If the past 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that if rugby were only 40 minutes long, Springbok Women would be women’s Rugby World Cup competitors.
At the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. South Africa he went to half-time with the reigning champions, having matched New Zealand’s physical strength and disrupted their attack. The Black Ferns eventually pulled away to win 46-17, but the Springbok Women showed the gap was closing.
At the FNB Stadium two weekends ago, the pattern repeated itself. South Africa, again, produced a powerful, competitive first half before New Zealand’s greater attacking variety and ability to exploit space took control. The Black Ferns won 52-20.
Those performances highlight South Africa’s progress and their remaining weakness. They can impose themselves on the best teams in the world, but they can’t withstand that pressure for a full 80 minutes yet.
Until they become more composed, adaptable and dangerous when the matchups open up, they will be pass contenders rather than true ones Women’s Rugby World Cup competitors.
SA Rugby has recognized the need for progress and has organized a busy 2026 for the women’s team. South Africa retained the Women’s Rugby Africa Cup before drawing the two-Test series at home to the USA – winning 34-21 before losing 26-19 – and then sweeping the away series against Fiji, winning 55-12 and 29-22.
Defeat of New Zealand was their last substantive examination. Despite the margin, it confirmed that last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final was no isolated performance.
Their progress is built on a more technically advanced package. The physicality is still evident, but South Africa no longer rely solely on collisions of isolated runners fueled by emotion. Their line became the source of offensive inventions. Their maul is a real weapon. Their scrum can create pressure and territory. Their work on the breakdown is increasingly organized and aggressive.
Against New Zealand, South Africa played more often, enjoyed more possession, won more turnovers and were perfect from their nine scrums. By several metrics, they dominated the competition. However, according to the deciding metric, they were second best.
Despite having less possession, New Zealand made more ground, found more clear breaks and finished with a superior tackle rate. South Africa’s edge-defending vulnerability – on display during the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final – has not been addressed.
For all that activity, the professional base beneath the Springbok women remains extremely narrow. The Bulls Daisies are still the only fully professional women’s team in South Africa, with most of the other top players coming through provincial structures that offer far fewer opportunities to train and play together throughout the year.
This makes the progress of the national team even more impressive, but also helps to explain the inconsistencies. South Africa are trying to create an 80-minute international team, without an 80-minute professional environment underneath.
The Springbok Women have developed a platform capable of upsetting the best teams, but not yet the variety or defensive control needed to punish them when the game moves outside the narrow channels.
And it is here that the timing of Swys de Bruin’s departure as head coach feels particularly significant.
He is the man most closely associated with this restoration. He helped transform South Africa from peripheral participants to a team capable of reaching the quarter-finals of the Women’s Rugby World Cup and challenging the Black Ferns. His influence is evident in the cohesion of the forwards, the ambition of the players and the belief that South Africa can dictate terms against superior opposition.
Laurian Johannes-Haupt and Franzel September will lead the Springbok Women as head coaches during the WXV Global Series, starting from Wales on Friday, September 18, and then on the way to Italy in Parma eight days later. Their immediate task is not to abandon de Bruin’s methods, but to evolve them.
Wales have beaten South Africa in six of their eight meetings, although the Springbok Women should travel with more confidence than they have traditionally carried into this match. Italy will be keen for revenge after the Springboks upset the Azzurri 29-14 to qualify for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup with the knockouts at their expense.
These two matches should reveal whether the Springbok Women have progressed beyond being a simply difficult team to play against. They need a more varied attack when the first wave is stopped, more composure after conceding points, and better solutions when opponents quickly move the ball from one side of the field to the other. Their backs must become more than users of forward momentum. They must become part of the mechanism that creates it.
There are encouraging signs. Danelle Lochner, a veteran lock, said the team is trying to give more responsibility to the backs, allowing the forwards “a little break” instead of asking them to “just run and break people.”
Babalwa Latsha is a natural starting point. The newly appointed captain is a powerful prop, a shrewd shrimper and one of the squad’s spiritual leaders.
Her influence extends beyond the stage. Latsha understands what this team represents and how important it is for the Springbok jersey to be visible to young women across South Africa. She also inherited the leadership of a team that now has to deal with the retirement of Nolusinda Booi.
Aseza Hele remains one of South Africa’s most potent attacking weapons. The number eight combines strength with exceptional mobility and has the ability to turn a static phase into forward momentum. Her hat-trick against Brazil at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup was a reminder of her finishing ability, but her greater value lies in the way she gets South Africa over the gain line when their attack starts to falter. At her best, she is one of the most dangerous loose forwards in the international game.
Pulling the strings is the impressive Libbie Janse van Rensburg at fly-half. On most other teams, she might be a better fit at inside center given her ability to carry to the line, but her distribution and footwork are the best on the team, so she carries extra responsibility. She has stepped into rhythm, with Nadine Roos and wiry back Byrhandre Dolf providing sparks from broken play, but the Boks need to show they can strike with intent rather than opportunism. How Janse van Rensburg performs will be most important for this one.
Now ranked 10th in the World Rugby rankings, South Africa will go into the match with Wales – who are two places below them – as expected winners. Having already beaten Italy, they will bring confidence into that game as well. If this team is serious about contending for major honors in the future, anything but two wins would be a failure.
The more important question, however, is not just how many games South Africa win in this series, which also includes two home games against Ireland in October. The question is whether they can make their rugby feel less reliant on a strong first half and one-dimensional play.
The departure of Swys de Bruin makes that evolution difficult, but also gives the team an opportunity to prove that his work has created something sustainable, and not something that depends on one coach.
He helped build a team capable of competing with the best. Now, Johannes-Haupt and September must help create the structures and diversity needed to make that progress sustainable.
Springbok women no longer just need a stronger identity. They need a stronger ecosystem around it. The foundations are strong. Ambition is growing. The talent is real.
But the next step is not simply to become South African, but to become more complete.
