South Africa Rugby · History

The South Africa national rugby union team, known as the Springboks, played its first Test on July 30, 1891, losing 4–0 to a touring British Isles side. The team wears green jerseys with gold trim and white shorts, and both the nickname and the springbok emblem, the country’s national animal, date from the 1906–07 tour of Britain and Ireland.

Segregation, isolation and unity

For close to a century South African rugby was divided along racial lines. The South African Rugby Board, founded in 1889, ran the game for white players until 1992, while Black and coloured players had their own bodies, among them the non-racial South African Rugby Union formed in 1966. Sporting boycotts against apartheid kept the Springboks out of the 1987 and 1991 World Cups. In March 1992 the rival federations merged into SARFU, and the national side returned to international rugby that year. In 2005 the unified body took the name South African Rugby Union.

Four World Cups

At their first World Cup, hosted by South Africa in 1995, they beat New Zealand 15–12 after extra time in the final at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, on June 24, with a drop goal from Joel Stransky. On October 20, 2007, they defeated England 15–6 at the Stade de France. On November 2, 2019, in Yokohama, they beat England again, 32–12, and Siya Kolisi, appointed in 2018 as the team’s first Black Test captain, lifted the Webb Ellis Cup. On October 28, 2023, back at the Stade de France, they retained the title with a 12–11 win over New Zealand, their fourth World Cup; they had not lost any of the finals they had reached.

The southern hemisphere and the Lions

South Africa won the Tri Nations in 1998, 2004 and 2009, and its successor including Argentina, the Rugby Championship, in 2019 and 2024. Against the British & Irish Lions they lost the 1974 and 1997 series and won in 2009 and 2021, both times 2–1. In 2024 they regained the Freedom Cup from New Zealand for the first time since 2009. On October 4, 2025, they beat Argentina 29–27 at Twickenham to win the Rugby Championship for a second year in a row, a first for South Africa in that competition.