Springboks’ Kolisi Warns ‘Hard Work Starts Now’ After Rout Of All Blacks

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi warned that “hard work begins now” as the reigning champions finished their World Cup preparations with a 35-7 victory over 14-man New Zealand at Twickenham on Friday, the All Blacks’ biggest defeat in history.

The Springboks scored five tries, with Kolisi scoring the first, followed by wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, hooker Malcolm Marx, and replacements Bongi Mbonambi and Kwagga Smith.

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Fly-half Manie Libbok converted the try as the Springboks comfortably surpassed their previous highest margin of victory over their arch-rivals and fellow three-time men’s World Cup winners, which was 17-0 in 1928.

That was also an excellent opportunity for South Africa to signal their intentions ahead of their championship defence, which begins on September 10 against Scotland in Marseille.

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Kolisi, who made his comeback from a partial tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in April during last weekend’s 52-16 defeat of Wales in Cardiff, was overjoyed by the backing his team received from a crowd of roughly 82,000 at English rugby’s headquarters.

“To see so many beautiful South Africans here, I can’t tell you how proud I am,” said the Springboks 2019 World Cup-winning skipper.

“We knew we had to start up front with the forwards. Our backs are special. We had to concentrate hard.”

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The 32-year-old flanker added: “Proud of the boys, but we know the hard work starts now. We have to go and defend the World Cup in France.”

When South Africa last played New Zealand in July, the All Blacks raced out to an early 17-0 lead before winning 35-20 in Auckland.

At Twickenham, however, South Africa missed numerous early chances before Kolisi was forced over from close range.

“For us, it’s a good performance in terms of again certain things we wanted to get right,” said Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber.

“Then there’s a lot of things that we didn’t get right. I thought we had a lot of opportunities in the first 20 minutes. I think in the whole game there was about eight opportunities where we got held up twice.”

Scott Barrett was sent off just before halftime for a second yellow card after flying into a ruck and clattering Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx in the head.

South Africa capitalised on their lead, with Canan Moodie, 20, making his maiden Test start at centre after being shifted from the wing, one of several Springbok backs who impressed following a strong performance by the pack.

New Zealand’s defeat surpassed their previous two worst losses, both by 21 points to Australia in 1999 (28-7) and 2019. (47-26).

“You’ve got to be at your best,” said All Blacks coach Ian Foster, whose team managed a late try through replacement back Cam Roigard. “I thought they were and we weren’t.”

But Foster tried to downplay this result’s significance by saying: “The reality is, if you could choose one trophy that wasn’t in your cabinet at the end of the year, it would be that one (Friday’s match trophy).”

Foster, who now takes his squad to Germany for a pre-World Cup camp, added: “It’s not going to dampen us in what we’re doing, but we certainly got an uppercut today.”

New Zealand captain Sam Cane, who, like Scott Barrett, received a first-half yellow card, reducing the All Blacks to 13 men, urged his side to learn from a humiliating setback.

“We can use this and find some good from it, even though it stings at the moment,” said the 31-year-old flanker.