The South African men’s rugby team has been arguably the most successful sporting brand in the country to date. The Springboks have won three World Cups, but their women’s counterparts have been lagging behind in terms of success.
But lately, they have been making great strides and growing in leaps and bounds. Women’s rugby in South Africa has lived in the shadows of their male counterparts in the amateur and professional ranks in the past.
But gains have been made with the inception of the Women’s First Division and the Women’s Premier Division. The national team is now a force to be reckoned with on the continent.
They are the reigning African champions, and they are still punching above their weight in international rugby. Boks Women coach Stanley Raubenheimer says women’s rugby is growing rapidly. “Look it’s been good we can’t complain we are not there where we want to be but there is a real focus from SA Rugby to grow the game to give it more attention to put more resources into it but we need corporate we need every citizen in the country to get on board and assist young women, we all have a role to make it happen for them.”
The Springboks recently annihilated both Zimbabwe and Namibia in Africa’s Women’s Cup. The Springboks will face the higher-ranked Japan, next week as preparation for the Rugby World Cup, which will take place in New Zealand in September and October.
Raubenheimer says the main thing is to give the players travelling experience.
Springbok Women coach, Stanley Raubenheimer says “The biggest objective is to test our players and give them the experience of travelling over different time zones because we have never had that opportunity as a squad so hopefully that’s a first box tick, and if we can get away with results against Japan that would be fantastic. We are playing on Sunday. We have got a long journey ahead us and ready to go on Sunday for the first test and the second test we should be better prepared from the conditioning point of view.”
The Boks are in Pool C with France, England, and Fiji. Raubenheimer says they will have to beat Fiji in the world cup.
“Look realistically we want to beat Fiji we wanna put a lot of emphasis on beating Fiji. SA at previous world cups hasn’t done well we always 10 out of 12 and we want to challenge that. But it would start with that first game against France how well we do there. But Fiji is a big game for us.”
The Boks will also host Spain in two tests in August.
