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Siya Kolisi: What 'other countries don’t understand' about South Africa
By Ian Cameron
Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks captain Siya Kolisi insists that the hardships faced by citizens of South Africa are what sets them apart as a nation.
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What’s more, Kolisi believes that ‘diversity’ is South Africa’s greatest strength.
Kolisi was speaking upon return to South African soil following on from the Boks’ victorious World Cup campaign in France. South Africa edged arch-rivals New Zealand 12-11 to achieve a record fourth World Cup title and their second in a row in a gripping Final last Saturday in Paris.
The popular captain was given the opportunity to address both the nation and President Cyril Ramaphosa. The Racing 92 flanker thanked the President and his cabinet and “most importantly” the people of South Africa for their support.
“We chose to dedicate this World Cup to you, the people, because we are where we are today because of you,” the Bok skipper said in his public address. “The other countries don’t understand. You have to be a South African to understand the hardships you go through in this country.
“We are very diverse [as a team],” he said, adding: “Diversity is our strength in South Africa.
“I want to encourage [you] Mister President and the cabinet, we need to use our diversity a bit more.
“It is a powerful force that a lot of countries don’t have, that we can use.
“Coming from different backgrounds and different areas, we see life differently.
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“The more we share towards South Africa, the more we put South Africa first and work for South Africa.
“Everything I do is focused on that and that is what we did as a group of players.
“You can use that in the country.”
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It is hoped that the Springboks win can help galvanise a country that suffers from power outages, political unrest, poverty and high levels of both violent crime and sexual assaults.
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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