Filmed from the stands at FNB Stadium on Saturday night: a supporter on the pitch, stewards closing on him, and the Springboks captain walking over. What Kolisi said afterwards explains the clip better than the clip does.
The Siya Kolisi pitch invader clip starts with the stewards winning. They got to the fan first and tackled him, which is their job. Then the captain walked over, and 85,976 people found out what he was going to do about it.
Watch it before reading on. It runs 86 seconds, and the part that matters is the walk across, not the tackle. If you think the stewards should have been left to finish the job, the comments are open at the bottom and that argument is welcome there.
The footage was posted on X by a supporter in the stands, kgaugelo MPH, within two hours of the Springboks beating the All Blacks 29-24 to lead Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry 2-1. A fan ran on. Security tackled him. Kolisi stepped in, the stewards stood back and the fan got his selfie. Minutes later a second, younger supporter got onto the field, and Kolisi took off his match shorts, signed them and handed them over.
The clip is being shared as a rescue. It is something better than that, and Kolisi said what in his own words afterwards.
The Siya Kolisi pitch invader clip is not a rescue
Nobody needed saving. The supporter had been tackled and was being held, and the clip is shot from the far stand, wide enough to show the stewards in blue already on him before the green jersey gets anywhere near.
What Kolisi changed was not the outcome. The man was leaving the field either way. He changed how it ended: walked off with a photograph rather than dragged off in front of a full house.
Trevor Nyakane, a Springboks prop at two World Cups, said last month that his captain never shouts, and put it this way on the For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa podcast on Wednesday 26 August:
“He’s not going to be out there shouting, barking orders you’ve got to follow, cuz he’s going to set the standard… when he’s at his best there’s no other way but to follow.”
Nyakane was talking about clean-outs. It holds for stewards. A captain who walks over and starts posing for a photograph has settled the matter without anyone being told anything, and the stewards followed him the way the pack does.
Read also: the five moments that actually won the Test, and why Rassie Erasmus was asked about the scrum and answered about the maul.
A pitch invader once put a referee in a sling at this fixture
Nobody who works stadium security will cheer that clip, and they have a case.
Kings Park, Durban, August 2002, Springboks against All Blacks. Piet van Zyl came out of the stands, went for the referee David McHugh and dislocated his shoulder. AJ Venter and Richie McCaw pulled him off. Van Zyl got a lifetime ban from SA Rugby matches and a R10,000 fine for common assault, and told the court he had no regrets.
Every steward at FNB Stadium on Saturday works to that afternoon. A person over the hoardings is Van Zyl until proven otherwise, and the proving is done on the ground. Then there is the incentive: the next supporter who fancies a selfie with the captain has just been shown the price, one sprint past a steward.
Fair, all of it. And none of it survives the order of events. The tackle had already happened, and the only decision left in the stadium was what the ending looked like. As for the incentive, the man who got over the hoardings had already got inside the ground. The people Kolisi talked about afterwards had not.
Who the shorts were for
Rassie Erasmus had described children running to catch a glimpse of the team bus. Kolisi picked it up and finished it.
“They can’t afford to come and watch us play, but seeing that, and understanding the history of this place, the young people who fought so that we could be sitting here today, that’s why we wanted this game here. That’s what we play for, not just the people who can afford it, but everyone.”
There is the clip, explained. A young supporter who got as far as the pitch was handed the captain’s shorts because the ones chasing the bus could not get as far as a turnstile.
The coach had raised the affordability question himself. On Monday 31 August SA Rugby magazine reported the tickets still on sale at R2,850 to R4,000, with 84,000 already gone. Erasmus, asked about the venue that day, said the Springboks loved taking the game to people, then added: “I’m not sure how many of the people there will be able to afford a ticket.”
SA Rugby had taken the Test to a ground where South Africa had never beaten New Zealand, in a part of Johannesburg where the coach doubted many could pay to get in. The win dealt with the first part. The shorts were the only answer to the second a captain can give at that hour. They were not a first, either. In Dublin last November, after the win over Ireland, he handed his shorts to a young supporter at the sideline who had no phone for a selfie. Cape Argus reported it at the time.
He had told SA Rugby’s own website on Friday 4 September that the squad wanted “to say thank you, not just in words but through our efforts tomorrow”. On Saturday night, his 55th win as Springboks captain, one more than John Smit, the phrase came back almost word for word: “We always say we won’t just say thank you in words, but through our effort.” The series moves to Baltimore for the fourth Test on Saturday 12 September, where a draw is enough for South Africa.
The stewards were not wrong either
Rescue is the wrong word for it. Nobody was saved on Saturday. The stewards tackled a pitch invader because the job has required it since Durban, and the captain then decided how one supporter’s night ended and used his own kit to answer for the ones outside. Hold both at once and the clip makes sense. Drop either and it turns into a row about security that misses what he said.
Frequently asked
What happened with the Siya Kolisi pitch invader at FNB Stadium?
After the Springboks beat the All Blacks 29-24 on Saturday 5 September, a supporter ran onto the pitch and was tackled and held by stewards. Kolisi stepped in and the fan posed for selfies with him. A second, younger supporter then got onto the field, and Kolisi signed his match shorts and gave them to him.
What did Siya Kolisi say after the Springboks beat the All Blacks in Soweto?
He called the occasion “really special” and said the side had been “tested in that first 25 minutes”. Referring to children Rassie Erasmus had seen running after the team bus, he said: “They can’t afford to come and watch us play… that’s why we wanted this game here. That’s what we play for, not just the people who can afford it, but everyone.”
Has Siya Kolisi given a fan his shorts before?
Yes. After the Springboks beat Ireland in Dublin last November he handed his shorts to a young supporter at the sideline who had no phone to take a selfie with him.
Your turn
Two ways to see the clip. Either the captain read a situation that was already over and gave it the right ending, or the next supporter in Baltimore has just been shown what a sprint past a steward buys. One of those is leadership. The other is a problem for the stewards on Saturday 12 September. Which was it? Settle it below.
