Rugby Wrapped: The 2025 Edition

As I write this, we’re in that weird no man’s land week between Christmas and New Year. A time when no one really knows what day it is, and people are primarily subsisting on left over roast potatoes, cheese, and Quality Streets (if you can find them in SA – those things have become as rare as a French TV camera angle showing the home side’s wrongdoing…). None of the South African sides were in action in the URC over the weekend, so we really are in the lull. It seems like a fitting time to reflect on the year that was.

From a broader perspective, and without getting into global politics, it’s been a bit of a bin fire of a year, to say the least. On a personal level, I can’t remember ever having a more devastating one. When USAID was dismantled, I lost the job that I adored, and a month later, my mom passed away. I think I lost my capacity for joy for a while. But there’s always rugby to bring some light to the darkness. So, let’s get into it. Much like last year’s version of this article, I’ll focus on the three main teams I support, and how the year panned out for them. It also seems like a good opportunity to look back at my wish list for those teams, shared at the beginning of 2025, to see how well they delivered on my vicarious hopes and dreams.

Springboks

It’s hard to keep finding new ways to describe just how special this team is, and what they mean to South Africa, far beyond rugby. Last year was exceptional, and in 2025, they more than cemented their place as the best team in the world.

It was a year that saw them play a ridiculous amount of rugby – 14 Tests and an opening friendly against the Barbarians. The guys have certainly earned a break. But that amount of game time also gave Rassie and the rest of our incredible coaching staff the opportunity to maintain the fine balance of blooding new players while keeping an experienced core involved. In 2025, over 50 players were in the mix, and eight new Boks were unleashed on the world. At the same time, we witnessed RG Snyman and Cobus Reinach get their 50^th caps, and saw the iconic figures of Willie Le Roux and Siya Kolisi join the elite centurions club. Of course, it was a little sad that Siya had to run out for his 100^th in France, instead of at home, where we all would have loved the opportunity to celebrate a man who is an unbelievably special player and leader. But if this year has taught us anything, it’s that we don’t know what will happen next. The coaches could potentially have opted to rest him for most of the end of year tour so that he could play his 100^th at home, but besides the fact that we needed him for some of those games, what if, for example, he suffered a career-ending injury while playing for the Sharks, and went out on 99? Unlikely, sure, but we just never know. The point is, it wasn’t ideal, but when a player has the opportunity to get to 100 caps, you have to take it. And celebrate it. What an achievement!

For the third year in a row, it was a year that ended with the Springboks holding the number 1 position in the World Rugby rankings. Of the 15 games they played, they won 13, for a win rate of 86.7. And if we only consider the official Tests, that’s 12 out of 14, or 85.7%. Over the course of the year, the Boks racked up 626 points, scoring 87 tries (and two penalty tries), while conceding 243 points and 28 tries (and one penalty try). Not too shabby. They won the Rugby Championship again, going back-to-back for the first time, and this despite an extremely inauspicious start to the tournament, with that horrible loss to Australia at Ellis Park. In that regard, it was also a year that reminded me just how quickly some supporters can turn on players and coaches – it’s crazy to think that there were people saying Rassie Erasmus had run out of ideas as head coach, or that Tony Brown was trying to undermine the Boks because he’s from New Zealand, so they should be replaced. As much as that result hurt, it was arguably the return to earth we needed…a little reminder not to get complacent. But a sign of the end of Springbok rugby it was not.

The team also retained the Mandela Challenge Plate, Freedom Cup, Qatar Airways Cup and Prince William Cup, and went unbeaten on the end of year tour for the second year in a row, so I got that wish. One of my other wishes at the start of the year was for less stressful games – well, we certainly had far fewer close games, with the game against Argentina at Twickenham being the only one with a  really tight scoreline. But those red cards against France and Italy upped the stress levels once again, so I guess it was a bit of a mixed result on that front. What those two games did show us is just how remarkable this team is. Playing against France in Paris is tough enough at the best of times, but to have the talent and tenacity to pull it off while down to 14 men for most of the game is pretty damn impressive. And to do the same thing against a feisty Italian side the next week, while obviously not ideal from a discipline perspective, is quite something. Of course, it also served as a reminder that red cards don’t necessarily ruin games (so please can we get rid of the 20-minute madness for once and for all).

