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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
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Shaune 1049 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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'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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