Blue Bulls make history with first professional women’s rugby side in South Africa

As the debate rages on whether South African rugby teams belong in Europe, Thando Manana, Blue Bulls Company (BBCo.) special projects manager and high-performance women’s rugby manager is grateful for his trip to the United Kingdom that ignited the formation and creation of the Blue Bulls Daisies.

In what has been a historic announcement in South African rugby, the Blue Bulls Company has this year rewarded 35 women with professional contracts. The contracted squad will form part of the Bulls Daisies, the official women’s team in Pretoria.

Manana’s trip included visits to current and future teams of the much-acclaimed England rugby’s Allianz Prem 15s, a league that sets the standard of where the women’s game should be moving if it was to become a fully fledged global showcase.

He said: “I am grateful to Saracens, Harlequins and the Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club for opening their doors to me, allowing me to spend time in their high-performance environment, studying the DNA of their setup and learning from their experience in terms of what has worked and what has not, as well as what served the development of women’s rugby over there and how we can adapt those key ingredients into what we are trying to achieve as the Bulls Daisies,” Manana said.

South African rugby teams are deepening their relationship with their European counterparts, an alliance that was fostered with the formation of the United Rugby Championship. Now, this is being extended to the women’s game.

With the likes of Harlequins going farand  beyond  to support their South African counterparts and the Six Nations beckoning, one wonders if there is a possibility of an expansion.

“Our ambitions are not to merely partake in competition but to establish a solid foundation where South African rugby stars will be produced and I believe the groundwork we have laid over the last few months, is already a step in the right direction.”

“The support from the Blue Bulls Company has been tremendous and the partners in the background share our common goal of creating champions, out of our backyard.”

The announcement comes just three months after the South African women’s rugby team competed in the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, the tournament in Aotearoa proved that the team that can develop with the right support and league infrastructures.

BBCo as a company have not only shown their enthusiasm for the womens game and their leadership walks the talk in that regard.

“This is an exciting time and I hope that our rugby community will get behind us as we elevate women’s rugby to the top,” Manana added. 

BBCo. Chief Executive Officer, Edgar Rathbone said that the move to professionalise women’s rugby was a landmark achievement whose success will have a ripple effect on the game from grassroots to national level.

He said: “This has been a long time coming and almost feels surreal that we have finally summited this mountain top. As a family, we always say that all are welcome and that we have each other’s backs and finally, our women in rugby can get behind that message knowing that indeed, someone has their back.”

Rathbone went on to say the introduction of professional women’s rugby was more than just the creation of equality.

“We are extremely blessed to have Thando in our midst, a seasoned pro in the administration of rugby and an invested ally in the development of women’s rugby.”

“We are confident that his stewardship will lead us to a sustainable high-performance environment as much as we are confident that his dedication and work will benefit South African women’s rugby too.”

As the Springboks women showed some fight in their Rugby World Cup against France, a boost to their professionalism with the most successful franchise putting their weight behind the women’s game.

Recently, South African Rugby Director of Rugby has mentioned the need to rejig the contracting system and streamline, hopefully that process realizes the need to upskill and increase support for the women’s game.

When that change happens as ignited by this pivotal announcement by the Blue Bulls one hopes  other franchises will catch on.

South Africa is the only top five rugby playing nation that does not a at least have a semi-professional set up for the women’s game. The Blue Bulls have taken the lead and hopefully the South African Rugby Union will quickly follow suit in realizing that creating opportunity does not mean having an equal environment but it is the start to opening channels that lead to an equal community.

When Siya Kolisi lifted the Webb Ellis trophy in Japan 2019, it proved that rugby’s history and association with apartheid in South Africa was truly transformed.

That fact is only as true when the sport offers equal opportunities for all South Africans, professionalizing the women’s game is a huge part of that and it is the leap it needs.

As the Springbok quest to defend their world cup title in France, that victory will only be as sweet if the entire sport is fully functional and when the women’s game is not just not part of landscape but thriving, only then will the South African rugby be stronger.

The Daisies become the first professional women’s rugby side in Africa and will start by competing in the Currie Cup in July of this year.