SA Rugby’s High-Performance Manager for Women’s Rugby, Lynne Cantwell, is set to leave the organisation.
Cantwell is returning to her native Ireland and will join the Irish Rugby Football Union as Head of Women’s Strategy on 1 January 2025. Her new position will not affect an agreed role to continue as a consultant to the Springbok Women’s team in the build-up to the World Cup next year.
Cantwell joined SA Rugby in February 2021.
“The impact Lynne has had since she joined SA Rugby to resurrect the women’s programme was phenomenal, to say the least,” said Mark Alexander, President of SA Rugby. “Our desire and mission to elevate the women’s game was clear, but that was only be made possible by Lynne’s unrelenting passion and vision to get that job done. Her vast institutional knowledge of women’s rugby and international reputation opened new avenues for us and showed the way to so many positive outcomes. The Springbok Women are on an upwards trajectory in performance and have qualified for the Rugby World Cup in England next year, our Springbok Women’s Sevens team in 2024 qualified to play in the world series and participated in the Olympic Games for the first time, a pinnacle for those playing rugby sevens.”
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According to Alexander, the Junior Springbok Women have also expanded their player pool with a more streamlined pathway, starting with the Youth Training Centres, the national girls’ weeks, a new provincial U20 tournament, and the recent international tournament in Stellenbosch, featuring South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe and San Clemente Rhinos.
Cantwell said her agreement with the IRFU to maintain a percentage of her time with the Springbok Women until the start of the 2025 World Cup was very important, and that she will not take on any high-performance responsibilities in her new role until after the global showpiece.
“My family embarked on our journey to South Africa in 2021 fuelled by my passion for women and girls’ rugby,” she said. “I am beyond grateful to Charles Wessels and Rassie Erasmus at the time who saw the same vision for the women’s game and who provided me with the opportunity to try to shift the dial on women’s rugby in the country. While the path was and still is challenging, the will for progress is breathtaking. Although I have given my everything to the game over the four plus years, the staff, players and people I have met through that time have changed me forever.”