Thando Manana, the head honcho of women’s rugby at the Blue Bulls Company, likes to trot out the big numbers.
Like 81 885.
That, he’s happy to tell you, is the number of people who attended the recent Women’s Rugby World Cup final.
That’s more than any of the men’s finals have attracted in over 40 years.
It’s a number that excites the Head of High Performance and Special Projects because it speaks of the massive potential of women’s rugby in a country where the men have dominated for so long.
Yet Manana (pictured below) is under no illusions. The women’s game is still relatively modest, but the green shoots of vibrant new life are there.
Steering the Isuzu Bulls Daises, for three years the most dominant women’s team in South Africa, has helped him gain a sense of the big job at hand. He must build a base, develop players, draw supporters, and excite people.
“It’s the right time, the right place,” says the former Springbok flanker who had a reputation for never backing down.
Not much has changed: he is a staunch advocate for women’s rugby and sees its emergence into the light as inevitable.
Recent weeks have seen him trying to bed down contracts, reintroduce players and settle the 35-strong squad.
Fresh from their landmark first ever quarterfinal appearance, the Isuzu Bulls Daisies welcomed back a formidable squad of 14 World Cup players ready to make their mark again.
Weeks later, 15 were called up by national coach Swys de Bruin for a training camp in Stellenbosch in mid-November. They include Camelitha Malone, Shaunique Alexander and Jakkie Cilliers. For good measure, De Bruin also invited coach Zenay Jordaan.
Another five (Zintle Mphupa, Maria Tshiremba, Patience Mokone, Ayanda Malinga and Byrhandre Dolf) have since shipped out, tasked with playing for the Africa Sevens crown in Kenya, also in mid-November.
It’s a juggling act made more challenging by a significant change in leadership in Pretoria too.
Coach Hayden Groepes may have moved on, but now the all-women coaching duo of Jordaan and Bongiwe Nhleko are rewriting the script for the new season.
This includes the entrance of Asithandile Ntoyanto, the seasoned loosehead with the grit of 30 Tests and three World Cups etched into her battle-hardened career, ready to transform scrums and breakdowns.
In the world of management, things have flipped. With 75 percent female leadership at the Daisies, these women are no longer just breaking the glass ceiling, they’re smashing it with the same tenacity the team brings to the pitch.
“It’s totally flipped around from when we started,” says Manana proudly. “It’s now women leading women.”
Despite the team winning the last three Women’s Premier Division titles, management have their work cut out.
First, they must identify and develop a captain after flanker Lusanda Dumke recently stepped away due to health concerns. Similarly, three props retired due to age and injuries, leaving a void that must be filled before the start of the new season next year.
Manana has also brought junior stars – “Emerging Isuzu Bulls Daisies,” he calls them – into the main squad’s training, fuelling fierce competition and fresh energy.”
There is strong incentive too: five will be absorbed into the main squad and given professional contracts.
“The end goal is to have a squad with a mix of youth and experience,” says Manana. “We are developing within, both for players and coaches, which I’m excited by.”
A prominent international player has also been scouted, both to boost the team and to mentor younger players.
The esprit de corps among the women is evident whenever they are together, which includes full-time accommodation arranged by the Blue Bulls Company. Thirty one of the players live in one of three Daisies houses in Hatfield. They are fed at the nearby High Performance Centre and have access to a physiotherapist, medical doctor and biokineticist. Their every need is taken care of.
Manana’s broad focus is to ensure the many moving parts that constitute the Isuzu Bulls Daisies blend seamlessly come the 2026 Women’s Premier Division.
Not only is there a championship crown to defend, there’s a legacy to be built.
Manana, tough, dogged and determined, intends getting it done – and will do so without fear or favour.
