Siya Kolisi: South Africa captain on childhood poverty, mental health, racism and his legacy

Speaking to BBC Sport from his family’s home in Durban, Kolisi paints a vivid picture of the hunger he suffered as a child.

“It went past being hungry; it was actually painful in your stomach,” he says.

“I could feel my intestines twisting in the middle of the night. I would scream to my grandmother and she would get me sugar water and it would settle it down.

“A lot of my values come from being resilient. The people from my community might be poor financially but they are happy, proud and resilient people.

“When I dropped food parcels off, they didn’t like that. They want to work for what they have. That’s what has taught me never to complain.

“If someone told me I can’t do it, I would keep on going until I make it.

“I was living in survival mode when I was young. I’m now trying to teach the people to live in a mentality that they can be whatever they want to be even though the situation around them is hopeless.”

Kolisi now campaigns against gender-based violence, another issue that scarred his childhood.

“At home, like right next to me while I was sleeping, I’d wake up hearing the screaming of my mum or my aunt,” he says.

“Or I’d be walking to school and seeing someone getting beaten in the middle of the street and no-one doing anything about it because people felt it wasn’t their business.

“Men don’t speak about it, but men are the problem. Men are not protesting this, men are not asking the government to change. There are men that do, but it’s always women [who protest].

“I couldn’t make a difference for my mum or for my aunt. But now I have a voice. I want to be one of the people that makes change, because I want change.

“We can influence so many people. People will listen to us when they might not listen to politicians. I don’t want my kids to battle with what I have.

“The sport is not who we are, it’s what we do. You have to use your voice where you can because you don’t know whose life you could be saving.”