Siya dispels notion that he has ‘arrived’ on big stage
SIYA Kolisi took a selfie with Lewis Hamilton, who was looking ubercool with his shiny silver suit, designer glasses and creative dreads hairstyle, at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin on Monday.
Kolisi posed for a picture with boxer Wladimir Klitschko alongside a Laureus statuette, and signed a wall bearing his image at the Verti Music Hall in the German capital.
Kolisi and wife Rachel also shared a couch with Indian master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, as well as Laureus founder and businessman Johann Rupert and his wife Gaynor.
Not only that, but the 28-year-old Springbok captain has been travelling across the world since that glorious 2 November night in Yokohama, when he lifted the Webb Ellis Cup after South Africa beat England 32-12 in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final. Kolisi has watched his beloved Liverpool in the Champions League, and signed up with American rapper Jay-Z’s management company Roc Nation Sports.
So, it would be easy to assume that the loose forward now feels he has “arrived” on the big stage, but he was quick to dispel that notion after the Boks were chosen as the Laureus Team of the Year on Monday.
“And me being a superstar, I definitely can’t be a superstar amongst a team. I might be achieving stuff off the field, but without these guys, I’m really nothing,” Kolisi said after the event.
“You get humbled very quickly in South Africa! So I really appreciate times like these, but there will come a time when they will pop my head very quickly if it gets a bit too big.
“But I will never take all the proceeds (accolades) or whatever to heart, because I know it’s not mine to take – it’s a whole team behind us, and there is a whole nation supporting us.”
Kolisi’s drive to serve his nation is so strong that he even called all these big sports stars to attention during a powerful acceptance speech: “And just one last message, to say to all the sportsmen: Just keep on doing what you are doing, because it’s not just about you. There are people looking at you, and we really touch people’s lives in ways that governments can’t do… politicians can’t do.
“You can touch and change a kid’s life. You don’t even have to know who he is or where he is from – but he looks at you and says ‘One day, I want to be like that’. Thank you so much everybody, enjoy the rest of your night.”
One could say that Kolisi and the Springboks have truly conquered the sporting world, but he insisted that the team – he had Cheslin Kolbe, Faf de Klerk, Francois Louw, Schalk Brits and new Bok coach Jacques Nienaber with him in Berlin – won’t allow all the adulation to affect them negatively on the field in 2020.
“I think our team has always been, globally, one of the top teams in the sporting world. Obviously we took quite a dip a couple of years before coach Rassie (Erasmus) came, and we had to work really hard to get to this point,” Kolisi said. “And that’s what we are going to maintain doing under coach Jacques. He is no different to coach Rassie – they’ve worked together for a very long time, and I don’t think a lot is going to change.
“We know Jacques; it’s not like a new coach is coming through, and we are still going to have the same drive and motivation, and the main thing is going to be the main thing. For us and Jacques, it’s all about what we have to do to work as hard as we can and try to achieve the same things for our unions, and make the Springbok team. We want to maintain it and be there for a long period of time. We don’t want to just be a once-off.”