John Smit on that Siya Kolisi video: Your leadership can make more understand

Former Springbok captain John Smit has publicly thanked current Bok captain Siya Kolisi for speaking about his experience of racism and the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement on the sports field.

In a heartfelt post on Sunday, Kolisi spoke about how growing up he never felt his life mattered. He described how when he started playing professional rugby, a lot of the calls in the game were in Afrikaans, a language he was not fluent in.

Kolisi said he did not have the courage to ask for the calls to be in English so he could understand. He said it was only when former coach Rassie Erasmus joined the team that open conversations about race started to occur.

His post had more than 120,000 views at the time of publishing this article, and hundreds of people praising him and his journey.

Smit was one of the first people to comment, saying that nobody could explain the BLM movement better than Kolisi.

“I don’t say anyone can tell it better than that Siya. As a young child, you didn’t feel you mattered and through many challenges have become a man that matters to so many and your leadership can make many more understand, which indeed will make us stronger together. Well done - onward and upward, my captain!” he wrote.