Meet the Springboks: Cheslin Kolbe isn't just fast, writes Toby Shapshak, he's "blitzvinnig".
At 1.7m the boy from Kraaifontein, Cape Town, was always called small for a rugby player. Today, he is arguably the best right wing in world rugby.
In 2018, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus thought Cheslin Kolbe was the best. He changed the selection criteria so that he could pick overseas-based players, including Kolbe, who was then playing for Toulouse in France. It was a masterstroke.
Having played sevens from 2012 to 2017, Kolbe had honed his sidestepping and sudden bursts of pace.
At the same time that his cousin Wayde van Niekerk won Olympic gold in 2016 in the 400m, Kolbe himself won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics when the Blitzbokke came third.
Kolbe scored his first international try after being on the field for just 15 seconds. Coming on as a replacement against New Zealand in Wellington, he snatched an intercept from Anton Lienert-Brown and dashed half the field to score. The Springboks won 36-34.
That sidestep was again on display on the biggest stage of all, when he ghosted past England's Colin Farrell in the 2019 World Cup final in Japan. His second-half individual try took the Springboks to an unassailable lead of 32-12.
He lost out to his teammate Pieter-Steph du Toit for player of the tournament.
Two years later, he was once again an important player against the British & Irish Lions in that Covid-affected 2021 tour that was played in an empty Cape Town stadium.
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Kolbe scored the only try in the third test. Morne Steyn stepped up for that final crucial penalty to win South Africa's back-to-back Lions series wins.
At Toulouse in 2021, Kolbe, the mercurial playmaker, often played flyhalf, winning both the European Cup and the Top 14. He often took the place of kicks.
Last year on the northern hemisphere tour, when Damian Willemse started missing kicks, Kolbe was summoned to help with shots at goal.
One of the highest-paid players in world rugby, he has won the World Cup, the Rugby Championship, and a British and Irish Lions series, as well as the Top 14 and Champions Cup (with Toulouse); and the Currie Cup with Western Province.
How does he feel about the Boks' opening match against Scotland?
"It will be a final for us," he says.
Scrolla.Africa is previewing every member of the Springboks team competing in this year's World Cup. Read the previous profiles on Siya Kolisi, Duane Vermeulen, Manie Libbok and Canan Moodie.
