Year in review: The highs and lows of 2024
OPINION: It’s been a memorable year for the South African game and a year in general to remember, as @rugby365com look back at the highs and lows of 2024.
Sharks claim EPCR Challenge Cup trophy
Following a campaign to forget in the 2023/24 United Rugby Championship season in which the Sharks ended 13th out of 16 teams – they managed to turn the tables and bring more than a silver lining to their season by defeating Gloucester in the 2023/24 Challenge Cup Final to become the first South African side to win an EPCR trophy.
This win was also backed up on the domestic front when former Lions star Jordan Hendrikse slotted a last-minute penalty against his former team to claim the 2024 Currie Cup for his new side.
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Bulls fall short in URC Final, again
The stars seemed to be lining up for the side from Pretoria following their first URC Final defeat to their arch-rivals, the Stormers, in 2022 at the Cape Town Stadium.
The Bulls hosted the 2024 Final against Franco Smith’s Glasgow Warriors and were hot favourites to claim the title for the first time.
Despite a 13-0 lead and dominating the set-piece, the hosts imploded and lost a second URC Final in three seasons.
The latter is more disappointing seeing that they had the home advantage and Glasgow had travelled to Limerick and then Pretoria and still managed to get the job done.
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Next generation of Springboks
One issue South Africa had in the past was succession planning in terms of player personnel.
Looking back at the successful side of 2007 – with a good amount of players who went on to finish their career at the 2011 World Cup, there was suddenly a gap in player personnel the new coach, Heyneke Meyer, had to fill.
Meyer later on recalled players such as John-Philip (Bakkies) Botha, Victor Matfield and Juan Smith as well as Heinrich Brüssow in 2015 as players weren’t coming through at a satisfactory rate at a franchise level.
Things got worse when Allister Coetzee was handed the poisoned chalice in 2016, with the bulk of the 2007 squad retired leaving an inexperienced group of players to step up to the Test scene – which would turn out to be the darkest period in the professional era in Springbok history.
With Erasmus doubling down as Director of Rugby and head coach of the Springboks in 2018, the results were almost immediate as franchises started doing their bit to develop players at a faster rate.
Erasmus also took huge leaps of faith in talents many wouldn’t have considered to be good enough be it where they ply their trade and/or their physical stature.
Fast forward to 2024 and Erasmus has already given a taste of the Test arena to 12 new players, knowing that the bulk of the 2019 heroes will most likely not be around in 2027 – players such as Willie Le Roux, Faf de Klerk, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth to name a few.
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Eben Etzebeth surpassed Victor Matfield as the most-capped Springbok
“They grow up so fast” is something one hears often when family members talk about their children.
In rugby, it sort of feels the same way in terms of Eben Etzebeth.
The colossal lock forward made his Stormers debut straight from playing for UCT and the Western Province Under-21 side in 2011 and made his Test debut against England in June 2012 before making his Currie Cup debut later that season and forming part of the first Western Province side to clinch the trophy in 11 years.
Fast forward 12 years on.
Etzebeth has surpassed the great Victor Matfield as the most capped Springbok player ever.
Currently on 130 caps, he could go on to surpass the likes of Richie McCaw (148) and Alun Wyn-Jones (Wales: 158, British & Irish Lions 13) should he stay fit until 2027.
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Springboks winning all major trophies
For the first time since 2009, the Freedom Cup is back on South African soil
The Boks reclaimed the Nelson Mandela Challenge plate from Australia and also won their first full Rugby Championship since the then Tri-Nations of 2009, having claimed the title in 2019 in a shortened version ahead of the World Cup.
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Sharing the spoils against Ireland and Argentina
One can’t help but feel that the Boks missed a golden opportunity to go unbeaten during a calendar year, something the All Blacks of 2013 last managed to do.
One-point wins were celebrated during the playoff stage of the 2023 World Cup, but they were mourned when the tables were turned in 2024.
