Lions snare RWC'25 quarterfinalist Catha Jacobs
TRANSFER NEWS: Springbok World Cup quarterfinalist Catha Jacobs is on her way back to South Africa after having signed with the Lions.
The 27-year-old lock joins the Lions from Leicester.
She had her first taste of PWR glory when, in 2022, she helped the Saracens to win the competition. Although she featured in a few more games the following season, the lock wanted more and decided to move on, enlisting herself in the Leicester Tigers ranks.
Her sporting journey started on water rather than land as a professional rower before giving rugby a go with the South Africa Women’s 7s team.
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Falling in love with the sport, she swapped rowing for the second-row and hasn’t looked back.
A year later, she was playing for the Blue Bulls and, toward the end of 2020, made her debut for the South African national team.
She has played against a variety of opponents, including Tigers’ new set-piece coach Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark in a Twickenham clash against the Barbarians.
Moving to the UK in January 2022, Jacobs made her debut for Saracens against Worcester Warriors that same month.
She earned her first cap for South Africa in a match against Kenya, looking good in a physically demanding clash, and Stanley Raubenheimer, South Africa’s former head coach, kept his trust in Jacobs with the 181cm-tall utility forward travelling to Europe in the autumn of 2021.
In 2025, she was part of the history-making Springbok Women’s team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time, which took place in England.
