Siya Kolisi to play first game since May

Heretofore injured Springbok back row Siya Kolisi is to play his first match since a knee injury ruled him out of Rugby Championship duty.

Kolisi – who missed the opening two rounds of the Rugby Championship – injured his knee in Super Rugby competition and his rehabilitation saw him removed from the Springboks’ training camp.

Now his coach at Western Province has revealed that the 28-year-old will line out this weekend against the Pumas in the Currie Cup. According to TimesLive South Africa, WP head coach John Dobson has declared him ‘fit to play’.

“Siya (Kolisi) is fit to play‚” Dobson said. “I think our plan with Siya is to start him (against the Pumas). He will give the team a lot of confidence. That is the one thing the team needs.”

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus had flagged the Currie Cup as the most likely competition for Kolisi to return to, fearing a rushed return to international rugby with the Boks could end his chances of making the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

“We plan to get him back into playing Test match rugby, hopefully in the match against Argentina (in Pretoria on 17 August), and then it’s on the plane with us to Japan,” Erasmus said in July. “I think if we push him now to go with us to New Zealand, we might end up with more than a 50 percent chance that he won’t go with us to the World Cup.”

Although he won’t return for the clash with Argentina, the fact that he playing rugby at all will come as a relief to Bok fans.

In May a knee injury forced Kolisi to miss the rest of the Super Rugby season. If he can prove his fitness, he is practically a certainty to make the Springboks 31-man Rugby World Cup squad.

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