Before his wife intervened and helped him turn his drinking and strip clubs into a career, Siya Kolisi was on the verge of financial ruin.
The Springboks hero experienced a horrific childhood of hunger and abuse before overcoming personal challenges to make World Cup history
One of the most well-liked personalities in Test rugby is Kolisi.(Photo credit: Getty Images)
Siya Kolisi, a player from South Africa, has the potential to make history on Saturday night by becoming the second player in history to win back-to-back World Cups as captain, following in the footsteps of All Blacks great Richie McCaw.
When he captains his team against New Zealand in the World Cup final on Saturday at the Stade de France, the 32-year-old will become the most capped Springbok captain at a World Cup. He will be looking to repeat the events of four years ago, when he raised the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in Tokyo.
In addition to being a top-tier athlete, Kolisi is among the most well-known and esteemed athletes worldwide. He is a leader of men who, through his deeds on and off the field, has inspired millions of people worldwide and acted as an inspiration to young people seeking escape from South Africa’s impoverished areas.
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Kolisi, who suffered through a terrible childhood in which he saw death and brutality at every turn and frequently writhed in agony from hunger, knows all too well what it’s like to fight against adversity. Along the path to the top of the worldwide game, he also faced his personal demons, and as a result, he is stronger and wiser today.
Here’s the incredible tale of how a young Port Elizabeth child overcome great difficulties to become a worldwide icon while he gets ready for another epic battle.
Brutal upbringing
Born in 1991 in Port Elizabeth’s Zwide Township in the Eastern Cape, Kolisi was born just 16 months after Nelson Mandela’s release from jail. The Springboks shirt previously stood for institutionalized racial segregation, but South Africa was in the process of leaving the Apartheid era.
Kolisi was brought up in extreme poverty by his grandmother in a five-person, two-bedroom home. Kolisi’s early life was impacted by the poverty, hunger, crime, and substance misuse that afflicted a large portion of South Africa at the time.
He told the BBC, “It was more than just hunger; it was literally painful in your gut.” “In the middle of the night, I felt like my intestines were twisting. My grandmother would come get me sugar water when I would scream, and that would calm me down. Being resilient is where a lot of my ideals originate. Although they may not have much money, the residents of my town are resilient, joyful, and self-assured.”
Kolisi’s grandma passed away in his arms when he was barely ten years old, causing him great sorrow. In his memoirs, he said, “The one person who’d loved me unconditionally had gone.” “Zwide would seem like an even scary place without her.”
He also told the BBC that he saw more gender-based violence against his loved ones when he was just 12 years old, including watching a guy get stoned to death. “At home, like just next to me when I was sleeping, I’d wake up hearing the screams of my mum or my aunt. Alternatively, I would witness someone being assaulted in the middle of the road while I was making my way to school, and nobody would intervene because they believed it was none of their business.”
Kolisi also mentioned in an interview with the Guardian how his mother’s appearance altered significantly between the time she gave birth to him at the age of 18 and the time she passed away 15 years later.He remarked, “[She was] unscarred and, most importantly, lovely.” “She had scars all over her face when she died, and I never saw her look like that since her face altered so much from the various men beating her up.”
I showed my younger brother some old pictures of her after she died away, and he said, ‘That looks nothing like her.’ I was devastated by that. But she will always be kind to me, despite the hurt.
But when Kolisi joined the local rugby team, the African Bombers, in 2002, and met head coach Eric Songwiqi, he found a positive role model. The coach then made arrangements for him to attend Grey School in Port Elizabeth, a prestigious white rugby school, on a scholarship, along with two other lads from Zwide.
His first language was isiXhosa, therefore when he first enrolled in the school, he was unable to speak a word of English. Kolisi struggled as he started to establish himself in the rugby community.
ascent to fame
At Grey, where he played for both the South African schools team and the Eastern Province provincial squad, his rugby career truly took off. Kolisi was selected to participate in the Currie Cup after being selected by the esteemed Western Province Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch.
After that, he represented the South Africa U20 team. His talent was so great that in 2011 he made his Super Rugby debut for the Stormers, taking the place of the then-ill Springbok great Schalk Burger. The combative back-rower made such a mark that was summoned into the Springboks squad for the first time in 2013 and put in a man on the match
When he was one of the bright spots in what was perhaps the worst campaign in Springboks history in 2017, it was his big breakthrough. After that, the Springboks fired head coach Allister Coetzee and appointed regarded Rassie Erasmus as the new captain of Kolisi without any further delay.
