South Africa

Team information
Nickname	The Rhinos
Governing body	South African Rugby League
Region	Asia-Pacific
Head coach	Darryl Fisher
Captain	Shane Gillham
Home stadium	Brakpan Stadium
IRL ranking	25th
Uniforms
First colours
Team results
First international
Great Britain 49 – 30 South Africa  (Durban, South Africa; 23 August 1962)
Biggest win
Brazil 0 – 82 South Africa  (Noosa, Australia; 5 June 2022)
Biggest defeat
Australia 86 – 6 South Africa  (Gateshead, England; 10 October 1995)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (first time in 1995)
Best result	Group stage, 1995, 2000

The South Africa national rugby league team (Afrikaans: Suid-Afrikaanse nasionale rugbyleaguespan) to date have competed at two Rugby League World Cups in 1995 and 2000.

Rugby league was originally introduced to South Africa in the 1950s with the staging of several series tournaments within the country that saw fixtures between the English and the French however this concept failed to generate the needed interest and was not upheld. The South Africans did not see further international rugby league until the 1960s where the first national side undertook fixtures against the visiting British and a tour to Australia. From the 1960s onwards the international fixture list for the South Africans was minimal and it was not until the early 1990s when they began to play with some lasting regularity.

Since they began playing international rugby league South Africa have always found it difficult to compete against the more established nations and so progress and improvement have been slow. Possibly their greatest achievement to date has been the qualification and participation in two World Cups in both 1995 and 2000 where South Africa failed to win a fixture after being seeded in tough groups at both tournaments where they had to play world champions Australia along with England, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

South Africa traditionally play in a predominately green uniform with black shorts, they have commonly been referred to as The Rhinos since the early 1990s. The South African emblem is a red and yellow King Protea plant which is the national flower of South Africa. South African internationals are played at a variety of venues throughout the country with no singular home ground being used.

It has often been said that South Africa has great potential for rugby league, but the sport has a relatively low profile in the country with rugby union being the predominant and more established code. This is exacerbated by the fact that very few schools offer rugby league as an extracurricular activity and there are relatively few youth clubs. The popularity of the South Africa national rugby union team and South Africa national rugby sevens team in the country further hinders the development of rugby league as potential players are groomed to play in the national and provincial Rugby union teams and the national Rugby sevens team from a young age.

History

Rugby league first gained attention in South Africa when the English and French attempted expansion in the 1950s for the purpose of creating further international opposition.^[1] Three games were then played between the two nations on the continent but both sides viewed the matches as nothing more than friendly fixtures so never undertook the games in a serious manner and the public never subsequently took to the three exhibition games. Though rugby league was only seriously played in South Africa beginning in the 1950s, the sport was not unknown to South Africans prior to that decade; for example, a number of notable black and Coloured rugby union players, such as David Barends, Green Vigo, and Enslin Dlambulo, code-switched from union to league and moved overseas, in part because of the allure of professionalism, while also escaping the apartheid regime.^[2]

Over the next several years, rugby league lay dormant in South Africa and it was not until the 1960s when talks of creating a national side began. After much discussion within South Africa, it was eventually agreed for a national side to play a touring Great Britain and then undertake a tour of Australasia. The first South African national side played their first competitive fixture on 23 August 1962 and put on a good showing against the much stronger British but eventually lost by nineteen points 49–30. The following two fixtures turned out to be much the same with the South Africans being defeated on another two occasions but putting in good performances whilst never being comprehensively beaten. The South Africans embarked on their first tour eleven months later with a twenty-four-man squad that included several former Springboks. The tour started with several friendly fixtures against various minor representative sides where they gained two comfortable victories; the first international fixture of the tour took place in Brisbane against the world champion Australians and the South Africans performed with courage but eventually lost the match 34–6. The following test was played a week later in Sydney that again saw the team put in a tough effort but lost again 54–21. South Africa left Australia without an international win and be low on confidence heading to New Zealand to play a sole fixture against the New Zealand national side whom were expected to win comfortably. However, the match turned out to be a tough encounter and surprisingly saw the team gain its first international victory 4–3^[3] The South Africans featured several Australian players bought in to cover injuries and improve the quality of the side and so the match against New Zealand is not counted as a test match.^[4]

IRL Men's World Rankings
Official rankings as of 21 December 2023
Rank	Change	Team	Pts %
1		Australia	100.00
2		New Zealand	91.00
3	1	England	74.00
4	1	Samoa	70.00
5		Tonga	54.00
6		Papua New Guinea	50.00
7		Fiji	49.00
8	1	France	24.00
9	1	Lebanon	24.00
10	3	Cook Islands	22.00
11	1	Serbia	19.00
12	6	Netherlands	17.00
13	1	Italy	15.00
14	5	Malta	15.00
15	1	Greece	14.00
16	4	Ireland	14.00
17	6	Wales	13.00
18	3	Jamaica	10.00
19	2	Scotland	9.00
20	8	Ukraine	7.00
21	6	Czech Republic	7.00
22	1	Germany	6.00
23	10	Philippines	6.00
24	5	Poland	6.00
25	1	South Africa	5.00
26	4	Chile	5.00
27	4	Kenya	0.00
28	6	Norway	4.00
29	6	Nigeria	4.00
30	6	Ghana	4.00
31	6	Brazil	4.00
32	12	Turkey	3.00
33	4	United States	3.00
34	1	Bulgaria	3.00
35	5	Cameroon	2.00
36	2	Montenegro	2.00
37	5	Spain	2.00
38	6	Japan	1.00
39		Albania	1.00
40	4	Colombia	1.00
41	6	El Salvador	1.00
42		North Macedonia	1.00
43	1	Morocco	1.00
44	3	Sweden	0.00
45		Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.00
46	3	Canada	0.00
47		Niue	0.00
48	9	Solomon Islands	0.00
49	1	Belgium	0.00
50	10	Hungary	0.00
51	5	Vanuatu	0.00
52	3	Argentina	0.00
53	3	Denmark	0.00
54	3	Latvia	0.00
55		Estonia	0.00
Complete rankings at INTRL.SPORT

