SA’S PROP STAR
Babalwa Latsha leads Bok women to world cup
● The year 2019 has been a big one for women’s sports in SA and with their qualification for the 2021 World Cup, the SA women’s rugby team has finally joined the party.
For prop and captain Babalwa Latsha, it’s due reward for the team missing out four years ago.
The team, who last took part in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2014, eased past Madagascar, Uganda and Kenya to qualify for the New Zealand-held tournament.
“We’ve taken a massive developmental step for the sport in the country.
“We’re back on the world stage and we’re not only just representing the country, we’re representing the continent.
“It means so much to be in the tournament because our absence has been so long,” Latsha said.
“We last took part in 2014 so it’s the perfect time for us to make a statement again in the international circuit. We took the break to redevelop, but we’re back now. We needed to go back to the drawing board because we weren’t ready.”
The 25-year-old Latsha, who’s armed with an LLB degree from the University of the Western Cape and grew up in Khayelitsha, also happens to be from Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape.
Another famous Mount Frere denizen is Springbok and Bulls prop Lizo Gqoboka.
While women’s rugby has done well to streamline 15s and sevens rugby, with part of the end result being the World Cup qualification, the women’s 15s game isn’t professional. Women’s sevens rugby is professional, something Latsha hopes will be extended to the 15s code, especially with the improvement of the structures.
“We’ve merged 15s and sevens, which is why we have a number of players who take part in both formats. We have to credit the work that’s been put into Sevens rugby as they’re professional. We hope in the near future the 15s game will also be professional because of what’s happened with the sevens,” Latsha said.
“We’ve got better provincial structures that have helped the players significantly, especially in regards to conditioning. That’s one of the most important things, but as players, we also spend a lot more time together than we used to. There’s more resources available for players and there’s better monitoring of players when we’re away from camps.”
If there’s another thing Latsha hopes for, it’s more matches at the highest level.
“The difference between us and the top nations is that they compete regularly and we haven’t, as compared to them. We’ve still got a bit of catching up to do, but I do think we’re on our way with that process. Getting to that level is achievable, but it’s just a matter of time and patience.”