SIYA KOLISI TURNS 35 💪 THE LAST LINE OF DEFENCE 🇿🇦 Picture the young Siya Kolisi. He sleeps near the front door of his grandmother’s two-room house in Zwide township, Port Elizabeth, on a makeshift bed of sofa cushions wedged together so they don’t slide apart in the night. The year is somewhere in the late 1990s. There are already five people in the house. His favourite toy is a brick he pushes through the streets. His parents are teenagers who cannot keep him. His country is only just learning what it might mean to be free. Now picture Siya Kolisi the man. Standing in the middle of the Stade de France in Paris on the night of 28 October 2023, wearing the green and gold. Holding the Webb Ellis Trophy aloft for the second time. Surrounded by a team that has just beaten New Zealand by one point to become the first nation in history to win four Rugby World Cups. The whole of South Africa — load-shedding, unemployment, hope and all — watching... 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com Happy 35th Birthday, Siya. From all of us at Just Plain Sport — you built your foundation in the hardest possible place, and you never once let it crack. 🎂🏉 #JustPlainSport #SiyaKolisi #HappyBirthday

JUSTIN GAETHJE SHOCKS THE WORLD AT THE WHITE HOUSE 🥊🇺🇸 He told himself he was going to lose. That’s not a fighter’s nerves talking. That’s not pre-fight psychology dressed up for a press conference. That was Justin Gaethje, 37 years old, carrying the interim UFC lightweight belt into the most theatrical arena in combat sports history, actively convincing himself failure was coming. “I told myself I was going to get embarrassed,” he would say afterward, “so I can go to my most primal place and dig deep.” What followed, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington D.C., in front of a sitting American president on his 80th birthday, against the most feared lightweight on the planet, was not embarrassment. It was one of the most extraordinary upsets in UFC history... 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #justingaethje #ufc

🏅GERDA STEYN MAKES COMRADES HISTORY WITH RECORD-BREAKING FIFTH TITLE 🏃‍♀️ The Smiling Assassin told herself to run it as if she’d never get the chance again. Then she went out and broke the record. Gerda Steyn crossed the finish line at Hollywoodbets Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday morning in a time of 5:44:53, claiming her fifth Comrades Marathon title and smashing her own up-run record in the process. It was the kind of performance that makes you reach for superlatives and find none quite big enough. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #comradesmarathon #athlete #GerdaSteyn

🇿🇦 THE JUNIOR BOKS NAMED TO DEFEND THEIR CROWN IN GEORGIA 🏉 There is a peculiar kind of pressure that comes with defending a title. It is different from the pressure of trying to win one for the first time — quieter, more internal, built from the weight of what you already have rather than what you are still chasing. The Junior Springboks know that feeling now. They earned it in Rovigo last July, when they beat New Zealand 23-15 to end a 13-year wait for world junior supremacy. Now Georgia awaits, and SA U20 head coach Kevin Foote has named the squad tasked with doing it all again. What makes this particular group so compelling is not just what they are going to Georgia to defend. It is what several of them have already been asked to do before they even get there. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #JuniorSpringboks #Rugby

Home crowd. Sold-out stadium. Four goals. Zero conceded. 🇿🇦🏑 The South African men put on a show at Hartleyvale tonight — a brilliant 4-0 win over the USA at the FIH Hockey Nations Cup. Davis, Mthalane (x2), and Meville on the scoresheet. Proud moment for South African hockey. #MoreThanHockey

👏🏆A BIG YEAR FOR A SPRINGBOK LEGEND! 🔥🟡 Cheslin Kolbe absolutely lit up the Japan Rugby League One Awards 2025-26 with Suntory Sungoliath — Best Fifteen, Best Line-Breaker AND the Most Points Award. 💪 A clean sweep for one of the most electric players on the planet. Once a Springbok, always a Springbok. Congrats Cheslin, SA is proud of you! 🇿🇦💛 What’s your favourite Kolbe moment ever? Drop it below 👇 #CheslinKolbe #Springboks #JapanRugby #LeagueOne #JustPlainSport

⚡️SAM BLASKOWSKI CLOCKS 9.89 SECONDS TO GO SECOND FASTEST IN 2026🔥🔥🔥 Three weeks ago, Sam Blaskowski’s name sat on a results sheet nobody bothered reading. Five meets into his 2026 season, three of them at altitude, he hadn’t touched his personal best once. He hadn’t finished higher than third in any of them. If you’d told the track world he was about to become the second fastest man alive this season, they’d have laughed you out of the room. That’s the strange thing about Blaskowski’s career so far. Nobody was watching, and somehow that’s exactly how it kept working out for him. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #SamBlaskowski #trackandfield

😱 BAFANA BAFANA EMBARRASS SOUTH AFRICA ON THE WORLD STAGE IN SHOCKING WORLD CUP OPENER ⚽️ Mexico 2-0 South Africa. And frankly, it was not that close. South Africa’s return to the FIFA World Cup — sixteen years after hosting the tournament — was supposed to mean something. Instead, what unfolded at the Estadio Azteca on Thursday was an embarrassment so complete that it was difficult to watch. Hugo Broos’ men looked flat before a ball was kicked, carried themselves like a team that had already accepted defeat, and played exactly that way for ninety minutes. Sphephelo Sithole gifted Julián Quiñones the opening goal inside nine minutes, losing possession near his own penalty area and allowing the Mexican to intercept and fire home. It was the perfect summary of what followed — no composure, no structure, no plan. At half-time, South Africa’s expected goals figure stood at a pitiful 0.06 against Mexico’s 0.66. That is not bad luck. That is a team with nothing to offer. The second half descended into farce. Sithole — who had already handed Mexico their first goal — then hauled down a Mexican attacker clean through on goal. Red card. South Africa down to ten men. Shortly after, veteran midfielder Themba Zwane, introduced from the bench, lashed out and caught Roberto Alvarado with his hand off the ball. The referee missed it initially, but VAR did not. Another red card, and Bafana Bafana were down to nine men. South Africa’s sustained cynicism throughout the match eventually provoked a response from the hosts. César Montes lost his composure chasing down a South African forward and was sent off for a reckless full-body tackle denying a goalscoring opportunity. It made this the first World Cup opening match in history to feature three red cards. For all the wrong reasons, Bafana Bafana made history. By the final stages, Mexico were rotating freely and managing minutes. A co-host nation had stopped playing. South Africa, with nine men, were just trying to get through it.