The harsh reality of women's rugby in South Africa

OPINION: In the wake of the Springbok Women’s astounding phoenix-like status having risen out of the ashes this year, comes a stark realisation that the women’s game is still treated as an unnecessary expense at domestic level.

There is no denying that the Bok Women are a force on the rise. Progress at province level is a far cry from that happening anytime soon.

Women’s rugby in South Africa has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world.

This is according to the Lions Women’s coach Timmy Goodwin who opened up about the challenges he has faced over the last seven years working with women in the region to move them to the next level.

The Springbok Women have dominated the game in Africa but to be honest, they have been at the bottom of the pile for almost all of their history.

The bare facts speak for themselves. They are currently ranked 12th on World Rugby’s charts and have 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 mere three wins and 15 defeats from their four appearances along with a points difference of -590. They did not enter the 2017 edition.

This year they finished fourth in their six-team group in the WXV2 in Cape Town, down from third the year before. Is this really a sign of progress?

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.

This is in stark contrast to the success of the Women’s Six Nations and Super Rugby Aupiki in New Zealand and Australia, even the United States have made great strides.

Women in Australia have been playing rugby since the 1930s and played their first Test match in 1982.

In New Zealand, women’s rugby got their first official recognition in 1989 and fielded their first-ever Test team against a touring USA side that year.

South Africa’s approach to the women’s game has been sadly left mostly untouched until very recently. They played their first Test in 2004.

The women’s game in South Africa is still treated as an unnecessary expense and a lot of work is needed to fast-track it in order to catch up with the rest of the world.

The Bulls and Boland are currently the only sides who have a fully contracted squad and that is the reason they have dominated the domestic scene in recent years.

“⁠A lot of work has to be done to make the women’s game in South Africa professional. This entails broadcasting, additional sponsorship from private companies, quality of the game so that people are keen to watch and follow the women’s game as well as support structures at Union level.

“With this, I mean support in the areas of medical, strength and conditioning, and access to facilities. These all need to be provided to move the game to the next level,” explains Goodwin.

“⁠For way too long, the women have been treated as an unnecessary expense as we have sat with leaders who weren’t open to change as far as women’s participation in the game has been concerned.

“Our men have been No. 1 for the last how many years and our women are not in the top 12.”

Goodwin, who has been guiding the women’s coaches at the Lions since 2019 and took over as head coach post-COVID in 2021, says there is no getting around the fact that they are dependent on having a sound financial support system.

“I want to thank our CEO Rudolf Straeuli and General Manager, Pieter Visser, who assisted a lot in getting our women’s program going again in 2017.

“At the Lions, we were blessed to have had a sponsor for four seasons which enabled us to grow the club game with the union’s assistance.

“That sponsorship unfortunately ended at the end of the 2023 season. This hugely impacted our 2024 season as we became highly dependent on the union’s financial support to sustain the provincial team and our club league.”

Unlike the other two unions who have gone professional, the Lions are still a fully amateur side that competes in the Premier League Women’s League.

SA Rugby plans to launch a Women’s Super League Rugby’ (WSLR) in 2025 and Goodwin says this is commendable, but a lot of logistics still need to be ironed out.

“The actual details of the qualification process to be awarded franchise status have not been fully decided on yet.”

Growing the game in the province has been the biggest challenge as most of the young girls are from previously disadvantaged areas in which they face serious financial struggles.

“We need financial assistance to develop the game in our area. ⁠Our Under-16 and Under-18 teams do extremely well at the Annual Girls National Tournament and that bodes well for our future.

“The challenge for us is to keep nurturing our young girls and provide them with the opportunities to grow as players.”

The Lions currently have twelve clubs participating in the women’s club league and eighteen junior clubs and schools participating in their junior league.