My biggest wish for the Springboks at the start of the year was for them to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park. I could be disappointed that I didn’t get that wish…but what they delivered the following week in Wellington more than made up for it. I’ll gladly take handing the All Blacks their biggest ever defeat, in front of a home crowd, and they can keep their Eden Park record. For now. The other two games I (and every other Bok supporter) really wanted the team to win were the ones against France and Ireland. It’s hard to say which one gave me more satisfaction, to be honest. The French have not stopped accusing the Springboks of cheating, corruption, doping, and everything else under the sun since they lost to us in the quarter final of a Rugby World Cup they truly believed they had won before it even kicked off. So, it was wonderful to beat them again, in the same stadium, by a lot more than one point, and with 14 men for more than half the game. The Irish, on the other hand, have been annoying us for a lot longer. They have been a great team for quite some time now, and we all know (because they won’t stop reminding us) that they won the series against the All Blacks in New Zealand in 2022, and they have certainly had the upper hand over South Africa in recent years, despite us having the better track record overall. Indeed, even when I was on my way home from the RWC final, some Irish guys in the airport were loudly reminding everyone that they beat us in the pool stages. I mean, fat lot of good it did them, but still. It’s not quite a rivalry of the same epic proportions as we have with the All Blacks, but it’s building into something…right now it’s like a flipping stone in your shoe that you can’t quite get rid of – not life or death stuff just yet, but painful, nevertheless. Which means that it was also wonderful to beat them at home. And when I say beat, I mean grind their scrum into dust. Maybe we should have beaten them by more, capitalised more on them being down to 14 and 13 players at various points of the game. Maybe sometimes it’s about a war of attrition and demoralising your opponent when you’re ahead – I think if there was ever any concern around Ireland taking the lead, the game plan would have changed very quickly. Or maybe Oom Daan was grateful for the extra scrum practice for some of our newbies. Whatever. It made me very happy, either way.

In the grand scheme of a World Cup cycle, this was our year to experiment. Last year, the Boks needed to prove that they aren’t just a team that does well in the showpiece tournament and then slumps straight afterwards, as they have in the past (which they certainly proved), and next year they’ll really need to start bedding things down before the next RWC in 2027. But this year was a chance to try things out. And while we had previously seen the rise of the hybrid player, with forwards like Kwagga Smith, who can also play in the backs, being the lynchpin of a 7-1 bench, this year we learnt about backs who can also play in the forwards. A moment for André Esterhuizen, please. What a season he had!

A moment also for Ox Nché, who became the first prop to be nominated for the Men’s 15s World Player of the Year award. While he didn’t ultimately win, it was still recognition of the impact he’s had on the way the Boks play. And it was another Springbok, Malcolm Marx, who took the accolade after a phenomenal season. Finally, the front rowers are getting the recognition they deserve. It was hardly surprising that, much like 2024, the nominations were dominated by South Africans, with three out of four nominees for WPOTY being Springboks (Malcolm Marx, Ox Nché, and Pieter-Steph du Toit), Ethan Hooker nominated for Breakthrough player of the Year, and six out of 15 players in the World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team of the Year being Springboks (Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx, Thomas du Toit, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Cheslin Kolbe). Will Rassie ever win Coach of the Year again? Hard to say, but it’s okay – they don’t know what we know.

Of course, there were low points in the year too. That loss against Australia at Ellis Park. The missed opportunities at Eden Park. The red cards, but especially Eben Etzebeth’s eye gouging incident (which he has apologised for, and we forgive him for, but which is still an awful blemish on an exceptional player’s previously clean record, despite the popular narrative of him being a habitual offender, and certainly not the way we wanted to end a beautiful rugby season). Fortunately, the highs far outweighed the lows.

