Fifty not out for inspirational South Africa skipper Siya Kolisi

LEADER: South Africa's Siya Kolisi applauds the fans after the final whistle against Ireland at the Stade de France in Paris. Pic: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

If all eyes will zoom in on Handre Pollard in Marseille on Sunday then it is Siya Kolisi’s day too.

Pollard’s return to fitness and appearance in a Springbok shirt for the first time in 13 months is expected to bring a dependability to their goal-kicking that has been lacking so far but Kolisi’s leadership has never been less than complete in France.

This meeting with Tonga will be his 50th time wearing his country’s armband and it comes five years after he became the 61st person, but the first black man, to be awarded the honour. It’s the kind of thing that’s still worthy of a pause.

It’s not something he had realised himself until told after the team announcement but he spoke as passionately and articulately as ever about the honour and how he had been primed for it by his Stormers coach Robbie Fleck.

“I’ve always been the joker in the team, the naughty one,” Kolisi explained. “Coach Fleckie came to my wedding and he heard me speak. After the wedding he said, 'I think you should lead the team'.

“He gave me the captaincy after that but it took a while. I would always be the joker, the last one at the party, the drunkest one in the room, and now I must be something different. It took a while but I just try to be myself in everything I do.” 

Kolisi has engaged with every question with an openness and honesty devoid of cliches and stone walls and he cut through the blandness and the artificiality of pre-match norms when tracing his steps back to that day when he first led the team out against England.

It was occasion soundtracked by the iconic Xhosa commentary of the late Kaunda Ntunja whose calling of games for SuperSport became such an integral part of the Bok experience prior to his death at the age of 38 in 2020.

“He’s always in our thoughts,” said Kolisi. “For black people in South Africa, I don’t think most people watched rugby until Xhosa commentary became a big thing.

“Listening to a sport that most people weren’t allowed to play for a very long time, and now you hear it in your own language and see it represented... It’s so big. Then you see people that look like you playing it.” 

The expectation is that Ntunja’s colleagues will be calling a comfortable win for a much-changed South African side this weekend. The XV shows 12 changes from the side that lost to Ireland with Pollard’s elevation the most worthy of note.

The expected bonus point win would leave them with one foot in the quarter-finals with their pool commitments completed, an off-week to come and Ireland and Scotland finalising the standings in Paris in a week’s time.

“He is experienced and he has got a strong personality,” said Kolisi of Pollard. “He is a general, he is a 10 and I'm looking forward to talking to him again and also the decisions we make on the field, the communication, it's going to be good.

"Most importantly, we all as a team want him to not play under pressure, and enjoy himself, but it's a big game he has been trusted with. This game is so important. He can step up for a game like this and it's good to see him back in the team."