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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 1068 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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JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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