Springbok captain Siya Kolisi says putting in hard work behind the scenes at the Sharks is what helped him find the form that led to him being named 2021 SA Rugby Player of the Year.

Kolisi was crowned South Africa’s best player when SA Rugby announced the annual award winners on Thursday morning.

While it was fair reward for his excellent form throughout 2021, Kolisi was humble when speaking about it, saying team achievements such as the World Cup will always come first.

“Anything we achieve as a team is always No 1. For the year we had last year, as a team we had so many that stood up in a very difficult year. I am really honoured. It could have gone to anyone in the team.

“Individual achievements are not something we focus on as a team. That’s not our motto. These things do happen, so I am really honoured and grateful. Without my teammates and coaching staff, I wouldn’t have achieved this.”

One of the impressive aspects of Kolisi’s 2021 was that he was the only Springbok player to take part in all 13 Test matches last year.

When one considers that he had an injury-hit year throughout 2020, it was incredible resilience to play through a taxing British & Irish Lions series, Rugby Championship and end-of-year tour of the UK.

Kolisi said that moving to the Sharks and taking part in an eight-week pre-season before he touched a ball in Durban helped him get back to his best.

“The change was very scary because I was at the Stormers for 11 years. Whenever you go to a new place, you have to prove yourself. I knew I wasn’t close to where I was supposed to be. I was even scared of not making the Springbok team.

“I didn’t think I was fit enough. Then I had that eight-week pre-season. Coming back and playing again, it took a while and I got back to the Springbok camp as well. The standards and the goals that coach Jacques and coach Rassie set and obviously the conditioning with Andy did well when I got there. But I had a good base, so it did help me a lot. The heat also helps a lot.

“When I came to Durban, it really did help me because I went for eight weeks playing no rugby at all. I was just training and that helped me so much.”

Asked for the positives of 2021, Kolisi pointed to how the Springboks adapted to the unique challenges thrown at them by lockdown restrictions and living in a bio-bubble.

“I took a lot of positives. Last year, with all the challenges we had as a group and the way our coaching staff, management and everybody just adapted. The biggest thing I took out of it was the way we didn’t complain, we just got on with it. Even though we had stumbles along the way, before we played the British & Irish Lions, the first time we trained together was on the Monday of the first Test. We were able to pull through that.

“We all made a collective decision to sacrifice not being with our families. That’s the kind of spirit that the team had. That was huge for us.

“I know that in the future when we face challenges, we will be able to adapt and move forward. We always found solutions somehow and that was the biggest positive out of us as a group.”

Photo: BackpagePix via Steve Haag Sports