With South Africa emerging from the ashes to win the Webb-Ellis Cup in 2019 under his leadership, this was going to be a momentous moment for Kolisi. However, only a few months prior, the captain had become disoriented in a world of “sin,” which posed a threat to everything he had labored to achieve.
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Professional rugby player Kolisi has had no shortage of off-field personal problems, including a protracted battle with alcoholism, which hasn’t made his career easy.
In his autobiography Rise Kolisi, the 10-year-old who began drinking at the age of 10, describes how his alcoholism nearly caused him to lose his family as he battled to deal with not being a regular starter for the Springboks squad during the 2015 World Cup.
He wrote, “Whenever I got time off, I just drank.” It was too simple for me to go out to clubs and pubs and have a nice time because I was bored and self-pitying, and there were other guys in the same situation who were always happy to hang out.
“I would have liked to go out with the boys, but Rachel [my wife] had come out with baby Nick, and this would have been the ideal opportunity to spend some time with them. I was too self-centered to see that she was going through a terrible period. Ultimately, Rachel flew home a week early because she had had enough of my jerkiness.
“My life took a terrible turn. I would lose my family if I continued to behave in this manner. The suggestion was not to “quit drinking,” since it would have been acceptable to simply have a few beers and then stop. It was, “every time, quit drinking until you’re obliterated.”
“Because I was exactly that. It felt like there was a message at the bottom of the bottle saying, “glass me, keep on going,” every time I opened a glass. I would overindulge and lose track of the previous evening’s events.”
He further stated in an interview with the Guardian that he describes himself as a sinner rather than a saint and that his difficult background had caused him to try and find an escape in strip clubs, pornography, and binge drinking.
“Perhaps I serve as an example for someone,” he remarked. “The child will think, ‘I hope to be like you when I grow up.'” But he is unaware of the difficulties you encounter. Nobody warns him that temptation exists—drugs and alcohol are all readily available to you.
“I wish I had a mentor who had warned me that these are the problems I will face and that I need to be ready to overcome them. I was forced to learn the hard way. Now that the next child and his family have read the book, I want to make sure they can consider how we might stop it. How are we going to get you ready for that kind of life?
He went on, “I’m not a saint at all; some people also know how I was in the past.” “I’m a sinner who strives to live up to his full potential every day. Whether I was depressed, joyful, or dealing with anything, I drank. I understood that the only way to get through this crap was to drink.
But just a few months before the incredible 2019 World Cup campaign, his wife stepped in and encouraged him to look for a Christian tutor, who, according to Kolisi, “revealed my sin,” saving him from his downward spiral. Kolisi recounted what he was told, saying, “[He stated] Siya, you drink a lot, you go to strip clubs, and you mess around with ladies.” You pretend to be honest with both yourself and other people when you share on social media about your faith in Christ.
“I began to open up to him, and we had meaningful conversations. He advised me to give up drinking. Although it was difficult at first, I no longer miss it.
Combating discrimination
Kolisi, who didn’t know how to speak English until he was almost a teenager, has developed into one of sports’ best speakers and is often featured in the media for his stirring speeches, thoughtful responses to questions during press conferences, and considerate actions toward both rivals and teammates.
In addition, he strongly believes in leveraging his personal experiences to improve the world and is working to address issues such as racial discrimination and gender-based violence.
Kolisi learned about racism and its terrible impacts on individuals and society at large while growing up in a nation where racial tension was commonplace. His selection as the first black captain of the Springboks was as significant to South African rugby history as Francois Pienaar and Nelson Mandela winning the Webb-Ellis Cup together in 1995.
Even after becoming a Springbok, Kolisi has encountered bigotry; his white wife Rachel is likewise a victim. He told the BBC that “that stuff should be addressed.” “People advise accepting both the good and the bad. No, I’d prefer not to have any of them.
Certain things are too much for you to handle. That kind of hate shouldn’t be directed towards you. Everyone is free to express their thoughts, but they must remain private. Individuals ought to get up a little more. Every day, we put forth a lot of effort at work. You won’t always perform well or be the winner.
“People should be blocked by social media groups and athletes should be protected. Nobody has the right to criticize someone for doing a poor job at work.”
