Cheslin Kolbe has revealed that his mother is the reason why he wears his trademark scrum cap.
The Springboks flyer has once again popularised the pocket-rocket scrum cap-wearing winger look that Gio Aplon first made famous during his time with the Stormers and Springboks.
Kolbe has worn the protective gear since his school days, with the scrum cap now becoming synonymous with the winger and fellow outside backs from South Africa who are also of a smaller stature, like Kurt-Lee Arendse, Edwill van der Merwe, and Thaakir Abrahams, to name just a few.
Why Cheslin Kolbe always wears a scrumcap
Those players have been nicknamed Lekka backs and Power Rangers in South African rugby podcast circles, and Kolbe has now revealed why he started wearing the headgear that was originally designed for forwards to protect their ears from friction, cuts, abrasions, and to limit the development of cauliflower ears.
Speaking to former Springboks teammate Steven Kitshoff on the For the Love of Rugby South Africa podcast, the 32-year-old confirmed that wearing the headgear was a requirement for him to play rugby, a rule set by his mother.
“That was the first rule my mom made: If you want to play rugby or pursue it, there’s one rule: you have to wear a scrum cap,” Kolbe explained.
“And I wore one from under six up until where I am today. Sometimes I tried to get rid of it, but I’m glad that I managed to hold on to it because I see it more as a trademark of where I am today.
“When people try to spot me on the field, especially my family, they look for the scrum cap.”
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“I don’t think any of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for them.”
The trademark look is not the only thing the 53-Test cap Springbok flyer attributes to his mom; in fact, he says that his parents are a massive reason for his success.
Kolbe grew up in Scottsville, Kraaifontein, an area in the Western Cape notorious for gangsterism, drugs, and poverty – a life he could have easily slipped into had it not been for his parents.
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“Just coming back to my mom and my dad, I firmly believe it wasn’t for them that none of this would have happened,” he continued.
“None of this would have been possible. Firstly they didn’t have much but still like doing their upmost, sacrificing time away from work, risking losing the job but to give me a fair opportunity and a better opportunity in life, that’s something that I’ll always keep close to me and that will always be a pushing factor for me, no matter if I’m done playing as I go into something else, I’ll continue to keep that close to me because it just shows you the character that they had as parents with the little that they had, they wanted us to have better opportunities and and and make it successful in whatever we wanted to do.
“I remember them driving 18 hours to Craven Week in 2010 to Welkom. They drove down, and I drove back with him after the competition. They literally followed me wherever I was playing at youth level, going to trials, whether it was athletics, everything. They made sure that they were there to support me and be that parent figure they could be for me.
“A lot of what I do and what I’ve achieved is all credit to them because, as I said, I don’t think any of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for them putting in the hard yards.”