Cape Town – The Springboks have now suffered back-to-back losses in the Rugby Championship, with one coming against the All Blacks at Ellis Park and the other against the Wallabies in Adelaide.
The South Africans take on Australia at 11.35am at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, where they continue hunting that elusive win Down Under.
Speaking during the captain's press conference on Friday, the Bok skipper admitted it's been a tough week for Jacques Nienaber's team.
"It’s been tough and we feel it. It was a tough loss last weekend and we want to be better as a team. We left a lot of opportunities out there on the field,” said Kolisi.
“We are hurting. We have worked as hard as we can to make sure that we are better [than] some of the mistakes that we made last week. We always point fingers at ourselves first.
“I hope that they don’t give up on us,” Kolisi said about their fans. “We have worked really hard this week and we definitely want to take our opportunities this weekend. We want to be as consistent as we can. We want to make sure that we start with better intent this weekend.
"It has been an emotional week and we want to be better.”
The loose forward went on to acknowledge their shortcomings and why there would be frustration.
The Boks have created no shortage of opportunities, but their finishing has been a major problem.
So too their failure to play 80-minute rugby, while their defence has also been lacking.
“We fully understand the frustration. We accept that. When we celebrate, our fans celebrate with us, so we are also feeling the same kind of frustration. When we finish the game and we sit with the coaches and watch the game, we can see that we should have finished those opportunities. We feel that frustration.
“All we can do is say that we will do our best to do better this weekend. We are grateful for those thoughts and we do take them seriously because without the people we wouldn’t be able to do what we love."
IOL Sport