Rassie Erasmus, the South Africa head coach, paid a glowing tribute to Siya Kolisi, the Springboks’ first black captain, after their dominant World Cup final victory over England.
Kolisi lifting the trophy, for South Africa’s third title, will be the enduring image of the tournament. The 28-year-old flanker grew up in poverty and revealed last week he had to travel to his local tavern to watch South Africa win the 2007 final against England because he had no TV at home.
“We had a good chat yesterday when we did the jersey presentation for his 50th Test match,” said Erasmus. “It is easy to talk about going through hard times and struggling to get opportunities but it is tough when there are days when you didn’t have food or couldn’t go to school or didn’t have shoes to wear. When you sit down and think about it, there was a stage when Siya didn’t have food to eat and, yes, that is the captain and he led South Africa to hold this cup and that is what Siya is.”
Erasmus was asked after his side’s emphatic 32-12 victory whether the potential for lifting the gloom in a country with so many problems still rife in South African society had weighed heavily on him and Kolisi this week. “We were being really honest about that with each other,” he said.
“This was my first coach as a World Cup and the All Blacks game in the pool stages was a great test run for us in terms of handling pressure. We were terrible that week but that taught us a lot about how we handle the knockout stages. But in South Africa pressure is not having a job. Pressure is one of your close relatives being murdered. South Africa has a lot of problems and we started talking about how rugby shouldn’t be something that puts pressure on you. It should be something that creates hope. We started about how we are privileged.
“Hope is not talking about hope and saying hope and tweeting a good tweet about hope, hope is when you play well. Hope is when people watch the game and have a nice BBQ and watch the game and they feel good afterwards, no matter your differences, for those 80 minutes you agree despite disagreeing about a lot of things. It is not our responsibility, it is our privilege.”
South Africa return to the top of the world rankings for the first time in 10 years with the victory, having been eighth when Erasmus took over less than two years ago.
Kolisi said: “Since I have been alive I have never seen South Africa like this. With all the challenges we have, the coach said to us that we are not playing for ourselves any more, we are playing for the people back home, and that is what we wanted to do today.
“We appreciate all the support – people in the taverns, in the shebeens, farms, homeless people and people in the rural areas. Thank you so much, we appreciate the support. We love you South Africa and we can achieve anything if we work together as one.”
