The Springboks win World Team of the Year award at the prestigious Laureus Awards

The Springboks have won the prestigious World Team of the Year award at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards, dubbed the Oscars of the sports world.

The awards took place in Berlin last night and captain Siya Kolisi accepted the award with teammates Francois Louw, Cheslin Kolbe, Faf de Klerk and Schalk Brits, as well as new Bok coach Jacques Nienaber.

As part of his moving speech, Kolisi touched on the power of sport to unite people:

‘We have Afrikaans guys, Xhosa guys, guys from the farms, we’ve all lived different challenges but we came together because of the game that we love, which is rugby.

‘We came together because we had one goal, and we fought so hard for each other because our country at the time was going through such a difficult period with gender-based violence and xenophobia.

‘Our goal was to come together and do the best we can for the sport we love. We gave it everything and we didn’t only see South Africa come together when we brought back the trophy, we inspired a lot of kids to live their dreams.’

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This marks the second time the Springboks have won the coveted title – the 2007 Rugby World Cup squad took home the prize in 2008.

The other nominees in the category were Champions League winners Liverpool, the US Women’s Football Team (Women’s World Cup winners), the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team (winners of the Formula One constructors’ title), the Toronto Raptors (the first Canadian team to win the NBA Championship) and the Spanish Men’s Basketball team (who won the FIBA World Cup).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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🇿🇦🏉🏆 Read all about it at the link in our bio! #strongertogether #laureus20 #sportunitesus

A post shared by SA Rugby (@bokrugby) on Feb 17, 2020 at 9:14pm PST

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here we go peeps ! Red carpet moment ! Little insane to be here ! All the best sports men and women are here ! Whoohoooo ! @laureussport #strongertogether

A post shared by schalkbrits (@schalkbrits) on Feb 17, 2020 at 10:18am PST

 

 

 

 

 

 

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@laureussport #sportforgood

A post shared by Francois Faf De Klerk (@fafster09) on Feb 17, 2020 at 3:22am PST

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The @laureussport team of the year 2020 !!! What an unbelievable experience and honor ! Backstage at #laureus20. So proud to have been part of this team and we are #strongertogether #bokke #sportforgood @bokrugby Class of 2019 !

A post shared by schalkbrits (@schalkbrits) on Feb 17, 2020 at 2:27pm PST

Image: YouTube

ALSO READ:

The highlights of the Springbok trophy tour of South Africa

Meet the wives and girlfriends of the Springboks squad

South Africa’s 10 proudest moments in 2019

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