The Boks squandered a 17-0 lead against Argentina to go down by a solitary point, with flyhalf Manie Libbok being made the scapegoat for missing what would have been the winning penalty kick.
The second Test against Ireland saw an unchanged Bok side that beat the Irish the week before having to fight back to get ahead in the match after being down 6-16 at half-time.
With 10 minutes to go and a five-point lead, Ciaran Frawley slotted two drop-goals in the 70th and 80th minutes respectively to clinch the victory and share the spoils with the World Champions.
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Doing the double over New Zealand
Between 2012 and 2017, the Springboks only managed to beat New Zealand once out of 11 attempts and suffered embarrassing defeats against their arch-rivals.
The worst of the lot was the dark evening in Albany where the Boks went down 0-57 and people started to question whether South Africa would ever be a force in the international game ever again.
In 2018 the tables turned with the Boks beating New Zealand in Wellington before the Kiwis returned the favour in Pretoria a couple of weeks later.
Since then it’s been a seesaw battle between the two sides with South Africa winning six Tests and New Zealand four with one draw in 2019.
The World Champions are currently on a four-match winning streak against the Kiwis and have the tough task next season to extend the record and break the 30-year unbeaten record of the All Blacks at Eden Park in 2025.
Finds of the season
This is a really tough call.
In the forwards, one can’t really look past Cameron Hanekom who made his Test debut against Wales in the last Bok match of the season.
The Bulls’ loose forward gave an eye-catching performance in the URC semifinal against Leinster and most recently almost singlehandedly got the Bulls out of trouble in a Champions Cup clash against Northampton Saints.
There have been talks about who is the right player to succeed Duane Vermeulen, with Evan Roos, Elrich Louw, Jasper Wiese and Kwagga Smith all getting opportunities at No.8 since the retirement of the double-world champion.
Hanekom seems more and more to be in the mould of Vermeulen with a few more strings added to his bow which bodes well for the Boks as they build towards World Cup 2027.
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In the backs, it’s hard to look past Stormers star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
The 22-year-old who made his debut off the bench against Wales at Twickenham, slotted a monster penalty from over 50 metres to announce his arrival on the Test scene.
He has been nominated as one of World Rugby’s breakthrough players of the year – ultimately losing out to New Zealand loose forward Wallace Sititi.
Mngomezulu, in his Under-21 days, was hailed by the Stormers’ Director of Rugby John Dobson as “Damian Willemse 2.0” and it’s not hard to see why – with his versatility he’s the ultimate hybrid player for a team who loves experimenting with their bench options.
Despite his recent injury issues, Feinburg-Mngomezulu showed he is mature enough for the Test arena, having started against Australia twice and once against New Zealand and not looking out of place for one bit.
If managed well, he could just be the successor for Handré Pollard after the 2027 World Cup.
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The constant improvement of the Women Boks
Since former Lions and Springbok assistant coach Swys de Bruin took the reigns as Springbok Women’s head coach, there’s been an almost immediate improvement in performance and results.
With one win against Japan and two losses during WXV 2, at no point were the Bok Women embarrassed in terms of the scoreline.
In previous meetings they haven’t managed to score a single try against Australia, yet in their last encounter during WXV Two they scored four tries against the Aussies and came agonising close to recording an upset – falling short by 26-33.
The growth of the Women’s game in South Africa may be long overdue but it’s positive to see the strides they are making heading into the 2025 World Cup where they’ll face France, Italy and Brazil.
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BlitzBoks claim Cape Town title after nine years
The BlitzBoks, who earned the nickname of “kings of the desert” following their five consecutive victories in Dubai, failed to make it a six-peat in the new season.
The side has been notorious for winning the Dubai leg only to fall short in their home tournament the week after.
The roles were reversed this time around as they fell short in Dubai but made it count in front of their home support to clinch the Cape Town trophy for the first time since the inaugural event in 2015.
The feat also saw Philip Snyman becoming the first player to win the Cape Town title as a player and coach – having been part of the successful side of 2015.
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