Saru chief Riaan Oberholzer promises new women's pro rugby league to kickoff in 2026

 SA RugbyChief Executive Officer Riaan Oberholzer has pledged that the organisation will launch a professional women’s domestic competition next year. 

The excitement around women’s rugby has reached fever pitch over the past month after the Springboks progressed to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Rugby World Cup for the first time.

This was achieved on the back of only one domestic team, the Bulls Daisies, being fully professional. 

Oberholzer has now made a public commitment that this will change in 2026. 

“With regard to the Professional League, we're in the final stages of putting it in place and we will kick it off in 2026,” he told the media upon the Boks’ arrival from England on Tuesday.

“If we don't step up, we are going to, again, have to try to pick up the pieces in 2029 going forward. We have an ideal opportunity now that the girls have proved themselves, there's a Professional League that is starting, there's structures in place, there's a seriousness about women's rugby that we as South African rugby have decided to embark on

“We're embarking on this women's program full on and we can't back off now. It's important to us and that's what we set ourselves to do a few years ago. We can't only concentrate on the men's team, we have to build the women's team as well and the decision we took then was to make it the second most important team in our setup in rugby.”

Furthermore, the SA Rugby chief stated that the professionalism of women’s rugby could not be achieved without the financial support of the corporate sector, which is why the organisation changed its sponsorship model a few years ago.

“What we have done when we repositioned our commercial programme, we made it very clear to sponsors, you can't come in and be involved only with a men's team,” Oberholzer  said. 

“If you want to be involved, you are going to sponsor the men's team, the women's team, the Under-20s, the men's Sevens, the women's Sevens. That's the only way you're going to get involved in being a sponsor of our national team.

"So, we have our national team sponsors. That alleviates a lot of the challenges. Commercial South Africa is stepping up. You can see the support we're getting. All our sponsors are there for everybody. They understand what we are trying to do and they're willing to help us.”

Without wanting to reveal any details, Oberholzer stated that the Women’s professional league would not be a replica of the men’s competitions, having previously mentioned that it could initially be a six-team tournament. 

“I think obviously we're quite far behind in starting the seriousness of women's rugby in South Africa. We have a provincial competition, we will continue with the provincial competition, but we have to put something in at the top, that is the professional league that will then take us to the next level,” he said.

“You know, it is so much more difficult for women to play rugby than men and we have to realize that as an organization. You know, the women have so many other responsibilities as well that they have to for them to be able to play. 

“So if we don't have a professional league where they can concentrate on one thing and that is playing rugby, we will never reach the heights that we can reach with the talent that we have.”