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Siya Kolisi will captain South Africa for a 50th time in their must-win World Cup Pool B game with Tonga – something he “never thought would happen”.
The flanker, 32, led the Springboks to victory at the 2019 World Cup as the country’s first black captain.
Kolisi was brought up in a poverty-stricken township in Zwide with thoughts of playing for South Africa far from his mind.
“It’s honestly something I never dreamed of,” said Kolisi.
“I never thought it would happen. Where I come from, I didn’t have dreams like that.”
Kolisi experienced hunger and violence as a child but after being given a scholarship to a white school, he developed his rugby skills on the pitch and opportunities opened up for him.
He added: “I played rugby because I enjoyed it, I played it because it kept me out of trouble and I played it because most of my friends played it. I definitely didn’t think I would be sitting here now.”
Kolisi’s journey to the talismanic World Cup-winning skipper began with club side the Stormers in 2017 when he was appointed as captain by former Springbok centre Robbie Fleck.
“I’ve always been the joker in the team, the naughty one. Coach Fleckie came to my wedding and heard me speak. After that he said, ‘I think you should lead the team’,” Kolisi said.
“He gave me the captaincy but it took a while. I would always be the last one at the party, the drunkest one in the room, and now I must be something different.”
A year later, then-head coach and now director of South Africa rugby Rassie Erasmus promoted Kolisi to become captain of the national team. But Kolisi said stepping up to become Springbok skipper, with all of the history of the role, came with its own difficulties.
“Here at the Springboks, that was tough,” he added.
“It was really difficult at the beginning because I don’t think there’s any greater honour, other than playing for the Springboks, to captain a team like this with its history and everything. Being the first black captain, it was difficult.
“In my mind I was being captain of the Springboks, it’s a big thing already, but for so many people it meant so much more and I didn’t understand the weight of it.
“I was fortunate to have the players we have in the group; Duane [Vermeulen], Eben [Etzebeth] who has captained the team, Pieter-Steph [du Toit] who has captained the team, Handre Pollard – I honestly wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have the guys that we have and also the coaching staff.
“Coach Rassie [Erasmus] has known me since I was 17-years-old and [head coach] Jacques [Nienaber] since I was 18. They know what kind of person I am and they built things around me.”
Only John Smit, who won the World Cup in 2007, has more Tests as Springbok captain with 83.
Kolisi only returned to action in this summer’s warm-up with Wales on 18 August, three weeks before the start of the World Cup.
He partially tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in April, which made leading his nation to a second successive World Cup seem remote.
Kolisi will become only the second man to lift the Webb Ellis Cup twice if South Africa retain their title, after New Zealand’s Richie McCaw won it in 2011 and 2015.
South Africa are well placed to qualify for the last eight having beaten Scotland and Romania in their first two pool matches before losing to table-topping Ireland in their last game.
However, they will need a win over Tonga as third-placed Scotland, who have two games still to play, also retain hopes of progressing from Pool B.
