Fezakele Kolisi, right, father of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, is on his way to the Rugby World Cup final in Japan to see his son lead the Boks, according to daughter-in-law Rachel Kolisi, 29 October 2019. Picture: Instagram
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi will have a special man watching him from the stands of the Yokohama Stadium in Japan when he leads out the Boks in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final against England.
The match will also be Siya’s 50th in a Bok jersey, having made his debut against Scotland in Nelspruit in 2013.
The special man will be his father, Fezakele Kolisi.
The news was shared by Siya’s wife, Rachel, on her Instagram account on Monday.
Captioned “My dads are on their way to Japan…” the post also revealed it would be Fezakele’s first trip abroad.
“What a time to be alive,” she ended the caption.
It is also extra special as Fezakele missed Siya’s first match as Bok captain last year, but will now watch him in arguably the biggest game of his captaincy to date.
The Springboks will be playing in their third World Cup final on Saturday (kick-off at 11.00am local time), having won both the 1995 and 2007 finals.
The 12-year difference between the two World Cup wins has been dubbed a good omen for the Boks in some quarters, with Siya recalling, after their narrow 19-16 win over Wales in the semi-final on Sunday, how he watched the 2007 final at a local tavern because he did not have a TV at home.
“I was watching it in a tavern because I didn’t have a TV at home,” he told reporters. “I know what it did for us back then. I have never seen people come together over sport [like that].”
Ahead of Saturday’s final, President Cyril Ramaphosa has fired the opening shot to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, tweeting: “See you on Saturday BoJo when you will be watching Siya, the team and I hoist high the Webb Ellis Cup.”
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