South Africa Women

Rugby Africa handed the Springbok Women their sixth straight continental title heading into 2026, and the last two seasons have carried the side further than any before it: a first Rugby World Cup quarter-final in 2025 pushed South Africa back up to 10th in the world rankings, a mark last touched in 2011. Swys de Bruin took over as coach in 2024, and the run that followed has changed what is expected of the team each time it takes the field.

None of that looked likely from the start. The team lost its first Test 5–8 to Wales in Port Elizabeth in May 2004, and its opening three World Cup appearances brought finishes no better than 10th. The turn came off the pitch as much as on it: Babalwa Latsha became the first African woman to sign a professional rugby contract in 2020, and now captains the side she helped push toward relevance.

Nolusindiso "Cindy" Booi carried a great deal of that history personally. She led South Africa into the 2025 World Cup with a national-record 55 caps before retiring, closing out a career that spanned the team's slowest years and its breakthrough. Libbie Janse van Rensburg's boot has done the scoring since, and Zintle Mpupha, the country's first player to appear in England's Premier 15s, has outrun most defences put in front of her — a 128–3 rout of Namibia in 2022 among the games that got out of hand early.

The Springbok Women have never settled on one home ground. Cape Town's DHL Stadium and Athlone Stadium share the load with Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch, and it is at DHL Stadium, in front of whatever crowd the fixture draws, that the team is most often found in green and gold.