Just when South Africa needs inspiring again, Siya Kolisi is drawing on the sense of national unity that last year's Rugby World Cup triumph was forged on.
Lifting the trophy showed the captain just what can be achieved when South Africa comes together as a multiracial nation, from the rugby fields to the townships and the cities.
I pride myself on being South African, Kolisi says, and that fighting spirit and resilience for whatever challenges are pushed our way.
The challenge now is the coronavirus pandemic. South Africans who took to the streets to celebrate a sporting triumph led by the Springboks' first black captain now need to stay home.
We fight and support as much as we can because that's what was given to us, Kolisi told The Associated Press.
We are trying to give it back to the people now who need it the most.
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Having grown up in a township near Port Elizabeth, Kolisi knows how tough the lockdown is for those living in the more cramped, deprived homes, especially when families are cut off from each other.
Now my friends are telling me, Kolisi said, that they need something. They don't have enough food.
Kolisi and his wife, Rachel Kolisi, are trying to help, explaining during a video interview from near Cape Town how they have fast-tracked the launch of their foundation to help a country in need. Hand sanitizer, masks and goggles are among the equipment being sent by The Kolisi Foundation to the Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth and Khayelitsha Hospital in Cape Town.
"Our healthcare system is not prepared to handle the coronavirus," Rachel Kolisi says.
South Africa has confirmed more than 2,700 cases of COVID-19, and 50 deaths.
Italy, which also has a population of around 60 million, on Saturday announced 3,491 new cases just over the previous day, taking the total number of infections to nearly 176,000 with 23,227 deaths.
The nationwide lockdown being imposed in South Africa on March 27 has been credited with helping to control the spread of the coronavirus, bringing the daily average increase in cases down from 42% to 4%.
We were blessed in that we could kind of monitor what was happening in some of the European countries and even what's happening in America and kind of prepare a little bit better and a little bit sooner," Rachel Kolisi says.
But it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people are in very serious danger in South Africa."