Rugby In South Africa
The springbok women made their debut in 2006 in canada and also qualified for the next two editions in england and france.
Rugby in south africa. As with much else in south africa the organisation and playing of rugby has been entangled with politics and racial politics in par. Rugby union in south africa is a very popular team sport along with cricket and football and is widely played all over the country. Currently south africa even enjoys the status of being the world champions of rugby by winning the 2007 world cup. The country hosted and won the 1995 rugby world cup and won again in 2007 and 2019.
South africa are out of the rugby championship citing player welfare and logistical issues around covid 19. South africa sa rugby mourns the loss of rugbys mandela news. After several weeks of speculation around the world champions involvement the. Soccer is definitely the most popular sport in south africa but not far behind is rugby.
Eight years later the south african coloured rugby football board was founded to organize and oversee club matches between black south africans at the regional level. For the many south african fans of the game rugby is a serious matter a source of bursting pride and joy or shattering disappointment. South africa became the first of the regional qualifiers to be confirmed in august 2019 after winning the inaugural rugby africa womens cup on home soil to secure a fourth appearance on the rugby world cup stage. In fact rugby in south africa is synonymous with ice hockey in canada the fervour just never ends.
Rugby is one of south africas big three sports alongside soccer and cricket. South africa is an example of a limited professional rugby base. Six years ago tayla kinsey was the youngest player in the south african team at the 2014 rugby world cup at the age of 20 and with the next international extravaganza less than a year away the springbok womens scrumhalf has her sights set squarely on taking the field in new zealand. Realistically there are 100 players in this country who could call themselves professional rugby players.
Silas nkanunu a former president of the south african rugby union chairman of sanzar and briefly vice chairman of the international rugby board irb now world rugby has died at the age of 87. The national team is among the strongest in the world and has been ranked in the top seven of the world rugby rankings since its inception in 2003. Kinsey eyes second rugby world cup appearance.