After this first string of international fixtures the South Africans became disheartened after only winning four of the thirteen tour matches and rugby league again lay dormant for decades.

The Rugby League World Cup tournament had been scheduled to be held in France in 1965, this time with the inclusion of the South African team.^[5] However the tournament was abandoned.

The early 1990s saw new South African administrators begin to rebuild the international facet of South African rugby. During 1992, the South African national side again played for the first time in years against several combined African representative teams and the following years saw things look more promising for the Africans with their qualification into the 1995 World Cup and more regularity in international fixtures. Their first World Cup saw the South Africans seeded into the toughest group of the competition containing Australia, England and Fiji. The South Africans found their three group matches extremely difficult and failed to win a match during the tournament.

Current squad

• Coby Thomas
• Kamren Cryer
• Joel Tubbs
• Shane Gillham
• Marcelle Viljoen
• Jason King
• Ash Bull
• Jason Cutler
• Bevan De Vries
• Keegan Turner
• Ayden Perry
• Gideon Mzembe
• Joshua Hill
• Kalum Gulliver-Brown
• Chelsea Adams
• Harry Blake
• Reilly Canning
• Hershelle Classen
• Will Shears
• Luke de Vlieg
• Jason Smith
• Bradley Sparrow
• Ethan Sweet
• Jovan Pienaar
• Byron Hutchinson
• Kobe Martin

Notable players

Since rugby league has been known to the nation of South Africa since the 1950s many players of South African birth or heritage have gone on to attain notability in representing either South Africa, other nations or appearing in major domestic leagues around the world, some of the more notable South Africans have included:

Record

• Below is a list of test matches played by the South Africa XIII up until 13 November 2023.^[13]

Country	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win%	For	Aga	Diff
Australia	3	0	0	3	0%	33	174	–141
Brazil	1	1	0	0	100%	82	0	+82
Canada	1	1	0	0	100%	36	22	+14
Cook Islands	1	0	0	1	0%	6	66	–60
England	1	0	0	1	0%	0	46	–46
Fiji	1	0	0	1	0%	6	52	–46
France	2	0	0	2	0%	23	86	–63
Great Britain	3	0	0	3	0%	86	133	–47
Italy	4	2	0	2	50%	164	94	+70
Jamaica	2	0	0	2	0%	28	70	–42
Kenya	2	2	0	0	100%	138	14	+124
Lebanon	2	0	0	2	0%	28	90	–62
Malta	1	1	0	0	100%	30	24	+6
New Zealand	1	1	0	0	100%	4	3	+1
Niue	3	0	0	3	0%	26	142	–116
Papua New Guinea	1	0	0	1	0%	0	16	–16
Philippines	2	2	0	0	100%	104	42	+62
Poland	1	1	0	0	100%	38	16	+22
Russia	2	0	0	2	0%	45	52	–7
Tonga	1	0	0	1	0%	18	66	–48
United States	1	0	0	1	0%	4	40	–36
Wales	1	0	0	1	0%	12	40	–28
Total	37	11	0	26	29.73%	911	1288	–377

Fixtures

2011

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Attendance
9 October 2011	South Africa def.  Canada 36–22	Friendly	Fletcher's Field, Markham, Ontario	Not known
15 October 2011	United States def. South Africa 40–4	2013 Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers	Philadelphia	300 approx
19 October 2011	Jamaica def. South Africa 20–6			Not known

2015

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Attendance
2 May 2015	Niue def. South Africa 48–4	Friendly	Leumeah	Not Known
25 October 2015	Lebanon def. South Africa 40–12	2017 Rugby League World Cup Qualifier	Brakpan Stadium, Pretoria	Not Known
31 October 2015	Lebanon def. South Africa 50–16			Not Known

2016

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Attendance
29 October 2016	Niue def. South Africa 55-22	Friendly	Brakpan Stadium, Pretoria	TBC
11 November 2016	Niue def. South Africa 44-0			TBC

2018

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Attendance
24 June 2018	South Africa def. Malta 30-24		St Mary's Stadium, Sydney	TBC
12 October 2018	Italy def South Africa 18-8		Kellyville Ridge Sadium, Sydney	TBC

2019

Date	Result	Competition	Venue	Attendance
21 June 2019	Cook Islands def. South Africa 66-6	2021 Rugby League World Cup qualification	Wentworthville Ringrose park, NSW	78

See also

• Rugby league in South Africa
• South African Rugby League
• Rugby league in Africa

References

External links

• Official website