Women's Professional Rugby Union Competition Set to be Launched in South Africa

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Published by: Zila Mbekela, 20 August 2024

An exciting time awaits for all women playing their rugby in South Africa. A country already hailed as one of the best regions for sourcing out rugby talent, hence, the introduction of a professional rugby women's league couldn't have come at a better time. The success of the men's rugby program has now opened the doors for development plans and aggressive investment into the game for the talented women as well.

According to British publication source - Sports Business, SA Rugby's governing body has detailed plans for the launch of a new women's club competition that will feature up to approximately 150 centrally-contracted players by the union, and that the league may debut as early as 2025! The tournament will apparently be referred to as the Women's Super League (WSLR). The goal and ambition of the competition will be to see the women's national team replicate the same kind of dominance as the men's team, since they are the back-to-back Rugby World Cup Champions.

The country's provincial rugby unions have been given the go ahead to submit proposals to have a franchise included in the WSLR. The number of teams that will participate in the tournament is unclear at this stage, and will largely depend on the quality of the provincial rugby union's proposal submissions. South African Rugby president Mark Alexander commented on how the impact of the women's rugby 7s at the Olympics displayed exponential growth in women's sports, and rugby around the world. The success of the domestic men's club competition (being the Currie Cup) will enable SARU to implement similar structures into the women's game, to ensure that talent comes through the correct ranks. It all starts at grassroots level, and provincial tournaments at U13, U16, U18, U19 and U21 would need to be implemented as they will be considered as the basis and foundation for young talent to make it to the WSLR competition level.

The SA Rugby Chief Executive - Rian Oberholzer also mentioned that currently, the only countries that have professionalized women's competitions and leagues - are England and New Zealand, and the fact that even with them, it hasn't been that long since their pro leagues were established. They're also not any where near the pro level of the men's competition, but the right structures are being put in place to improve and elevate the women's pro league levels within those countries. The WSLR in SA, will aim to make the players full-time professionals where they will solely focus on training and playing rugby at the highest level. Players will apparently be given 12-month-a-year contracts for them to be full-time players. Players at university and those partially employed by corporations, will also be able to be drafted by a team in the competition and will be eligible to compete on a part-time basis.

At the previous Women's Rugby World Cup in 2021, the women's national team struggled and as a result, they failed to progress through to the next stages of the tournament. For a country such as South Africa which prides itself on being a melting pot for world class rugby talent, that's hard to accept and hopefully with the establishment of a professional rugby competition, the women will improve their game and get used to the demands of high-tempo rugby when competing with likes of England, New Zealand, Australia, USA and other countries.

As far as discussions go, the centrally-contracted players will be spread out and shared amongst the teams to even out competition. It was also announced that the existing inter-provincial premier and 1st Division competitions will continue as they are. This is definitely great news for the ladies as this will allow for more talent to be given opportunities to play as the competitions will be taking place around the same time period. A lot of rugby will be played across the board and this will improve the players' level of fitness, game sharpness and skill level. It's a known fact that the more players play, they better they become. Sports Business UK also reported that SA Franchises would be awarded to a provincial rugby union on a three-year basis. Team finances and budgetary support will also be handled by SARU as they plan to cover players' flights and accommodation costs when teams travel for away fixtures.

Confirmation of the franchises will be made in October. Provincial rugby unions who have submitted proposals will be subject to answering questions about their player governance, talent development programs, their coaching structures, their marketing plan for their teams, communications and other commercial activities such as merch and ticket sales forecasts and more. SARU will without a doubt be extremely critical in their due diligence to ensure that franchises are awarded to the correct provincial unions.

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