Lessons from Siya and Footey — an insightful peek into the tough world of leadership in rugby

Performance coach Tom Dawson-Squibb is well known in rugby circles for his unique approach to leadership. In his entertaining book co-written with Nic Rosslee, Humanball: A Leadership Journey in South African Rugby, Dawson-Squibb deals mainly with his five years as head coach of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in the Varsity Cup.

It’s an insightful peek into the lesser-known world of amateur, or semi-amateur, rugby. But it’s also a serious analysis of leadership, especially in a highly emotional and combative arena such as rugby. Here is a taste of what to expect:

A Legend

If someone like Malcolm Gladwell were writing a book about South African rugby’s Story of Success, he’d be paying close attention to the impact of the Varsity Cup. Francois Pienaar’s brainchild was a remarkable vision. The image of him holding the Webb Ellis Cup aloft alongside Nelson Mandela is an iconic moment in modern history. But if you look closely at the photos of Siya Kolisi holding the same trophy in 2019 in Tokyo and in 2023 in Paris, you should see Pienaar’s fingerprints everywhere.

While Kolisi was plucked from UCT’s Varsity Cup training squad ahead of the tournament’s first match in 2011 to play for Western Province, there are a frightening number of World Cup Winners on the Varsity Cup Honours Roll. Eben Etzebeth, Damian de Allende (who both played for the University of Cape Town Ikeys) and 17 others all featured in the Varsity Cup before going on to play provincial and international rugby.

My first year of involvement at the UCT RFC was in 2011 for the team that featured Eben Etzebeth. I’ll never forget a moment at the end of that season. UCT had not won the Super League A since 1974 and needed to win the last nine games of the season to have a shot at the title. The team went on a fantastic run and needed to beat Stellenbosch University’s Victorians XV in the season’s final match at home.

The UCT 1^st XV play in two competitions each year: the Varsity Cup, which is the university-students-only tournament played on Monday nights from February to April, and the Super League A, which is Western Province Rugby Union’s elite club rugby competition that runs from April to September where the university teams are in the minority, and there are no eligibility criteria placed on the universities (or any other team).

The current Junior Springbok Head Coach, Kevin Foote, coached the 2011 Ikey Tigers squad, which included an array of club legends who had served the club admirably for many years. Footey has a wicked sense of humour, an unrivalled passion for the game, and better storytelling skills than most. But when it came to the team talk just before the players went onto the field, Footey took a bold approach.

Many coaches would have honoured the club’s veterans at that moment, but Footey did the opposite. He put the two players making their debut that match in the middle of the circle and celebrated them in an incredibly special way. That moment stuck with me, and the story has been retold many times within the club's walls—especially so, given that the club won the Super League A that year (in addition to our first Varsity Cup victory).

The author Dale Carnegie says, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest sound in any language,” Footey would always acknowledge specific individuals throughout his team talks. It creates a powerful impact, making people feel personally addressed rather than spoken at. He often puts the spotlight on a particular player crucial to the upcoming match. If I had to pay Footey a royalty for every player’s name I ever mentioned in a team talk since I learnt this from him, I’d be broke.

I was speaking at the UCT RFC end-of-year dinner that year and I took a slightly contrarian angle when retelling this story, saying something to the effect of, “What makes this club special is that when you join this club, you’ll always be assumed to be a legend before you’re assumed to be a dick.”

That moment in the changing rooms against Victorians perfectly summed up the philosophy, and it was consistent with the way I’d been made to feel in my first year with the club. Footey had a massive role in this, particularly in how he affirmed and boosted me, which gave my sessions more weight. I spoke about how my love for the club was sparked in 2011. But love is a two-way street—the UCT RFC was a place where I felt valued from the start. To join a community where you don’t have to prove yourself as you walk through the door is a liberating thing.

Ten years later, we were playing in the bio-bubble in Pretoria, and David Hayes was the first guy to join the squad midway through the bubble. At the time, he was on the fringes of first-team selection and was called up as an injury replacement. With Hayes arriving on a Saturday morning, our team manager, Raun Billett, said, “Let’s get everyone down to the reception area and welcome him with a huge vibe.” Without hesitation, we all agreed.

The entire playing squad and management headed down, bringing along a speaker and loads of spirit. We sang his song: “Hey, Hayes baby, oo, ahh / I wanna knoooooooow if you’ll be my 10”. This was not what he was expecting, and we chuckled at his reaction. The guys were genuinely so excited for him to join and experience how much fun we were having.

