Legendary Springboks second-row and 1995 Rugby World Cup winner Mark Andrews has hailed Siya Kolisi’s leadership as the world champions’ captain and how it has continued the legacy of nation-building in South Africa.

When Rassie Erasmus took over the coaching reins at the Boks in 2018, he appointed Kolisi as the team’s first black African Test captain for their series against England in South Africa.

While that decision was seen as a gamble in some quarters at the time, Erasmus‘ decision has been justified Kolisi has captained his country to back-to-back Rugby World Cup title victories in 2019 and 2023, as well as a series triumph over the British & Irish Lions in 2021.

Springboks’ most successful captain

Kolisi is also the most successful captain in Springboks history having led the men in Green and Gold to 58 Test wins.

Earlier this year during South Africa’s 3-1 series victory over their arch-rivals New Zealand, he broke the previous record of 54 victories as captain which was held by John Smit.

Andrews made his Test debut in 1994 under former South Africa head coach Ian MacIntosh and went on to make 77 Test appearances for his country.

Like Kolisi, Andrews hails from the Eastern Cape region of South Africa and he revealed that the current Bok skipper has always impressed him in the leadership position.

“The first time I met Siya, I was asked to do a (Bok) jersey handover and Siya was the new captain,” he told the Big Men Talking podcast.

“And he stood up and he spoke and you could see the respect he had for an older player and how genuinely appreciative he was of me giving my time and he had humility.

“He just had that something special I saw then. Being an Eastern Cape boy made me prouder and I think Rassie chose him not because he was a black player as captain.

‘He was the best captain that he had’

“He chose him because he was the best captain that he had. The fact that he was an African, a Xhosa boy was just a bonus and he has been magnificent.”

Andrews sees similarities in Kolisi’s leadership style to that of Francois Pienaar, who was the Boks’ skipper when they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup as champions in 1995 and revealed that one of the qualities of South Africa’s current captain which he greatly admires is his ability to bounce back despite adversity.

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“As much as Francois Pienaar was an incredible leader for us in ’95 and we needed someone like Francois to hold us together, Siya has done the same thing,” he said.

“I’m incredibly proud of Siya. This nation’s incredibly proud of him. Every time people write him off, you look how he played in this All Black series, the carries he made, the tackles he made, he was just huge.”