Jakkie Cilliers: 'Some ugly perceptions about women’s rugby still exist in South Africa'

Jakkie Cilliers played her first organised rugby match four years ago. A few weeks later she was playing provincial rugby, and within months she was debuting for the South Africa Springboks.

At the end of her first full season, she was named her club’s Player of the Year and signed a professional contract with the Bulls Daisies in Pretoria in 2023, where she broke the record for most points in a single season. This year, after three straight winning campaigns, she was crowned South Africa’s Provincial Women’s Player of the Year.

Calling this rise meteoric falls short of the mark. It is an astonishing ascent that might be the sharpest in all sport anywhere in the world. And yet, despite these achievements, there is one summit that Cilliers has yet to clear.

Jakkie Cilliers talks about facing Canada

Jakkie Cilliers talks about facing Canada

“Some ugly perceptions about women and women’s rugby still exist in South Africa,” the 24-year-old goal-kicking, centre-wing hybrid says. “To be honest, it’s a pain in the arse.”

Writing about this subject has become tedious. Speaking with women players about this subject has become tedious. I put it to Cilliers that it’s been done to death but she pushed back, arguing that silence on the matter would only serve to brush things under the carpet. So, with a deep breath, she shares a tale that will be familiar to most South African women who’ve ever picked up an oval ball.

Cilliers had already earned her first cap for her country and was at a braai (barbecue) not far from her family farm in the central province of the Free State. Here the land is so vast and so flat that you can watch your dog run away from home for three days straight.

It is a land built on traditional Afrikaans values. One must always respect their parents and God. Chicken is considered a vegetable. Rugby is a religion. “We were always outside as kids,” Cilliers says. “If we got bored we’d be playing in the fields or in rivers and dams. Me and my two younger brothers were constantly barefoot, playing rough and getting messy.”

At this braai an uncle asked her what she was up to. The last he heard she was studying towards a teaching degree at North West University in Potchefstroom, about 161 miles to the north.

When she said that she was a professional rugby player, that she had already played for her country, that she was one of the game’s most exciting prospects with a World Cup on the horizon, a man who had never played elite level sport in his life snorted with laughter.

“He told me that women shouldn’t play rugby,” Cilliers recounts. “It wasn’t the first time that I heard something like this.

“When it happens I just smile and maybe just move on to something else. But it’s hard to hear. My parents stand behind me fully so I know that I have their support. So what other people think shouldn’t bother me. But it’s not nice to hear. I know that I’m not like a typical female. I’m built differently.”

It’s a raw statement, but one that hints at how she’s been measured against physical norms her entire life. Cilliers recognises that the fight for the hearts and minds of a broader South African audience is still in its infancy. One only has to look at the first of two matches between the Springboks and Canada for an example.

The women’s team faced the world number two side in Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Stadium, playing as a curtain-raiser to the men’s match against Italy. Cilliers and her teammates struggled in the first half but fought back in the second, eventually falling 50-20. They played in front of rows of empty seats as fans chose to drink and eat outside while waiting for the men to kick off.

“It won’t happen overnight,” Cilliers says. “I’m not sure we can change a whole culture. There will be lots of people who will never support us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything. If we start winning and challenging the really good teams, that will shift some people. South Africans love to support winners.”

An obvious gulf exists between South Africa and those in contention for major silverware. The Boks have never beaten England, Canada, New Zealand, France, Ireland, Australia or Italy from a combined 25 Tests. The highest ranked team they have beaten is seventh-placed Scotland, which they last did in 2010.

 

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“We don’t yet have that cohesion,” Cilliers offers as an explanation for this chasm. “These teams have a more solid history of women’s rugby. Some of their leagues are top tier. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.”

Things are changing, though, and the professionalisation of the Bulls Daisies has helped address this lack of cohesion. The Pretoria club has won a hat-trick of league titles on the back of an indomitable scrum and maul game, something that can only be achieved by time in the saddle and a coherent coaching.

For the second Test against Canada, which South Africa lost 33-5 in Gqeberha, eight of the starting 15 play for the Daisies with four more represented on the bench. But while this might help solidify combinations and set moves, it has narrowed the talent pool and created a bottle neck.

“We really need other teams to step up,” Cilliers says, echoing a growing sentiment from players both within and outside the Daisies. “It’s nice to be part of a professional group where you can just go out and have everything set up for you, but if I’m honest, there’s nothing that challenges you on game day.

“The biggest challenge comes in training. As an individual and as a team we’re not really tested on the weekend and that’s not good for us or for South African rugby. We need competition and the only way that can happen is if other teams invest like we have.”

For someone so new to the game, Cilliers has a clear-eyed read on some broader narratives. Perhaps this comes from being outside of the establishment. Perhaps this comes from her humble upbringing, her love of the outdoors or her acceptance that she is “different from most girls my age.”

For one, she is an avid hunter; her Instagram page is filled with photos of her posing in front of animals that she has shot. “I promise we eat everything we kill,” she says. As well as playing the guitar and having a keen interest in music.

This all adds up to a player worth keeping an eye on, one with ambitions beyond merely participating in a World Cup later this year. “I want to be one of the best players in the world,” she declares. “I want to play overseas, probably in England and the PWR where I can test myself against the best.

“I want to win awards and travel the world and be the best I can be. I want to be a role model and prove to people that South African women can play rugby at the highest level.”

As South African women’s rugby fights for legitimacy on and off the field, Cilliers remains both a product of its raw beginnings and a symbol of its professional future. Her boot may win matches, but it’s her voice – firm, reflective, and unafraid – that could ultimately shift the game’s narrative.

South Africa kick off their World Cup against Brazil on Sunday 24th August at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton. Buy tickets here.

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