Well, maybe he is.

But one thing is for certain. The man from Kraaifontein in the Western Cape is a special player.

People like to make a hoo-hah about Antoine Dupont being the best player in the world.

I wonder if they’ve seen Cheslin Kolbe’s highlights reel…

He’s sidestepped the entire England team in a Rugby World Cup final.

He’s charged down Thomas Ramos’ conversion in the Rugby World Cup against France, helping knock the hosts out. Sorry, not sorry…

He once kicked a 50-metre drop goal for Toulon against La Rochelle in the French Top 14.

He bumps okes twice his size for fun.

He was the top points scorer in Japan Rugby League One for the 2025/2026 season…

And now he’s been slotting missiles through the uprights for the Boks like he’s been doing it all his life.

Apparently, he has.

Cheslin Kolbe was the man of the match as the Springboks avenged their opening-round defeat in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry this past weekend.

No one can argue with that.

Last week I spoke about how we always recover from our losses in the Rassie era.

And recover we did.

The Boks played like we expect the Boks to play and put in a performance we could be proud of.

It wasn’t perfect, and there’s still room for improvement.

But that’s where the danger for the All Blacks lies…

The Boks getting up a head of steam and building some continuity.

So, it’s no surprise that Rassie has named an almost unchanged team for this third Test at the Calabash in Soweto this Saturday.

What I think is quite interesting is that Rassie is playing knockout rugby here — or Rugby World Cup rugby, if you will.

And his team selection says a lot about who would be running out onto the park if the Rugby World Cup final was tomorrow.

I don’t think there is even a dispute around the starting front row of Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw.

Ruan Nortje has been the standout lock over the last year, and Eben Etzebeth has been playing himself back into form.

You can’t argue with the loose trio of PSDT, Siya Kolisi and Jasper Wiese.

Paul de Villiers and Cameron Hanekom’s time will come.

Cobus Reinach and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu were the preferred pairing in 2025, and they get the nod again.

A lot of people have criticised Sacha, but the Springbok coaching team believe in him.

And I think if he can get a run of form and the South African public can take a chill pill, we’ll see why Sacha is so, so good.

I actually think Ethan Hooker will push out all the other contenders on the wing long term, but he gets a shot alongside Kurt-Lee Arendse, who probably wouldn’t have played if Damian Willemse hadn’t pulled his hammy.

And, of course, Mr. Cheslin Kolbe at 15 to hold the fort.

But if you look through that starting team, you’re looking at the 15 players Rassie trusts most right now.

And I reckon they’re the guys who would start a Rugby World Cup final if it was tomorrow.

Of course, we need to talk about scrums…

If the All Blacks have one genuine weakness, it’s the scrum.

They struggled against some of the franchises, and in that first Test we had proper dominance.

In the second Test, Angus Gardner came in for criticism for refereeing the scrum in a way that didn’t allow South Africa to get their second shove on and therefore depowered one of our biggest weapons.

In highlight reels, he can also be heard repeatedly using phrases similar to what Dave Rennie had been saying about the South African scrum.

You can’t help but wonder how much referees are influenced by the media and the coaches themselves.

Rennie has been making a lot of noise about our scrum because he knows the minute we get a ref who wants to blow it properly, New Zealand could find some of their forwards in the bin.

Enter Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli…

He’s a former youth rugby player who gave up the game due to repeated concussions.

But you know what they love in Georgia?

Scrums…

Almost as much as we do.

So, I wouldn’t be surprised if this weekend the Boks can seize their chance to really punish the Kiwis in the scrum.

It all depends on how Nika Amashukeli decides to judge the contest.

But I’m optimistic.

Until next time,

Rudi
Aussieboks