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Siya Kolisi is right: The Springbok Women are a force on the rise
Let’s be frank; the South African Springbok Women have been rubbish for almost all of their history.
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No need to beat around the bush. The bare facts provide a bulletproof argument. Currently ranked 12th on World Rugby’s charts, they’ve never climbed higher than 10th and haven’t done so since 2011.
They’ve never qualified beyond the pool stage of a World Cup and have a paltry three wins and 15 defeats from their four appearances along with a points difference of -590. They did not even bother entering the 2017 edition.
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In 24 matches against England, France, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Ireland, Fiji and Canada, they’ve not recorded a single win.
Of course this isn’t the fault of the players and coaches who toiled for long without recognition or support for so much of this story. These often forgotten heroes did their best under trying conditions and without the requisite assistance from those with their hands on the levers of power.
No one could deny that rugby is disproportionally tilted towards the men’s game around the world, but nowhere is this imbalance more starkly represented than in South Africa.
Four men’s World Cup triumphs stand as a monument to the oval ball in the nation. Players are deified. Coaches are regarded as all-knowing gurus. Fables rooted in hardship and struggle are tethered to heroic exploits on the pitch.
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There’s even a Hollywood blockbuster chronicling this history to go along with scores of documentaries and books celebrating a truly impressive sporting institution. Meanwhile, the women’s game has barely registered more than a blip on the radar of most fans
Other countries have fared much better in this regard. New Zealand – with all their six World Cup crowns – and England – with their semi-professional domestic league and their ongoing run of dominance – are the torchbearers.
But even less heralded boards have struck a balance. The French are regularly competitive while the women’s teams of the United States, Canada and Spain have traditionally outperformed their male counterparts.
But if rugby is a religion in South Africa, as we’re told so often by practitioners and devotees, why then has half the population been consigned to second class status? In a country with unchecked domestic violence and staggering rape statistics an obvious answer concerns the culture of the place.
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Many female Springboks speak of their early ignorance concerning their own prospects in the game. “I didn’t know that girls could play rugby,” Tayla Kinsey, the Boks scrum-half, told me recently when recalling her childhood.
This is sexism, plain and simple. In South Africa, men who play any other winter sport, such as hockey, are labelled as effeminate. Eating mountains of meat, drinking gallons of beer, talking loud and direct, hitting hard, lifting weights; these are all virtues that would be recognisable in most cultures, but anyone who has spent time in South Africa and abroad will know that those in Mzansi do things a little differently.
Even the self-identifying alpha-bros must admit that this can often veer towards toxicity.
But this only half explains why women’s rugby in South Africa has stagnated while the men’s game has flourished. The uncomfortable truth is that they’ve been sorely underfunded. Major stakeholders, key sponsors and the governing body itself has treated the women’s game as less than an afterthought. Most of the men in suits who run the show have scarcely considered the women’s game at all.
Things are now changing. And as a consequence of this shift, South Africa might one day, in the not too distant future, dominate the sport across both genders. You might as well get on board now as an early adopter; the Springboks are a force on the rise.
That reads like hyperbole given their recent show in the WXV 2. A narrow 31-24 win over Japan was followed by two losses to Australia (33-26) and Italy (23-19). They finished fourth in their six-team group, down from third the year before. Is this really a sign of progress?
As with most things in sport the answer lies beneath the scoreline and requires a wider lens. The tournament was hosted in South Africa with games staged in Cape Town at DHL Stadium, where the men’s side and the Stormers play, and Athlone Sports Stadium.
Siya Kolisi was a near-constant presence as he championed his fellow Boks, even wearing a jersey specifically made for women. The largest available shirt was still too small but nonetheless he squeezed it over his hulking frame and later appeared on an influential podcast on women’s rugby to amplify his support.
Rugby’s greatest statesman, arguably the most influential player beyond the boundary in the sport’s 153-year history, has thrown his considerable weight behind a developing project.
Kolisi is not alone. Rassie Erasmus has singled out the Springbok Women as an important branch of the organisation that needs improvement. “We need rugby to be taught and endorsed from a woman’s perspective,” he said in March 2022.
“We will have a competitive system, sooner rather than later, but we are also realistic and know it will not be possible to perform any miracles.”
Lynne Cantwell, a respected coach and retired Irish player, was brought on board to serve as a high performance manager. Last year the Bulls Daisies became the first fully professional outfit in South Africa, allowing players to focus solely on rugby.
Two months ago, Swys de Bruin, the former coach of the men’s Lions team and an assistant with the men’s Springboks, was appointed as coach of the women’s side. His impact has been immediate with noticeable improvements on 22 exits, set pieces, first-phase strike plays and support lines offered by outside backs.
Nadine Roos looks a serious prospect at fly-half and a burgeoning bench mimicking the men’s Bomb Squad offers the ability to land punches until the 80th minute.
Work-ons are needed elsewhere. Defence is still an issue, especially against the rolling maul that is so pivotal in the women’s game. Conditioning remains a challenge and a lack of robust competition back home, where the Daisies now rule the league with an iron fist, could potentially see a bottleneck of talent develop.
But more players plying their trade in England, such as the Harlequins prop Babalwa Latsha and the Leicester lock Catha Jacobs, point to the quality within the team.
This won’t be a quick fix and simply qualifying for the knockout rounds of next year’s world Cup might be beyond them. But a kind draw, and a little luck, could see them step into uncharted territory.
Beyond that, their potential is limitless. One only has to look at what the men’s side has achieved to grasp what is possible.
2025 RWC will be too early for them but from 2029 onwards they will be a team to be reckoned with. Good for the global game.