Siya Kolisi says that the lockdown has given South Africa’s rugby players an opportunity to work on their areas of weakness.
Kolisi ready to get back into action
Kolisi said that training under lockdown was a challenge but one that many Springboks and Stormers players have risen to meet.
“I was keeping fit during lockdown,” Kolisi told Red Bull.
“I had a gym at home. Team Red Bull sorted me out; it was quite amazing to have my own personal gym at home. It was still challenging because I couldn’t run, but luckily I had a bike, and it was a great set up at home. I could train with my family, we did some videos with the kids too, so I thought that was pretty amazing.
“What I’ve learned about my fitness during this time is that, its got to be a lifestyle. Its got to be something you keep on doing each and every single day. Something that you love and get people around you as well to be part of it, training with my wife, my kids and my siblings was pretty cool.”
Kolisi spent the lockdown recovering from a knee injury sustained when he twisted his knee awkwardly after a late hit from Ricky Riccitelli early in the Super Rugby campaign.
Best shape
He says that many of his Stormers and Springbok teammates have returned from lockdown in fine shape.
“The team has been working on individual things basically, just wherever you can improve so that when you come back you must be a bit better and I think we’ve seen a lot of improvement, especially the guys, the way they look, their bodies.
“Some guys are in the best shape they’ve ever been in since lockdown, so that’s exciting and really good to see because then you see that the guys really want to get back to the field and the team means so much to them. So I’m looking forward to just getting onto the field and we see all the small stuff we worked on show when we get back on the field.”
Kolisi said the limited contact with teammates at training has taken some getting used to.
“We’ve been working hard as a team during lockdown, obviously we were working individually and then we had to start coming back in small groups, no contact, that was also tough.
“Seeing your teammate but not being able to interact with them. And then we were finally given the go ahead last week to do contact on Monday, so we started with that and we’ve been working really hard and I think we’re getting closer and closer to being ready for the games.”
Kolisi featured for the Stormers in their 34-21 win over the Lions at Super Fan Saturday scoring a try in the first half.
