We meet in room 701 of the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel. It is a big room, which is good, for he is a big man: 6ft 2in and more than 16 stone. He smiles as he stretches out his hand. As ridiculous as this sounds, he has been spoken of in the same breath as Nelson Mandela. Siya Kolisi is just a rugby player, right? Well, maybe.

Eighteen months ago, he became the first black man to captain South Africa, the rugby team that was once the sporting symbol of white supremacy in the country’s apartheid era. Two months ago, the team that Kolisi led won the Rugby World Cup. The manner in which he, a boy who grew up impoverished in a township in