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What Sunday's performance showed about the Springbok Women
There’s just a minute left of South Africa’s World Cup opener against Brazil in Northampton. The Springboks are leading 59-6, seconds away from a first win in the tournament for 14 years.
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The Yaras are the first team from South America to play in the Women’s World Cup. The scoreline is almost immaterial. This is a day for celebration and sisterhood, a proud day where rugby was the real winner.
Not according to Lerato Makua. A South African break down the right found winger Jakkie Cilliers in space who looked certain to score but Bianca Silva cut her down with a thumping tackle into touch.
Makua, who had played the final pass to Cilliers, was irate. She wrestled the ball away from the Brazilian fly-half Raquel Kochhann like a petulant toddler refusing to share her toys. It was nasty. It was belligerent. It was brilliant.
From the subsequent line-out she had the ball in her hands as Isabela Gomes Saccomanno overcooked her throw. Makua pounced on the mistake, shrugged off a tackler and dived over for South Africa’s 10th try.
Three years ago, at the last World Cup, South Africa merely made up the numbers. They lost all three of their group games by an aggregate score of 20-136 against France, Fiji and England.
They scored just three tries, the lowest count across the 12-team competition. For all the talk of inequality and living in the dark shade of the men’s game, the team had failed to show up. They have a different sense of purpose now.
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“We’re not here to participate, we’re here to compete,” Nadine Roos, scorer of South Africa’s first try on Sunday, declared after the game. “The goal is definitely to reach the knockouts. We’re gunning for that spot. We want to improve our rankings.”
Not that they’re getting ahead of themselves. Brazil is the lowest ranked team in the tournament, 25th on World Rugby’s charts, and had only played 16 XV-a-side matches before their clash with South Africa. By contrast, 18 of the Springboks’ match-day 23 had played more with skipper Nolusindiso Booi already onto her 53rd cap.
In truth, the result was never in doubt and the cause for optimism is found not by looking at the scoreboard, but by the grunt and confidence displayed by a team who are evidently eager to back up their words with actions.
Take Aseza Hele, the rampaging number eight who bagged a hat-trick against Brazil with a series of bone-shuddering runs. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth off the pitch. On it, she’s perhaps the most direct and robust ball carrier at the World Cup.
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“When I get the ball, something happens inside me,” Hele said. “I’m a monster. I don’t recognise myself when I watch the game back but I know my strength and I use it to the benefit of the team.”
This unapologetic attitude is typical in South Africa rugby. At least it has been in the men’s game for over a hundred years. One doesn’t have to be a member of Squidge Rugby to know that the Saffas like their rugby like they like their biltong; tough, salty, and full of meaty flavour.
Scrums, mauls, spine-altering tackles, stiff hand-offs to the face; this is what the people want to see. And when it ends in a victory there is no faux humility. South Africans gloat. South Africans rub your noses in it. South Africans don’t care if you hate the Boks. Your tears are just salt for the boerewors and lamb chops to come.
After Makua scored her try, chants of ‘Ole! Ole! Ole!’ reverberated around Franklin’s Gardens. Since the 1980s the basic song with its origins in Spanish bullfighting has become a staple at Springboks matches, especially when the team is underlining its muscular supremacy. The South African supporters in Northampton were behaving as they would at a men’s game if the scoreboard read 66-6 in favour of their team.
And isn’t that the point? Every South African woman we’ve interviewed on this site over the past four years has cried out for equal treatment. Not equal pay or equal media attention, at least not yet. That would be unrealistic in 2025.
They’re not even asking to held to the same standard as England’s Red Roses. That would be unfair given the disparities between the two ecosystems where one enjoys a fully professional league and the other has just one professional team.
No, what these women want is to be seen as Springboks. And that means when they’re meting out a thrashing through set-piece dominance and gainline control, they want a crowd of their compatriots to chant ‘Ole! Ole! Ole!’
They’ve been clear that this shift in attitude has to start within the team itself. Makua’s behaviour typified this and has been a work in progress for some time. As Roos explains:
“To put it in perspective, we need to go back to the warm-up game against the Black Ferns and the first game we lost [26-34]. We got together and we said, ‘We just need that one win before coming to the World Cup’. You know, ‘We’re done with giving the ball away, we’re done with giving tries away’. South Africa bounced back to claim a 41-24 win in the second match.
“It’s not just about creating that winning culture,” Roos continued, “but about creating that belief in the team and each other that we are actually capable of doing it. As soon as we started changing that mentality we saw improvements. Hopefully the sky is the limit for us.”
Now the real work begins. This coming weekend they play Six Nations regulars Italy. The Azzurri have won both of the previous two meetings between the sides, including a 23-19 scrap in Cape Town last year.
But this is a different Springboks team, one with grit and aggression and a desire to not just take part, but to take all that they can. Don’t be surprised if a familiar chant is heard in York on Sunday.
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