I could go on forever about another phenomenal year for the Springboks, but I’ll just say one last thing. As I pointed out last year, all the wins and the trophies and the accolades are wonderful, but what really matters most is that the Springboks continue to be a team that carries a nation in their hearts. We see it in the hordes of people who turn out to take a walk with Rassie on Christmas morning; in the faces of the little kids when Eben plays Santa Claus at a local orphanage; in the fans from every walk of life who find ways to watch the Boks, whether it’s in the stadium, at a braai, in a fan park, or in a tavern, in SA or on tour; in the tears people shed when Siya gives his post-match speech. Who wouldn’t want to be a Springbok supporter?

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Springbok Women

2025 was an incredible year for women’s rugby in general, what with it being a World Cup year, and it was also a year that saw the Springbok Women soar to new heights, making history along the way.

The Bok Women played 12 games in 2025, and won seven of them (58.3%). At first glance, this may not tally with my previous statement, given that they played ten games in 2024, and won eight of them. But it’s who they played and the calibre and significance of some of the games they won this year that makes all the difference. They also scored 404 points, and 64 tries, while only conceding 336 points, and 54 tries, over the course of the year.

It was a year that saw the Springbok Women retain the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup yet again – they’ve won it four times now, and are, in fact, the only team to ever win the title. They also extended their winning streak over Spain to six games, with a comprehensive away victory in their first Test of the year, and beat a Black Ferns XV invitational side for the first time.

But when we talk about this team making history, let’s talk about the World Cup. At the start of the year, I said I had two wishes for the Springbok Women. The first was that they would make it through to the quarter finals of the RWC, and the second was that they would re-enter the top 10 of the rankings. They did both. Their pool game against Italy was always a key fixture – a team they had never beaten before, but win that game, and the likelihood of making it through to the quarters increased exponentially. And so win it they did. It was a tense fixture with a very tight scoreline right to the last moments, and the only game of the year that found me sobbing on the floor at the end because that victory was just so incredibly special. With that win, they not only became the first Bok Women team to beat the higher ranked Italian side, but also the first Bok Women team to progress beyond the pool stages of a Rugby World Cup. Though they weren’t able to defeat the six-time title holders, the Black Ferns, in their quarter final, they did hold that formidable team to a 10-all draw at half time, and went home with heads held high. Their performance at that RWC also saw them climb the rankings, ending the year at number 10. Shout out to Swys de Bruin and his coaching staff, who also deserve credit for the incredible work they have done to strengthen this team.

It was also a year that saw our amazing captain, Nolusindiso Booi, attain her 50^th cap, the first Bok Women player to achieve that milestone, and then retire at 40 as the most capped Bok Women player thus far, with 55 caps.

And a year that, more than anything, put women’s rugby firmly on the map. The World Cup was an overwhelming success from an attendance and TV viewership perspective, and closer to home, people fell head over heels in love with our joyful, tenacious Springbok Women. A team that loves to sing and dance their way onto and off of the pitch, and who also deliver the kind of rugby South Africans love – with a scrum that puts fear into the heart of all but the toughest opponents, and backs that seem to still be dancing as they run riot all over the field, scoring tries for fun. I can’t wait to see what 2026 holds for them.

Sadly, though, 2025 ended on a tragic note, as former Bok Women and Blue Bulls Daisies player Lusanda Dumke succumbed to a rare form of gastric cancer on 16 December at just 29 years old. Lusanda played 33 Tests for the Bok Women, was captain for three of those, and won SA Rugby’s Women’s Rugby Player of the Year in 2022. An extremely talented player, and one who was clearly much-loved by her teammates. Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and teammates at this heartbreaking time.

The Sharks

The rollercoaster continues. At this point, if you’re a Sharks fan, you’re basically just living on adrenaline and love of the game and this special team.

