Siya Kolisi backs Erasmus' lack of respect claims

July 30, 2021
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Ultimate Rugby

Springbok World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi has backed the claims of Rassie Erasmus that Nic Berry did not respect him during the first test match.

During Friday's pre-match press conference, Kolisi said he didn’t feel respected by first Test referee Nic Berry. This comes after Rassie Erasmus had accused Berry of treating Kolisi differently to opposing captain Alun Wyn Jones.

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Adress the claims of his director of rugby, Kolisi said: "I didn't feel respected at all. I didn't feel I was given a fair opportunity."

When asked about how he wasn’t shown respect by Berry, the flanker replied: “Have you watched the [Rassie] video? Watch the video and we can speak about it.

"I don’t really want to get into it, to be honest, but we can speak about it after the game. I’ll speak about anything with the game but I don’t want to get involved in that. I didn’t feel I had the same access to the refereeand there’s proof if you watch the game again, you will definitely be able to see for yourself”

“I don’t want to speak too much about that. It has already happened, there’s nothing I can do about it, it’s not going to change anything. Our focus is on the next game.”

Turning the attention to Saturday's official, Ben O'Keeffe, Kolisi said that he looked forward to working with the New Zealander: "I'm looking forward to a new game and a new referee. I think Ben will give a fair opportunity for both captains and that's all we're asking."