KOL OF DUTY From the Boks to the Baa-baas but Siya still feels a sense of responsibility for his nation

SIYA KOLISI will be just one of the boys at Twickenham today. Neither team leader nor the focal point of his entire nation.

For one day only South Africa’s first black Test captain gets to play international rugby without a care. To pull on the Barbarians jersey for a match of zero consequence.

For the first time since being appointed skipper against England in June, Kolisi does not face the scrutiny of 58 million South Africans. And yet, so great is his burden of office that he can’t 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 dreamt of getting the opportunity to become Springbok captain.

“Where I come from you dream of being a taxi driver.”

That place was a Port Elizabeth township where Kolisi was born to teenage parents and brought up 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.

Yet 23 years on his Springbok jersey is the No.6 Nelson Mandela wore that day to present the trophy.

And South Africa’s first black president, whom he calls Tata ( father) and whose image he has tattooed on his back, is his guiding light. “Tata wanted everyone to be equal, to have the same opportunities, to get along,” said Kolisi.

“And while life is still challenging and not everything has changed, we are getting there.

“That’s what I want people to see from our rugby team. One of my best friends is Eben Etzebeth. We come from two different backgrounds, he’s Afrikaans and I’m Xhosa, but we get along. That’s the South Africa we want.”

SOUTH AFRICA World Cup winner Naka Drotske was shot three times after charging at armed robbers to force them out of his brother’s house outside Pretoria on Thursday evening.

Drotske, 47, whom played for London Irish, was shot in the chest, arm and abdomen, but was in a stable condition in hospital.

No arrests have been made.