Kolisi’s on the brink of making Bok history
“Since the birth of The Rainbow Nation the Boks have had 18 Test captains, everyone of them white”
Siya Kolisi grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, among the shacks on the dusty streets of a township at Nelson Mandela Bay. Under the despised apartheid regime, he would probably have had a better chance of going to the moon than becoming captain of the Springboks. The boy who would succeed against all the odds was two years old when Mandela created the birth of The Rainbow Nation almost a quarter of a century ago.
Since then the Springboks have had 18 Test captains, every one of them white from Francois Pienaar during the 1995 World Cup to Eben Etzebeth when South Africa played their last Test, in Cardiff last December. A new captain will be needed for the next one and Kolisi has emerged as a leading contender.
Their match in Washington against Wales next Saturday is unlikely to be considered sufficiently important, an unnecessary risk with the infinitely more important home series against England beginning seven days later. Kolisi’s initiation as the Springboks’ first black Test match leader can only be a matter of time.
Chilliboy Ralepelle went closest 12 years ago, leading the Boks under Jake White into a non-Test against a World XV at Leicester. At 26, Kilosi has proved himself as captain of the Stormers on top of 28 Tests for his country.
The fact that the two most recent Springbok skippers – Etzebeth and Warren Whiteley – are recovering from injury has pushed Kilosi higher up the list.
Rassie Erasmus, who knows exactly what the job entails having done it himself 20 years ago, is due to name an outsized squad of 40-45 this weekend. For his first mission since leaving Munster to succeed Allister Coetzee, Erasmus intends taking 26 to the US for the so-called Test against Wales.
He is nothing if not refreshingly candid as to the reasons for such an improbable fixture.
“The Wales game has been organised for two reasons, one of which is for SA Rugby to make a bit of money,’’ he said.
“The other reason is to have another Test before the World Cup next year. I spoke to the Welsh coaches at a recent World Rugby meeting and they will probably use the match as an experiment.’’
While Wales have made their intentions clear by omitting almost half their starting XV, Erasmus will be thinking along similar lines, not that anybody can be sure as to the identity of South Africa’s best line-up. The waters have been muddied by more than Adriaan Strauss’ U-turn on retirement.
Erasmus’ employers have allowed him to pick any player based overseas. Ironically, the two he needs most – inside centre Frans Steyn and fly half Patrick Lambie – are unavailable for the Wales game because of Racing’s bid for the Top 14 title.