The Sharks took a huge amount of flak throughout the year, some of it justified, and some of it just a little over the top. Especially when you consider the remarkable turnaround they had in the 2024/2025 URC season (as always, an article that reviews a calendar year unfortunately has to straddle two seasons of European rugby…not as much fun as it sounds…). We’ve all tried to forget the Sharks’ 2023/2024 URC campaign, but if we overlook the PTSD for a moment and compare the two, only the most miserable of humans could pretend that the turnaround in 2024/2025 wasn’t a remarkable achievement. From only winning four games and finishing 14^th on the log in 2023/2024, the Sharks finished 2024/2025 with their best set of URC results to date. They finished third on the log, won the South African Shield, secured a home quarter final, and made it to the semis for the first time since joining the competition. Even in isolation, those are results any team would be happy with, but in the context of their previous season, it was pretty damn great. Of course, they capitulated to the Bulls (ugh) in the semi, after having beaten them in their previous encounters during the regular season, but still. A solid effort.

Alas, we seem to have taken a few steps backward with the start of the 2025/2026 URC season, with only two wins in seven games played thus far. Now, I could make excuses about the fact that most of those games were played away, and that the first few rounds of the season are always tricky because the team has so many Boks that are unavailable. But the reality is that they need to find a way to build on the momentum they created in the previous season, rather than slipping back into the horror show of 2023/2024. There’s time yet to fix things, but it will be tough.

Alas, the 2024/2025 Investec Champions Cup season did not bring the same level of success as the same period’s URC did. After winning the EPCR Challenge Cup the previous year, which qualified the Sharks for the ‘big leagues’, they failed to progress to the knockout stages of the Champions Cup. They did qualify for the Round of 16 of the Challenge Cup based on their pool position in the Champions Cup (I mean, who doesn’t love this super complex format??), but were knocked out by Lyon. Fortunately, I guess, because they finished in the top eight of the URC, they qualified for the Champions Cup again this season, and 2025/2026 has gotten off to the same start as previous efforts – one away loss, one home win. At least I was in the stadium for the win against Saracens, looking like the world’s happiest drowned rat in that incessant rain, so that was lovely (really). Also lovely was seeing André Esterhuizen run out for his 100^th cap – what an absolute legend of Sharks rugby.

The 2025 Currie Cup season was less lovely. My wish that we would defend our 2024 title came to nought – after a fantastic season last year, the team failed to make it out of the pool stages this year, and finished 7^th on the log. There is some consolation though – the Sharks definitely used the Currie Cup as a development opportunity, giving many young players a first taste of senior rugby. It can be hard to take when the results aren’t going our way, but it’s so important to build depth and identify new talent. I believe it will pay off in the long run.

The Sharks continue to deliver incredible an incredible stadium experience, with innovative marketing and entertainment options that add to the vibe, drawing new and old fans to the Tank. Most recently, 45,000 tickets were sold for SharksFest. But the niggle remains. Why are the results not always in keeping with the calibre of players the team boasts?  Interestingly, the Bulls have sent an SOS to SA Rugby, in the wake of their recent run of poor performances, and are asking for guidance in discovering where things are going wrong. I have always thought there would be value in a similar exercise at the Sharks. The talent is there, I don’t buy for a second that the players aren’t committed to the team, and John Plumtree is not the first coach to struggle. Nevertheless, Plum has stepped aside, and Neil Powell has redirected his focus to teams other than the seniors. I feel for Plum. I think he struggled to navigate the pressure of playing in multiple competitions at once (not the case when he coached the Sharks previously, since there was little to no overlap between Super Rugby and the Currie Cup), but I really believe that he wants the best for the team, and he’ll always have my respect as a true Sharks man. Another true Sharks man, JP Pietersen, has stepped into the breach as interim head coach. Some have expressed concern about his experience at the senior level – he has two seasons as Currie Cup coach – and it is indeed a big step up for him. So far, with two wins from two games, he seems to be handling just fine, but it’s early days. He certainly loves the team, knows the culture intimately, and appears to have the players’ backing. Could he be the man to turn it all around? One thing I know for sure is that he will give it absolutely everything. Let’s see what 2026 has to offer us.