Siya Kolisi

Siyamthanda 'Siya' Kolisi was born on 16 June 1991 in Zwide, a township in Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, in South Africa's Eastern Cape, growing up in deep poverty before rugby offered him an unlikely path toward international recognition.

Kolisi made his debut for the Stormers Super Rugby franchise and became a Springbok on his 22nd birthday in 2013, playing against Scotland, before going on to captain the Stormers in 2017 and the Springboks national team the following year.

On 9 June 2018 Kolisi became the first Black player to captain the Springboks in a Test match, a landmark moment in the 126-year history of South African rugby, a sport whose national team had long symbolised the country's complex racial history.

In 2019 Kolisi captained South Africa to victory in the Rugby World Cup final against England in Yokohama, Japan, winning the country's third World Cup title and becoming the first Black captain of a World Cup-winning side, a result celebrated as a powerful symbol of post-apartheid national unity.

Kolisi repeated the achievement in 2023, captaining the Springboks to a second consecutive Rugby World Cup title against New Zealand in France, becoming only the second captain in history, after New Zealand's Richie McCaw, to lift the trophy twice, and cementing his status as one of rugby's most celebrated leaders.