In a candid podcast interview, Kolbe reflects on nearly a decade abroad — from an uncertain start in Toulouse at 24 to a trophy-laden spell in France — but it's his time in Japan that clearly cut deepest. With his wife and kids back in South Africa while he was at Suntory Sungoliath, the distance became something more than the usual demands of an overseas career. He describes watching his children grow up on a screen as the "worst, worst feeling" he's experienced as a father and husband, and credits that period with crystallising why the Stormers return had to happen when it did. The piece is less about rugby analysis than personal revelation — Kolbe framing his career arc as a story of growth off the field as much as on it, and the Japan chapter as the one that finally made home feel urgent.