Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

South Africa Rugby workshop pushes to increase girls' participation and find more female coaches and referees

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 27: Nolusindiso Booi and Rumandi Potgieter of South Africa pose for a photo at full-time following their team's victory in the WXV 2 2023 match between South Africa and Samoa at Athlone Sports Stadium on October 27, 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Johan Rynners - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

South Africa Rugby’s recent Community Rugby Workshop brought a push to increase the number of girls playing rugby and a desire to find more female rugby coaches and referees to the forefront of discussion.

ADVERTISEMENT

The workshop was attended by 63 delegates from all 15 unions and the organisation’s President Mr Mark Alexander, CEO Rian Oberholzer, and Executive Council members, as well as key stakeholders such as SA Rugby Legends and schools; and was organised by SA Rugby’s Strategic Performance Management Department.

Alexander said: “This robust attendance is a testament to our collective commitment to the growth and advancement of rugby. The foundation of rugby is our strength in diversity and our constant pursuit of excellence, which underlines our motto, Stronger Together.”

Oberholzer stressed the importance of identifying gaps in the community game. He said: “The purpose of this workshop was clear — to address current limitations and create a roadmap for the sustainable growth of rugby in South Africa.

“It is crucial that we approach this task with inclusivity, ensuring that SA Rugby and its members stand united in our efforts. The intent was always to unite community rugby administrators and key stakeholders to cross-pollinate and learn. We have certainly done this.”

The CEO was also pleased that current limitations in the game in South Africa had been addressed.

“The workshop aligned with the ultimate goal of increased participation and sustainable growth in the sport, including male and female players, referees, coaches, and administrators,” he said.

“We need more educators, trainers and referees, and have asked the unions to nominate people accordingly. The same goes for the urgent prioritization of addressing the lack of qualified women’s coaches.”

ADVERTISEMENT

In addition, Oberholzer also stated that all provincial unions would implement and endorse the new World Rugby T1 rugby programme.

“The emphasis of T1 rugby – which will now form part of our Get Into Rugby programme – is on fun, fitness, inclusion and time optimisation, which means it really is a game for everyone, played by anyone.

“This will go a long way in creating a sustainable pathway for amateur women’s rugby, with emphasis on the importance of girls playing rugby at the primary school level.”

Other pertinent topics during the workshop included discussions surrounding budgets, tackle height, safeguarding, referees, community initiatives, capacity building programmes, coaches, and BokSmart compliance.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

T
Tom 3 hours ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

23 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Report: All Blacks snub Ricky Riccitelli signs with Top 14 club Report: Snubbed Ricky Riccitelli signs in Top 14
Search