Profile: Inspirational Bok captain Siya Kolisi on target to make more history

Inspirational Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi has already reached legendary status among the South African rugby public, but has a good chance to make even more history at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.

Kolisi has made a miraculous recovery from a serious knee injury suffered during a United Rugby Championship match for the Sharks earlier this year that ordinarily would have ruled out most players for up to nine months and wreck their World Cup aspirations. But, not Kolisi.

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Just 119 days (less than four months) after the potentially season-ending injury, Kolisi amazingly returned to the playing field.

Despite the doubt of many pundits and the South African public on whether Kolisi would recover for the showpiece event in time, Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber and SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus always had faith that he would be back to lead the team.

Interim captains

Ahead of the Rugby Championship earlier this year Nienaber and Erasmus stated that they would not be replacing Kolisi as captain and that they would only have interim captains in place until he was back in the side.

And so it proved as Kolisi made his return from injury in the team’s record warm-up win over Wales last month, with him making an immediate impact as he assisted the first try of the match to hooker Malcolm Marx.

He captained the side once again in their final warm-up match against the All Blacks at Twickenham, scoring the opening try and helping his side to a second consecutive record win, to firmly announce himself back.

Kolisi will now captain the team in their opening World Cup clash against Scotland in Marseille on Sunday, which will hopefully be the start of their latest bid to rewrite the history books.

The Boks will be bidding to become just the second team ever to defend their World Cup title, after the All Blacks in 2015, and the first team to win four World Cup titles, with them currently level on three with their rivals from New Zealand.

Following the World Cup, Kolisi will take up residency in France as he continues his franchise career with Racing 92 and he will be aiming to carve out a new piece of history in Europe.

In the beginning

Siyamthanda Kolisi was born on June 16, 1991 in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) where he grew up in the township of Zwide on the city’s outskirts.

He first picked up a rugby ball at the age of seven at local club African Bombers which put him on the road to rugby stardom. That journey picked up momentum when he was spotted by scouts at a rugby tournament in Mossel Bay at the age of 12.

Kolisi was given a scholarship to join Grey primary school, with him then offered a rugby scholarship to move onto Grey High a year later, where his impressive performances saw him scaling the youth rugby ranks.

He represented Eastern Province (EP) at various age group levels throughout his schooling career, while he was named Grey High first XV captain during his matric year, and his amazing success in South African rugby since led his alma mater to rename their main rugby field ‘The Kolisi Field’ in 2022.

He spent two years in the EP U18 Craven week side in 2008 and 2009, and was also picked for the South African Schools team in both those years.

His clear potential was spotted by Western Province rugby and they brought him down to Cape Town in 2010 where he joined their youth system, while he also continued his progression on the national front, spending two years in the SA U20 team.

Senior debut

Kolisi made his senior debut for Western Province in the 2011 Vodacom Cup competition and went on to become a key member of the Currie Cup team that year.

His Stormers debut followed in 2012, with Kolisi going on to make 118 appearances for the franchise over the next eight years, while he was made captain of the side in 2017.

The year 2013 was then the start of his storied international career, as he made his Springbok debut as an early injury replacement in a 30-17 win over Scotland in Mbombela, which also saw him named man-of-the-match.

Kolisi’s next nine appearances were all off the bench which included him making his World Cup debut in the Boks’ shock loss against Japan at the 2015 tournament while he also played in the match against Samoa.

First Bok start

His first start for the Boks came against Ireland in 2016 and he has not looked back, becoming an integral part of the setup.

This was backed up by him being named the first ever black captain of the Springboks in 2018, followed by him leading the team to World Cup glory in 2019 and British and Irish Lions glory in 2021.

The only question that now remains is how much more the 32-year-old Kolisi can achieve until he eventually hangs up his boots.