SA Rugby are planning to prioritise and elevate women’s rugby to a higher level in the country.

Rassie Erasmus, director of rugby at the organisation, spoke about the strategic importance of the women's game as the Springbok Women and Springbok Women’s Sevens teams prepare for two Rugby World Cup tournaments.

Lynne Cantwell, SA Rugby's high-performance manager for women’s rugby, will be the programme’s driving force, which aims to elevate from grassroots to international level.

“We will find a South African way to grow the game as we are a unique country and to copy systems from elsewhere is not going to work,” said Erasmus.

“We need rugby to be taught and endorsed from a women's perspective. We have seen in the past you cannot copy a men's programme and expect it to work. We tried that and learned from our mistakes.

“We will have a competitive system  sooner rather than later, but we are also realistic and know it will not be possible to perform miracles,” he said while also pleading for patience with the Springbok Women and Springbok Women's Sevens teams, ranked 13th and 12th in the world respectively.

“I want to use Japan as an example. They lost by almost 150 points to New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, but in 2019 they reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, where they gave the Springboks a very tough game. That transformation took them more than 20 years, but look where are they now.

“Elevating our women's programme will not create miracles as we can’t immediately put resources towards them without impacting on the Springbok Sevens and Junior Springboks, for example.

“We have reached out to some sponsors in this regard and there have been promising talks. At the same time we are encouraging potential sponsors to come forward and become part of that will be an incredible journey,” Erasmus said.

For Cantwell, the worldwide momentum towards women's sport should find rugby an easy target.

“The first Test match for women was played in 1982. SA played their first Test in 2004 so we are way behind the world curve, but that does not mean the gap cannot be bridged.

“We will have to close the gap on those countries above us in the world rankings and want to use the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town as stepping stones towards that goal.

“In the background we need to ensure every rugby playing province in the country creates a pathway for younger players and barriers to entry into the game for girls are minimised.

“We are also investing, thanks to a sponsorship by Betway, into the development and training of coaches to make sure we start with solid fundamentals.”