If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind whether Siya Kolisi is the right man to captain the Springboks, just listen to the answer he gave when someone asked him if he thought he was.
This week, the Stormers flanker became the first black man appointed to lead the South African national rugby team.
To say it was a massive moment in the history of the game in this country would still be a massive understatement.
After last week’s drama involving Ashwin Willemse, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha, it showed that race and rugby still divide the Rainbow Nation 25 years after Archbishop Desmond Tutu baptised us as such.
If you’ve been living under a rock since two Saturdays ago, Willemse, the 2003 SA Rugby Player of the Year, walked off a live SuperSport broadcast after calling out Mallett and Naas for undermining him.
CLIMATE CHANGER: Ashwin Willemse spoke up. Photo: Etienne Rothbart/INLSA
Die skape was mooi deurmekaar gekrap and showed just how deep resentment ran even after two decades of democracy.
But Siya was not going to be undermined by this.
Not someone with his strong character. He and his white wife Rachel cop a lot of flak from people and their prejudices.
They are attacked on social media all the time and just imagine the sort of looks they get on the street when they walk around Cape Town malls with their son and his adopted brother and sister.
So this week when he was asked if he was political appointment by a rugby journalist, this is what he had to say:
“I can’t focus on what those people are saying, I can only focus on people that really matter to me and who support me.
“Coach Rassie is not a politician and I’m also not a politician.
“For the coach to show this much faith in me, I’m just going to give everything I can and do my best and make sure that I deliver.
“I can only control what I can do on the field.
“I’m not just here to inspire the black people. I represent every race in South Africa.”
MAGIC MOMENT: Madiba and Francois Pienaar. Photo: POOL/REUTERS
And that is the crux of the matter. Siya Kolisi is captain of the Boks because of his character and the leadership he has shown with his Stormers team.
I guess we have to admit that the Stormers are not playing the best rugby at the moment, but the team go out there and play the plan given to them wholeheartedly.
Coach Rassie has rewarded him for that and it’s about time too.
When Allister Coetzee named Kolisi’s Stormers deputy, Eben Etzebeth, skipper ahead of him in the absence of Warren Whiteley, I thought it was the wrong move.
BLESSING: Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Potho: LEON MULLER/INLSA
But it’s finally been made right. Even old Archbishop Tutu has given the decision his blessing.
He said in a statement: “It speaks to the hope we felt 24 years ago that we were developing a special society in which the cream would rise to the top regardless of colour or class.
“Dankie, ou Rassie, vir 'n baie wyse keuse. A rousing victory over the English in June will be icing on the cake.”
I’ll be joining Tutu in supporting this fresh-looking Bok team against England.
And hopefully, Siya can repeat Francois Pienaar’s feat and lift the World Cup in the No.6 jersey one day.