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Watch: Cheslin Kolbe's Toulon debut against Zebre

(Source/BeIn Sports)

Toulon’s star Springbok winger Cheslin Kolbe made his much-awaited debut for his new club after leaving heavyweights Toulouse in the off-season.

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The 28-year-old South African hasn’t been able to play for the first four months of the season, but made his first start on the left wing against the Italian club Zebre in the Challenge Cup on Friday night.

Kolbe showed flashes of his game-breaking ability, showing off the trademark footwork to threaten the defence on multiple occasions but Zebre kept him largely in check. He wasn’t able to get any try-scoring opportunities on the night.

His best chance came in the 42nd minute but he was chased down from behind and the ball was dislodged as he tried to offload back inside to his support.

Club captain and French international Baptiste Serin praised Kolbe’s communication on the pitch and said that whenever ‘he touches the ball, there is fire’. Serin said the plan was for Kolbe to play 60-minutes but he ended up playing the full match after moving to centre to cover an injury to Julien Hériteau.

“I found him clean and good in communication. You can’t see it but he communicates a lot. Now he needs to move on ,” said Baptiste Serin in his post-match comments on BeInSport.

“We feel someone reliable who will bring us consistency. You feel that, as soon as he touches the ball, there is fire, ” reassures Serin.

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Toulon ultimately cruised to a 28-14 win but will have a much tougher assignment when the Top 14 resumes against the Bordeaux-Bègles who are top of the league table after 12 games.

Watch Cheslin Kolbe’s debut for Toulon:

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1 Comment
S
Shaune 1199 days ago

And not nominated for player of the year! World cup, toulon champions of Europe, lions tour winner. Influential in every way. Shame on world rugby

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Head high tackle 1 hour ago
Can Samoa and Tonga ever become contenders when their top talent is skimmed?

I think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.

Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.

There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?

39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.

Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.

Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick

He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?

Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.

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