

Despite gifting Los Pumas seven points, the Springboks’ director of rugby highlighted Kolbe’s wider influence.

This is hilariously funny now that the result is a Bok win but damn how much trouble is Kolbe in at the fines meeting 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/sotJlD2cYE

— Rugby Bits (@RugbyBits) September 27, 2025

“He did many other things great in the game,” Erasmus said. “I think I’ve done stupid things like that when I was playing, all of us have. But you have to remember all the brilliant things that he also does. I think we can forgive him for that – seven points back, I’m sure he’s aware.”

Kolbe went on to score in the second half as South Africa ran in ten tries to climb to the top of the Rugby Championship standings, one point clear of New Zealand ahead of next week’s decisive round in London.

“I think the first thing we realised was that because Australia didn’t win, Argentina would think they were in with a chance. If they scored five points in this game, they were really in the mix. If Australia won, they would have been out of it,” said Erasmus.

“So the first thing we took out of that was: let’s just grind this game out and win. If you saw the first half, we took the penalties, they took the penalties, and you never know when it’s going to open up. We didn’t try to open it up from the beginning because we just wanted a win. Next week we could try to get five points or whatever the law might say.

“The most important thing was Argentina — they must have had belief from that result. If they beat us here, even without five points, they’d have been on 13, and then if Australia beat New Zealand and they beat us again, they’d have been in the mix. So for us it was about knowing how desperate Argentina would have been. That probably motivated us even more.”