Rugby World Cup: The ultimate comeback

Led by their inspirational captain, Siya Kolisi, the South African rugby team beat England

Siya Kolisi, captain of South Africa, lifts the Webb Ellis Cup as they celebrate winning the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup final match between England and South Africa at the International Stadium Yokohama in JapanPictures: Getty

A tear flowed down his cheek, threatening to break the smile stretching across his face. But it couldn’t, not on this day.

He moved from one player to the next, black to white to black again, engaging in a sequence of embraces. This union of black and white, elder and youth, was so strikingly similar. Twenty-four years earlier, it was another Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar, who knelt before Nelson Mandela, and inspired a ...