Baa-Baas lift the weight on Kolisi
SIYA KOLISI will be just one of the boys at Twickenham today.
Neither team leader nor the focal point of the nation.
For one day only, South Africa’s first black Test rugby captain gets to play international rugby without a care by pulling on the Barbarians jersey against Argentina at Twickenham today.
For the first time since being appointed skipper against England in June, Kolisi does not face the scrutiny of 58million South Africans. And yet, so great is the burden of office he bears that he cannot let his hair down.
“It is tough, you carry the weight of the whole country,” he said. “And after the England series, I won’t lie, I was drained. My face was on every newspaper – and I’m not that kind of person. I’m shy, I keep myself to myself.
“But I understand how big a deal it is. That it has given hope to kids from a similar background to me that can now say, ‘We can be like that’ – people, black and white, who had been told they could and would never make it.
“Never in a million years could I have dreamed of becoming captain. Where I come from you dream of being a taxi driver.”
That place was a township where Kolisi was born to teenage parents and raised in a shack by his grandmother, where his only toy was a brick.
He was too busy trying to stay alive to notice South Africa winning the World Cup in 1995. Twenty-three years on his is the No 6 Nelson Mandela wore that day to present the trophy.
South Africa’s first black president, whom he calls Tata (father) and whose image he has tattooed on his back, is his hero.
“Tata wanted everyone to be equal, to get along,” said Kolisi. “And while life is still challenging, we’re getting there.”