Siya Kolisi dedicates Springboks’ win over the All Blacks to ‘South Africans who are still not free’
Siya Kolisi has dedicated the victory over the All Blacks to the South Africans who are still not free.
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi has dedicated his team’s 31-27 victory over the All Blacks to the South Africans who are still not free.
Grant Williams scored the decisive try for Rassie Erasmus’ charges as they came back from 10 points down to defeat their fiercest foe at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Much of the pre-match build-up at the iconic rugby cathedral centred around South Africa’s political history and its close ties with rugby with the Springboks winning the 1995 World Cup at the venue, against the All Blacks, after returning to the sport from isolation due to Apartheid.
It’s been 30 years since Apartheid ended and South Africa became a free nation with the match on Saturday also broadcasted on the SABC, providing an opportunity for all to tune in.
Kolisi: Not all South Africans are free
Following the result, captain Kolisi thanked those in attendance as well as all of his fellow countrymen for their support.
“Dankie. Thank you. Honestly, on behalf of the team, we just want to say thank you so much for your support, not just for tonight but you’ve carried us through so many battles and us as a team, we play for a lot, but you the people of South Africa are our number one motivation,” Kolisi told Supersport.
“You give us the motivation each and every single day. We appreciate you. And everyone cheering us as we were driving in the bus today. There were so many different people from different walks of life, homeless people seeing us and jumping up and down, people who can’t be here today.
“So we say thank you and we represent everyone. We appreciate you. And please don’t stop when things are tough, please carry on supporting us. We can’t do it without you.”
Kolisi did not get carried away with the celebrations and highlighted the pressing issues in the country still.
“It is 30 years of freedom and I want to say congratulations to South Africans, but we still know there are many people who are still not free,” he added.
“Hopefully, the next celebration we celebrate is women who are free from gender-based violence, so let’s celebrate 30 years but there are so many people who are still not free.”
Springboks leave it late to down All Blacks in epic Ellis Park showdown
Springboks’ fight and All Blacks praise
Commenting on the match itself, the Bok skipper was proud of his charges’ fight in the latter stages of the match and their ability to battle the All Blacks despite going a man down when Aphelele Fassi was sent to the sin bin.
“First I want to say we knew [that it was going to be tough] and we respect the All Blacks, no matter what people can say about them, what season they are in, when it’s time to turn up, they turn up,” he said.
“To coach Razor, well done, and his team and we knew it was going to be hard and we work those scenarios in training [playing catch up]. Obviously, we don’t want that and we knew they could have a fast start but we obviously believe in ourselves and we didn’t panic and we just went on and did what we wanted to do.”
Revealing what was said at the break in the sheds, he added:” The message was to not panic, make sure we exit, that’s where they were catching us on the exit. We couldn’t exit well and we got that right, but they got the first try, in the second half but after that we picked ourselves up.
“The main thing about this game is just don’t give up. We’ve been here before. We’ve been in behind, we’ve been in front so we can draw from those experiences, but I’m really proud of the boys, but the job is not done, we still have a lot to do.”
South Africa and New Zealand will meet once again next week in round four of the Rugby Championship as the two collide at DHL Stadium in Cape Town.
