Erasmus delighted with progress made by SA Rugby in 2022

The strides made by his department in the last few years has been pleasing, SA director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said on Wednesday, with his team having contributed to successful national sides, as well as refereeing and coaching structures.

Some of the highlights in 2022 included the Blitzboks winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Junior Springboks being crowned the U-20 Six Nations Summer Series Champions in Italy, the SA Under-18 team winning an international series on home soil, and the Springbok Women’s Sevens team clinching the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens Cup in Tunisia.

On the senior national 15s teams’ side, 19 professional women were contracted for the first time, and the Springbok Women improved their world ranking to 11th place at the end of last year, while the Springboks won eight of their 13 Test matches last season and capped 10 new players.

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Erasmus’ department also delivered on its transformation objectives, with its goals for all teams and management participating in international competitions in 2022 being met.

Coaches Project

Another highlight of the 2022 season was the hosting of six masterclasses for 18 coaches as part of the SA Rugby Elite Coaches Project, held in conjunction with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

“It has been pleasing to see the steady strides made by our (SA Rugby Union) rugby department in the last few seasons, and we are committed to building on this as the year progresses,” Erasmus said.

“There are several highlights which we are extremely proud of, especially given the performances of most of our national teams last season, and although there may be bumps along the way, we are generally on a good trajectory in terms of our teams, refereeing and coaching structures.”

Keep working

In order to maintain their progress this year, however, Erasmus said his department would need to continue adapting and keep up the hard work that had seen them finding success in 2022.

“Rugby is a constantly changing environment and we (the national federation) have to keep adapting and being innovative in the way our respective departments operate, and it is imperative that we build on our transformation objectives at the same time,” he said.

“This is an exciting season for us… and hopefully we can build on our exciting list of achievements this year.”