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Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi kicks New Year off with personality of the year award

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

World Cup-winning Springboks captain Siya Kolisi has been recognised for his monumental efforts last year by being made the 2019 Rugby Unions Writers’ Club personality of the year in London on Monday.

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Kolisi took the prize after the RUWC’s 200-plus members voted him into the award following a poll in the British capital.

The 28-year-old loose forward led South Africa to their third World Cup title in November after they crushed England 32-12 in the final in Yokohama.

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The accolade was that much sweeter for Kolisi, who succeeds Irish first-five Jonathan Sexton as the holder of the Pat Marshall Memorial Award, completed a significant milestone in lifting aloft the Webb Ellis Cup, as did so as South Africa’s first black captain.

Under his stewardship, the Springboks also won the Rugby Championship last year and defeated England in a three-match test series in South Africa in 2018.

Kolisi follows in the footsteps of the likes of Gareth Edwards, Jonah Lomu, Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter to have claimed the RUWC’s esteemed award.

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He beat out fellow Springboks teammate Faf de Klerk and coach Rassie Erasmus, as well as Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones and inspirational Japan skipper Michael Leitch, for the title.

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Kolisi will be back in action for the first time this year to captain the Stormers in their second Super Rugby pre-season on Sunday, when they face off against the Sharks in Soweto as part of the Super Sunday double-header at Soccer City.

The Stormers will then get their regular season campaign up and running a fortnight later, when they host the Hurricanes at Newlands in Cape Town on February 1.

In other news:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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