How Kolisi went from party animal to Bok legend

AS Siya Kolisi runs out to face France this tonight to earn his 100th Springbok Test cap, the occasion will rightly be framed as a national celebration, a monument to his leadership, his World Cup victories, and his symbolic significance as South Africa's first Black Test captain.

- JOHN GOLIATH

DOUBLE World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi will play his 100th Test for the Springboks against France tonight.

(BackpagePix)

Yet the true measure of Kolisi's journey is found not in the triumphs of 2019 or 2023, but in a crisis period around 2015, a pivotal moment when he nearly lost his prodigious talent to personal demons.

This turning point, a battle fought off the pitch, is what truly forged the leader South Africa came to know.

After Kolisi burst onto the international scene with one of the great Springbok debuts against Scotland in 2013, he went through a dip in the years leading up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

Back then, Kolisi was a promising flanker, brimming with raw athleticism. But it seemed the off-field distractions of his newfound fame got to him. The party became more of a priority than rugby.

He has openly recounted in his book Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story that this period in his career was marked by a dangerous relationship with alcohol. His drinking, driven by personal stresses and a struggle to cope with the sudden wealth and fame rugby provided, threatened to derail a South African wonder story - a player who made it to the big time after growing up in unbelievable hardship.