Hayes is one of the best rugby players I’ve coached—he became our starting flyhalf and key player in the following two campaigns (2022 and 2023). That Saturday morning, though, he hadn’t made a name for himself—I’m not even sure if he had a first-team cap. But our enthusiastic welcome meant a lot to him, and it became a tradition in the bubble that we’d repeat several times.

When a player arrived in Cape Town to join the club we would try arranging to fetch him from the airport as they often didn’t know anyone in Cape Town. There was an occasion when none of the coaches could do this, so I asked our captain, Liam Greenhalgh. He said, “No problem.” Being students, the guys didn’t exactly have loads of petrol money, but Liam didn’t hesitate to fetch Godfrey Ramaboea and help settle him into Cape Town. Similarly, in 2024, I picked up John-Kelly Okonkwo from the airport and took him to Tiki Tonga, a coffee shop in Rondebosch owned by former England rugby player Brad Barritt. Our captain, Luthando Woji, joined us. John-Kelly’s introduction to Cape Town and UCT was an hour-long conversation about rugby, life, and the city. Woji then accompanied him to his residence and showed him to his room.



While we probably didn’t always go to such lengths with every newcomer, we took pride in creating a welcoming environment. While I’d asked Liam Greenhalgh and Luthando Woji to assist with these more deliberate transitions, seeing players take on this mantle spontaneously was the best. Our cheeky scrum-half, William Rose was excellent at this and he’d go out of his way to welcome new people into the Ikey environment.

I’d often see new players who had only attended one or two training sessions appear alongside William on his Instagram feed, sometimes on the beach but often at a trendy Cape Town spot. This made taking in a new player the norm, and this often came up when we checked in with new players to see how they were settling in.

Siya Kolisi is someone with an incredible ability to make others feel welcome and seen. I first met Siya as a 19-year-old when he began training with UCT, and later worked with him at Western Province and the Stormers, including some one-on-one sessions. When I returned to the Stormers in 2020 as a performance coach (while balancing my commitments at UCT), Siya’s star had risen considerably. He was now the Springboks’ World Cup-winning captain and had recently become the first rugby union player to join Roc Nation, the US talent agency owned by Jay-Z. Despite all the international fame and accolades, if you saw how Siya treated everyone in that Stormers environment, you would think nothing had changed. He still greeted each player and staff member with warmth and respect.

He loved UCT, and we’d talk about his time there. I once asked, “Would you mind popping down to a practice, maybe give the boys some tips about our breakdown and give them some encouragement?” He agreed without hesitation. I was so excited about him joining our practice, and when I arrived, he was sitting in our clubhouse sharing a packet of NikNaks with one of our players, Nama Xaba. He, of course, needed no introduction to the team and offered some valuable pointers throughout the session. The guys loved having him around.

I recall a particular match we won while he was watching. I invited him to come down to chat with the team afterwards. He hesitated, saying, “Oh no, a lot of people will be on top of me,” but I quickly arranged for a security guard to escort him onto the field—thankfully, because he really would have been hounded. He joined our circle, congratulated the team, and said he was proud of how we played. He also came to watch us play against Maties, wearing a UCT jersey and sitting in the stands.

Then, one day, he messaged me, “Tell me who you want to give an award to, and I’ll contact Adidas to make sure this guy gets a new pair of boots.” So I did, and Liam Greenhalgh received a pair of boots from Adidas for demonstrating precisely what Siya taught us about cleaning the breakdown in our next match. All I did was ask Siya to show up once, and there he was—coming to our practices, watching our matches, wearing our jersey and then organising boots for someone. He didn’t need to do any of that.

Siya’s humility and willingness to give back show the kind of leader he is—someone who understands that success isn’t just about personal achievements but about lifting others up along the way and making them feel great. Whether it’s welcoming a new player with a song, celebrating debutants in a crucial match, or taking the time to mentor young players, these moments of genuine connection can define the individual’s experience at your club. Through these connections, we find not just success on the field but fulfilment beyond it.

Kevin Foote and Siya Kolisi showed me that whatever you can do to foster an environment where new people are welcomed as though they belong from day one, the effort will be rewarded in spades. DM

Humanball: A Leadership Journey in South African Rugby is available at www.humanball.co.za, Takealot, Exclusive Books and on Amazon Kindle.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.